Dynamic parameter improvements

0:00Hey, it's Tim here and in today's video I'm

0:02going to be showing you some improvements

0:04to dynamic parameters, specifically the

0:06ability to use a particular column to set

0:08the min

0:09and the max value when the workbook opens.

0:12Now typically I should be doing this video

0:14on Tableau desktop, but Tableau in the

0:17browser

0:17is getting really, really good.

0:18So I'm actually going to do this demo in

0:20the browser.

0:21Yes, that's right.

0:22We're going to do this in the browser.

0:23It's pretty much the same in desktop.

0:25I'll show you how to do that after I've

0:26done it in the browser for those of you who

0:28still

0:28use desktop, but let's check out how that's

0:30done.

0:31Hey, it's Tim here.

0:32Just a quick one before the video.

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0:47It'll be really, really great for me.

0:49Thank you.

0:50So I'm going to go here to samples in Table

0:52au online.

0:53I'm going to go to SuperSaw dataset.

0:55I'm going to hit new here and just start

0:57with a new workbook.

0:58In order to show you this, I need to build

1:00a very basic view.

1:01So let's go ahead and do that just so we

1:02have something on the visualization that we

1:05can

1:05work with.

1:06Let's bring in sales and let's bring in

1:08category on color just to give it a little

1:10bit of color.

1:12The thing I want to do next is bring in

1:14order date and we want this to be a

1:15continuous month

1:17just so this is OK.

1:18And we want to make this a bar chart

1:20because this is an ugly bar chart even.

1:23And what I might do is, you know, this is a

1:25bit noisy.

1:25I'll just bring that back to category and

1:27then that's a lot better.

1:29Now the thing I want to do here is add a

1:31dynamic parameter.

1:32Now, if you've ever worked with Tableau,

1:33you'll know the parameters are really,

1:35really powerful.

1:36They allow you to basically add user

1:38defined values into calculations or into

1:40the views

1:40that you can change things on the fly based

1:43on the question you're trying to answer.

1:45Now in this case, what I'm actually going

1:46to do is I'm actually going to create a

1:47parameter

1:48using the order date, the thing that I've

1:50already got here.

1:51So I'm going to right click on order date.

1:53Then I'm going to go to create and you can

1:55see here on the bottom option, I have the

1:56ability to create a parameter.

1:58Let's go ahead and do that.

2:00You get this nice interface.

2:01Now the great thing is I'm in WebEdit here.

2:04And you know, a long time ago, this was

2:06just not possible.

2:07This level of parity between desktop and

2:09WebEdit just didn't exist.

2:10So let's go ahead and see how we can change

2:13the min and the max value based on a column

2:15when the workbook opens.

2:16Now in previous versions, they actually

2:18added this ability to set the default value

2:20.

2:21So what we can now do is you can see there

2:22's an option here for range.

2:24So let's go ahead and hit range.

2:27And what we can do is when the workbook

2:29opens, you can just basically choose this

2:32current

2:32value or we can actually change this and

2:35make this slightly different.

2:37So let's change this.

2:39So when the workbook opens, I'd like to

2:42feed this min and max based on the order

2:46date.

2:47You can see this ticks these two, but they

2:49're grayed out because of course, we're not

2:51going

2:51to be able to change these manually.

2:53Tableau is going to change them for us, but

2:55it's going to be using the order date here.

2:57And this is a really, really nice feature.

3:01You can also set things like the step size.

3:02I'm not going to bother with that.

3:03I'm just going to let the users use this

3:05how they like, but that's pretty much it.

3:07We've got our order date parameter, so we

3:10can go ahead and click OK.

3:11And if I go ahead and show that parameter,

3:13you can see that it's now there.

3:15So it's basically looking at the data set

3:17and it's going to the very first record it

3:19finds and actually using that.

3:21So the first record here is on the January

3:252015.

3:26And you can see here that it's going there

3:28to the third of January.

3:29If I actually go down here to day, we can

3:32actually find the very first transaction

3:35and

3:35we can see here that it is actually the

3:37third of January.

3:38I can't actually select it, but it is there

3:41.

3:41I promise you it's just right there.

3:43So that's a really, really great feature.

3:45You can actually go all the way to the end

3:47of the data set here, 2018, which is where

3:49the data ends.

3:50And again, it goes to December 2018.

3:52So that parameter is actually dynamically

3:55looking at the field and only letting me

3:56pick

3:57the min and the max based on what's in the

3:59data set.

4:00OK, so that's how that's done in the

4:02browser.

4:02Let's switch over to Tableau desktop and I

4:04'll show you how that's done.

4:05OK, so we're here in desktop.

4:07I'm going to do exactly the same thing.

4:09I'm going to connect to Superstore EU this

4:11time.

4:12So I'm going to click on the save data

4:13source.

4:13If you're in America, just connect to the

4:15American data source.

4:16That's fine.

4:17We're going to go ahead and build exactly

4:18the same chart.

4:19So cells on rows and we're going to bring

4:23the order date on columns and we're going

4:25to choose the continuous month just to give

4:28us a little bit of context.

4:29We're going to drop category on color.

4:32So if I go to the product here, open that

4:33hierarchy and put that on color, we get

4:35this

4:36and I'm going to change this to a bar chart

4:38on the marks pane.

4:39And now we have this ready to go.

4:41I'm actually going to create the premise in

4:42exactly the same way so you can just see

4:44that

4:44there's no difference, really.

4:46So right hit on the order date.

4:48Go ahead to create create a parameter and

4:50we get a slightly different interface.

4:52Of course, this is the desktop interface

4:54rather than the Web interface.

4:56Now what I can do here is I can again

4:58choose a range and I can get set values

5:00from order

5:01date.

5:02OK, so this sets it from all the date.

5:03But what I can do like I did in the browser

5:05is when the workbook opens, I want you to

5:07use the order date.

5:08You see it takes the exact same fields

5:11there and now we're ready to go.

5:13So if I click OK and then I show that

5:15parameter, you can see that that premise is

5:18now there

5:18and it's loading dynamically from that

5:22field.

5:22Now I haven't actually implemented this

5:24premise to do anything on this dashboard.

5:26I just want to build something so you can

5:28see that it's actually doing what it's

5:30supposed

5:30to be doing.

5:31Again, if I go here to the day and we go to

5:33the min value here, you can see it's the 1

5:35st

5:35of January 2017, which is the first value

5:38there.

5:39And the very last value is 2020, 31st of

5:42December 2020.

5:44And that's actually all the way over here

5:45just underneath my face.

5:46If I move that there, we can just hover

5:48over that last sort of item here and you

5:50can see

5:51that's the last record.

5:52So there you go.

5:53It's working.

5:54It's really, really good.

5:55And every time the data source updates,

5:57every time the workbook opens, it will

5:59automatically

5:59choose those min and max values so the user

6:01can never choose a value that isn't

6:03available

6:04in the parameter.

6:05That's just great.

6:06It's just a nice quality of life

6:07improvement that we can count on.

6:09And the important thing here is this is

6:11available both in desktop and in the

6:12browser.

6:13Go check it out.

6:14If you've enjoyed this video, you know what

6:15to do.

6:16If you haven't hit the dislike button twice

6:17, let me know what you'd like to improve in

6:19the comment below and I'll catch you in the

6:21next video.