0:00Hey, it's Tim here. 22.4, it's just around
0:02the corner.
0:03Tableau just updated the coming soon page
0:05for this release.
0:06The pre-release has been pretty light, so I
0:08'm pretty keen to see what's in this release
0:10.
0:10Let's get started.
0:11OK, so the page is up.
0:12I'll put a link to this in the description.
0:14You can go ahead and have a look at it.
0:15In this video, I'm just going to go run
0:17through what the features are.
0:18You can check the timestamps to see what
0:20features you're particularly
0:21interested in to jump ahead if you want to
0:23do that.
0:23Let's have a scroll down.
0:25And for the record, if you use Tableau
0:27Cloud,
0:27there is sometimes this odd instance where
0:30some of these features are already
0:31available, depending on when Tableau
0:33upgrade your particular instance of Tableau
0:36Cloud.
0:37Tableau Cloud runs in different AWS regions
0:40, and those are updated at different times.
0:42So you might even see some of these
0:44features ahead of the release.
0:45Just so you're aware.
0:46So let's take a look at this feature.
0:48Now, it's always interesting what Tableau
0:50start the page with,
0:50because I always think these are the sort
0:52of features they're excited about.
0:53So we've got Tableau external actions.
0:56So let's go have a look at this.
0:58Tableau external actions delivers a native
1:00integration with Salesforce Flow
1:02to help automate business processes, saving
1:04you time and money
1:05by connecting your dashboards to Salesforce
1:07.
1:07You can make decisions in context and run
1:09flows without leaving Tableau.
1:11So in essence, what I think this is, is
1:13is a sort of workflow automation capability
1:16that links in with Salesforce.
1:17So this is very much a Salesforce and Table
1:19au pairing
1:20alongside all of the Salesforce features we
1:22've seen for a long time
1:23over the last couple of years.
1:25So that's going to be a nice feature to
1:26have.
1:27Now, the next one is image rolls.
1:29I'm super excited about this.
1:30I previously did a video about a service
1:32called Cloudinary,
1:33which actually does real time conversion
1:35and editing
1:36and manipulation of images just using URLs.
1:39The reason I did that video is because at
1:42conference last year,
1:43Tableau showed this capability of image
1:45rolls,
1:45and they said it would be coming this year.
1:47And so now that we have it, it's absolutely
1:49fantastic,
1:50because if you pair those two services with
1:52this feature,
1:52I think some amazing things can be done.
1:54I'm going to be working on some examples in
1:56my upcoming video.
1:57But in essence, image rolls allow you to
2:00work with images
2:01natively inside of Tableau by simply
2:03specifying the URL of an image
2:05and Tableau will be able to support those
2:07images within a table.
2:08So you can see here the description is
2:10pretty, pretty robust.
2:11Now, there's going to be people trying to
2:14do all sorts of quirks
2:15and tricks for this.
2:16Like, you know, people will try and load
2:18all sorts of things
2:18into images, GIFs, all sorts of things.
2:21So once we actually get our hands on this
2:23feature
2:23and start playing around with it, we'll get
2:25a better sense
2:25of how those images work and what the
2:27limitations are.
2:29If I just do a quick scan of this,
2:30Tableau can now dynamically map images to
2:34links in your data
2:35and encode them as exportable row or column
2:37headers.
2:38This new capability makes it possible to
2:40manage image assets
2:42externally to prevent work sizes from
2:43becoming too large.
2:44So the main use case here is, let's say you
2:47are a company like Facebook
2:48and you have emojis and emoticons that you
2:52want to track
2:52and you want to do some analytics on which
2:54emoticons are being used the most.
2:56There are hundreds and thousands of these
2:59things that exist
2:59across different language sets, across
3:02different use cases.
3:03So when you try to do a visualization of
3:04this, it's impossible to expect
3:06someone to load all those images into the
3:08workbook as images.
3:09And so what this lets you do is specify the
3:12image as an asset,
3:14i.e. using a URL hosted somewhere, maybe
3:16AWS S3.
3:17And then when Tableau loads those images
3:19from that URL,
3:21it's actually able to load those images
3:22from that location.
3:23So you're essentially externalizing the
3:25images from the workbook.
3:26The other thing this might enable you to do
3:28is also work in instances,
3:30for example, in consumer goods. Consumer
3:32goods, you're often looking at products.
3:34You want to be able to see the exact
3:35product and the exact sort of design or
3:38color.
3:39And when you have these assets already
3:41available in the cloud,
3:42as most fashion outlets do, they have all
3:45these assets pretty much done
3:46because obviously imagery is an important
3:48part of their business.
3:49You can actually link to those assets
3:51directly within Tableau.
3:52So you don't have to rebuild some sort of
3:54image workflow.
3:55You can just lean on the existing image
3:56workflow you might have.
3:57And that's where the service I talked about
4:00previously from Cloudinary comes in.
4:01So this is going to be an amazing feature.
4:04Of course, this was just one of those
4:06things that will make life so much easier.
4:08The next one, replace a data source per
4:10sheet.
4:11So this is interesting.
4:12Selectively replace data sources on a works
4:14heet level without complicated workarounds.
4:17Previously, replicating data sources would
4:19apply to all worksheets in the workbook
4:21using the data source.
4:22Now you have greater control and can select
4:24to apply data source changes to only the
4:26current worksheet.
4:27So that's quite nice.
4:28This gives you a little bit more finesse
4:30and control as to how your data sources
4:32work.
4:32So I think that's going to be another one
4:34of those quality of life improvements.
4:36A proper string function.
4:38Guys, this is probably one of the most
4:39requested items on the Tableau Ideas page.
4:43I'll put a link to that in the description
4:45below.
4:46And the proper string function is actually
4:48one of those functions where I think people
4:50who've worked with databases have asked,
4:52why isn't this there?
4:53Anyway, let's read through the description.
4:55Format string fields using the proper
4:57function instead of complex workarounds
4:59calculation.
4:59This new function converts strings to a
5:01proper case.
5:02The first letter of a text string and any
5:04letters following non-letter characters are
5:06capitalized while the rest are converted to
5:09lowercase.
5:10So if you've got a list of names here, you
5:12can see that Tableau will turn that into a
5:14much, much nicer list of names because you
5:17're just using a calculation that does
5:19exactly what you're seeing on screen.
5:20Takes the first letter of every word, makes
5:22it capitalized and the rest are just all
5:24lowercase.
5:25So that's a nice thing to see.
5:27I'd love to see sentence case in there as
5:29well so you can actually understand what's
5:32going on within like a sentence.
5:34Anyway, that's another request.
5:37Usage metrics, total views and favorites
5:39are displayed as metrics in the new usage
5:42tab.
5:42With these insights, analysts can better
5:44understand what workbooks are popular so
5:46they can build content that really reson
5:48ates with their audience.
5:49Viewers can leverage usage metrics to
5:51validate that the content is widely used
5:53and trustworthy.
5:54So this is a bit meta.
5:56And this is sort of using metrics to talk
5:59about like analytical content.
6:02And so it feels like Tableau is repurposing
6:04something they've already built for users
6:07to help them communicate how certain things
6:09are doing.
6:10When these sorts of things happen, I always
6:12feel like there's some sort of direction.
6:14And I don't quite get the direction of this
6:18because if this was put like a metrics
6:20capability, then fine.
6:23But yeah, I just I don't see the value of
6:26this because most companies who actually
6:29care about these metrics just create dash
6:33boards that tell them how multiple reports
6:35work.
6:35And so maybe the idea here is an analyst
6:37can add these metrics, which reduces the
6:39load on those kinds of things.
6:41But again, it could also create a very
6:44unhealthy dynamic because we all know that
6:46views don't really mean anything.
6:48The way Tableau counts views is actually
6:50contested if you've ever done Tableau
6:52server Postgres views.
6:54I'll put a link to that as well.
6:55There are three or four different way of
6:57counting views on Tableau server as well.
7:00So once you dig into the weeds, it can
7:02actually become quite a complicated topic.
7:05A couple more languages, Swedish entire
7:07language support.
7:08That's going to be great. It's interesting.
7:10Over the years, Tableau in the last year or
7:12two has really ramped up the language
7:13support across lots of different languages.
7:15So that list is getting very long and very
7:17well supported.
7:18It makes sense for a company that's global
7:20and obviously sits in the Salesforce
7:22ecosystem.
7:23If we go down to virtual connections,
7:25additional connector support.
7:27So Tableau adding new connectors to the
7:29virtual connectors list.
7:31They've just added cloud connectors to 22.3
7:35.
7:35I've literally just done a video on this,
7:36which will either come out after this video
7:38or before this video, one of the two.
7:40But they're adding more connectors.
7:43So this is great because then virtual
7:44connections are becoming so powerful.
7:46Unfortunately, you're going to need the
7:47data management add on to be able to
7:49benefit from this, which is a real stinker.
7:51But nonetheless, that's their multiple
7:53connections in a virtual connection.
7:56So within virtual connections, you can now
7:58connect to an additional database to pull
7:59in an entitlement table.
8:01This feature simplifies the process of
8:03creating policy statements and removes the
8:05requirement to duplicate entitlement tables
8:07across databases.
8:08So this is super interesting.
8:10I actually just showed this capability in
8:12my previous video about virtual connections
8:15.
8:15And because I was using a beta instance of
8:18Tableau Cloud, I didn't realize that this
8:20was actually a feature set for the next
8:22release of Tableau.
8:23So that's super cool to see in that video.
8:26I basically show that I was adding in
8:27multiple connections across different cloud
8:29instances and it was absolutely great.
8:31So this makes it very easy to bring data
8:33sources together and still be using a
8:35powerful capability of virtual connections.
8:38The next virtual connection feature refresh
8:41data from virtual connection editor.
8:43So this is nice.
8:44You can I assume you can nudge a data
8:46source and tell it to refresh in essence.
8:48So within the editor of the virtual
8:50connection, you can now manually refresh
8:52the database connection to get the latest
8:54data.
8:54So this is essentially, I guess, a quality
8:56of life improvement.
8:57As you're working in this view, you can
8:59update the data to make sure you're seeing
9:01the latest information as it updates in the
9:03database.
9:03Credential and rotation API.
9:06So using the new credential and credential
9:08APIs, you can programmatically change
9:10credentials for virtual connections and
9:12automate operations.
9:13There are three new API endpoints to help
9:15you get virtual connections, get virtual
9:17connection connections and modify virtual
9:20connection connections.
9:21Man, how do I really need to work on the
9:23terminology?
9:24There's too many connections in that in
9:27that sentence, not even that sentence in
9:29those names.
9:30Modify virtual connection connections.
9:32Shouldn't it just be modified virtual
9:35connections, modify virtual connect, get
9:38virtual connections, get virtual.
9:41Wait, what?
9:42Get virtual connections, get virtual
9:45connection connections.
9:47Oh, man, I'm really lost.
9:49I really lost.
9:52I'm sure this is absolutely correct.
9:54I know and I know a few people on the team
9:55that kind of go through this text.
9:57I'm sure they're absolutely, you know,
9:59category collects on what they're saying,
10:01but I'm really struggling to sort of get it
10:02in my head.
10:03So once I understand that, I'll maybe try
10:05and clarify that when we actually do the
10:07video, when it launches and replace input
10:10steps in Tableau prep.
10:11So you can embrace input steps much, much
10:13easier.
10:14So before you had to do is bring a
10:16connection in and delete the one that's
10:19there and then reconnect the connection to
10:22that new input.
10:23This time around, you can just drag it on
10:24top.
10:24And by the looks of this images, it will
10:26give you the option to replace, which is
10:28quite nice alongside the union, of course.
10:31That's going to be really cool.
10:32External assets default project.
10:35So new external assets are now
10:36automatically added to a new project titled
10:39external assets default projects.
10:41Now, in the previous video, I talked about
10:43moving external assets and when essentially
10:45you got rid of them.
10:47I didn't know where they went.
10:48And this makes so much more sense now.
10:50They go into this folder.
10:51I assume this is the default place for
10:53external assets.
10:54External assets obviously appear if you
10:56have the data management add on because
10:58external assets are just things like
11:00databases and connections and tables and
11:02anything you might connect to to visualize.
11:05Or work with data.
11:06And so there's going to be a default
11:07project for those coming very soon.
11:09Log shark plugin for tableau prep.
11:12Now this is super cool.
11:13And with the new log shot plugin, you can
11:15easily collect tableau prep log files and
11:17automatically generate tableau dashboards
11:20to analyze interactive performance, flow
11:22execution performance and errors.
11:24So this is almost in the realm of, I guess,
11:28helping users of prep understand where
11:30things are going wrong.
11:32But what I don't understand here, log shark
11:35plugin for tableau prep, I think what this
11:38plugin does is it processes log shark files
11:41for you in tableau prep.
11:44So you don't have to use a tool like all
11:45tricks or something else to work with it.
11:47So with new log you can easily collect
11:49tableau prep log files and automatically
11:52generate.
11:53But it does specifically mention tableau
11:55prep log files.
11:56So it feels more like log shark for tableau
11:59prep than it does anything else.
12:02So that's kind of interesting to see.
12:03And yeah, we'll see how that works.
12:05Tableau prep UI improvement.
12:07So simplified tableau prep UI.
12:09I noticed in a prerelease that the lines
12:11were starting to turn squiggly as where the
12:14noodle has come to tableau prep as it were.
12:16Tableau prep makes the process of building
12:19a flow to clean and simple shape data.
12:21Well, I can't read.
12:22Tableau prep makes the process of building
12:25a flow to clean and shape your data
12:26incredibly visual.
12:28With a revamped flow edge graph, we're
12:30reducing visual distractions that arise
12:33when the flow graph becomes larger and more
12:35complicated.
12:36These changes will provide you with a more
12:38legible, flexible and playful experience
12:40when creating flows.
12:41What does that mean?
12:43We'll have to find out when it launches.
12:47I'm not really clear what that means.
12:49Workbook optimizer enhancements.
12:52Enhancements of the workbook optimizer
12:54allow workbook authors to ignore individual
12:56best practices that aren't relevant to them
12:58.
12:58OK, that's cool.
13:00And implement specific best practices with
13:02a single click.
13:03Oh, that's so nice.
13:04So being able to implement a best practice
13:08is really good because it means that Table
13:11au can see what you're doing and it can
13:12suggest and just go do those things for you
13:14.
13:14Making the optimization now a step in the
13:17process rather than just an instruction,
13:19which is a really, really nice thing to see
13:21.
13:22Let's go ahead and look at data guide smart
13:25open.
13:25So data guide is now opens by default.
13:28Data guide smart open.
13:31I swear that in the last release, this was
13:34on by default and then it was hidden
13:37because of a bit of a fallout with with
13:39basically people not liking that it turned
13:42up.
13:43So anyway, data guide now opens by default
13:45when you first access the dashboard.
13:47When you return to a dashboard, data guide
13:49will remain in the state you left it in
13:51open or close to reflect your preferences.
13:53So here's what I think might happen.
13:56Twenty two dot four rolls out for Tableau
13:58Cloud and everyone complains again because
14:01they think this feature has come back to
14:03the way it used to be before it was off by
14:05default.
14:06Now it's going to be on by default, but
14:08only for the first time you load.
14:09And when you hide it, it's hidden, but
14:12every time you first access a dashboard, it
14:14will show up, which most people would think
14:16mean means it's broken.
14:18But actually, it's just going to be a
14:19really weird thing to explain.
14:21I'm looking forward to that video.
14:22We'll try and get that out as soon as we
14:24can, because that is just going to confuse
14:26people.
14:26But let's wait and see what happens.
14:29Web altering enhancements conveniently
14:31access number and date formatting,
14:33including custom number formats, visually
14:35break up sections of your table to improve
14:37understanding by applying table shading for
14:40headers and panes and cells.
14:41The thing about web altering enhancements
14:44is they take up time in terms of the
14:47release.
14:48They are quoted as new features, but they
14:50're just replacing the status quo.
14:52And in some cases, they are adapting the
14:55way it works.
14:55And so I think we're moving to a world I've
14:58said this for so many years now.
15:00We're moving to a world where the web will
15:02be the primary version of Tableau and it
15:04will work a bit like Tableau prep.
15:05But Tableau prep for desktop is actually
15:07just a web container for the web version of
15:09Tableau prep.
15:10So lots more enhancements.
15:13We should probably do like a state of the
15:15state of web altering in 2022 and just see
15:18what's changed, what's gotten better and
15:20how many new additional things we can do
15:22versus what we could do before.
15:24Custom views, REST API.
15:26So, oh, automate management for custom
15:28views at scale.
15:29So we are getting a lot of APIs, APIs left,
15:32right and center.
15:33You can now leverage custom views in
15:35embedded scenarios to deliver relevant
15:37views that save your users filters, sorts
15:39or selections.
15:40The custom views REST API introduces the
15:42following methods.
15:43GetCustomizedViewImage, getCustomViews, get
15:46CustomViews, updateCustomViews, deleteCustom
15:50Views.
15:51So that's really interesting.
15:52I'm giving this an API means you can set up
15:54sort of instructions to check and manage
15:56all these things.
15:57And because if everyone in an organization,
15:59especially a large organization has large
16:01amounts of custom views, they can almost
16:04become a problem in and of themselves.
16:06So it's really useful that there's an API
16:08now that can maybe allow you to do some,
16:10you know, if a custom view hasn't been
16:12accessed in such and such a time, then go
16:14ahead and delete it because it's not been
16:17used after a while.
16:17Delete it.
16:18When someone leaves the organization, go
16:21ahead and find all the related custom views
16:23and delete them as well.
16:24And that's sort of a really useful set of
16:27capabilities.
16:28The embedding API has been getting a real,
16:31real revamp.
16:32And I haven't I haven't properly covered
16:35the embedding API version three because of
16:37the almost relentless pace that they're
16:40adding features to it.
16:42I'm going to wait and do a video once it's
16:43sort of a little bit more stable and we can
16:45give more of a long view of what's
16:47happening with this.
16:48But in essence, the embedding API has been
16:50redone almost from the ground up.
16:52And the new version of the API keeps on
16:54adding features.
16:55The latest version of the API introduces
16:57pagination, allowing developers building
17:00products powered by Tableau to fetch all
17:01underlying data and essentially tells you
17:04what page that you're on.
17:05So you can page through data in a more sort
17:07of programmatic way.
17:08And that's that's a quality of life
17:09improvement really for developers.
17:12Tableau Mobile Salesforce SDK integration
17:15is a Tableau mobile integrated with a Sales
17:17force security SDK to help you implement
17:19mobile security site settings and enforce
17:21policies.
17:22You can now block access on jailbroken
17:24devices or those with debuggers or malware.
17:27So for people who are jailbreaking their
17:30iPhones, you can block Tableau essentially.
17:33So that's good to know.
17:35New accelerators on Tableau Exchange.
17:37So we've got supply intelligence, inventory
17:40, shipment logistics, and we have major
17:42upgrades to production scraps.
17:44That's a bit of an interesting one there.
17:46Tableau Mobile deep linking improvements
17:49seamlessly switch to sites or servers on
17:51mobile based on the destination of linked
17:53content.
17:54When clicking links to Tableau content from
17:56third party applications or sites, you will
17:58be redirected to the Tableau mobile app and
18:00prompted to switch sites or service if you
18:03're not initially signed into the correct
18:05one.
18:05Oh, this is this is pretty nice.
18:07This this has been like a bit of a broken
18:09capability.
18:10And I again, I haven't done enough on Table
18:11au Mobile.
18:12I did one ages ago, but I need to do more
18:14on this because quite a few people do use
18:16Tableau Mobile and it's good to be able to
18:17see it.
18:18XSL JDBC connector on Tableau Exchange.
18:22So there's now a new connector on Tableau
18:24Exchange for XSL.
18:25Salesforce Marketing Cloud connector.
18:27That's a pretty useful connector for those
18:29people who use that feature.
18:31I hear a lot about that connector, but I
18:33know nothing on what it does.
18:34So if you know, let me know.
18:36ServiceNow JDBC connector, TIBCO connector
18:39for Linux and activity log enhancements.
18:42This particular one is specific to Tableau
18:45Cloud.
18:46Audit permissions change history with the
18:48activity log.
18:49This release expands auditing capabilities
18:51by tracking changes to group memberships,
18:54site roles, content moves and more.
18:56And more is always a brilliant thing to add
18:58at the end of the sentence because it just
18:59means yeah, and whatever else we could
19:01think of.
19:01Sort of I got lazy and I stopped the
19:03sentence here kind of statement.
19:06So yeah, that's pretty much everything in
19:0822.4.
19:09And there are always a few things that
19:11sneak in and small changes that we kind of
19:13don't really find out here.
19:15What I always say to people is this is the
19:17marketing statement about what's in 22.4.
19:21What you really want to wait and see is the
19:22release notes for 22.4 because that has the
19:25line by line changes and also things that
19:27don't necessarily make it into the official
19:30launch date, but might come later down the
19:32line.
19:32Because of course, with Tableau Cloud, some
19:34of these things are rolled out in a
19:35slightly different cadence to what we're
19:37used to.
19:38If you're looking for the server version of
19:40some of these features that won't come
19:42until next year in 23.1 actually, because
19:46server only gets updates every six months
19:49and server just had its updates in the most
19:51recent release of 22.3.
19:53So you're going to be getting updates every
19:55other year.
19:55And so the obvious question that has come
19:58up a few times now, we tend to see these
19:59updates now come every six months.
20:01But the problem here is that we don't
20:03actually get features every other month.
20:06So yeah, that's something to look out for.
20:08Yeah, that's pretty much it for this
20:09particular release.
20:11Thanks for watching.
20:12And I'll catch you in the next video.
20:13But of course, I'm still going through 22.3
20:16.
20:16And yeah, if you've got any feedback on
20:17this video, let me know in the comments
20:19below.
20:19Thanks for watching.
20:20I'll catch you in the next one.
20:21Tempt to see.
20:22Hey mate, can I call you back in five
20:29minutes?
20:31Yeah, sure.
20:32Yeah.
20:33Yeah.
20:34Yeah.
20:35Okay.
20:35Bye.
20:41[ Silence ]
Tableau | Data visualisation | Industry trends | Tool strategy