Enhanced Image role support for SVGs GIFS and More | New in Tableau 2023.2

0:00In 23.2 Tableau have enhanced their support

0:03for images including support for GIFs and

0:06also SVGs. I'll talk so much more about SV

0:08Gs because I think they're underused in this

0:10space.

0:11As ever let's get stuck in and I'll also

0:13show you this really nice trick that I

0:15think could be used a lot more.

0:17Putting GIFs as sheets inside of a

0:19dashboard to add flair to your dashboard.

0:22Let's get stuck in.

0:23So as ever the video is time stamped so you

0:25can jump ahead to see the innovation

0:28straight away. But I'm going to start off

0:30in Tableau Public. We're going to go ahead

0:31and create a web altering session.

0:33Tableau Public is free so you can follow

0:34along and just get involved. I'm already

0:36logged in so as soon as I hit that I get

0:38the option to connect to my data.

0:40On my desktop I have this image roll file.

0:43Now you can see the images that I've

0:45already loaded up. I loaded this up to a

0:48service called Cloudinary.

0:50It's an image hosting service. I've got a

0:52really nice thing planned with them where I

0:54'm going to be talking about image support

0:56specifically in Analytics Tool.

0:59Look out for that. Here you can see the

1:01images I have. SVGs, WebPs, GIFs. There's a

1:04whole range of images. All I've done is I

1:06've uploaded them to Cloudinary.

1:08I've made a video about that as well. Link

1:10in the description. All I'm going to do is

1:13open this file up. The CSV file just has

1:16the URLs to the images themselves over in

1:18Cloudinary. You'll see this in a second.

1:20We'll upload this file in. There's no real

1:22data source here but I'll try and simulate

1:24a scenario where we can pretend there's a

1:26data source and you can see what I'm going

1:28for.

1:29As you can see it loads up the images. You

1:32can see our data is here. If we preview

1:34this, there's a really annoying thing with

1:38WebEdit. It opens everything in a new tab.

1:39I really hate that part of the experience.

1:40There you go. There's our links. You can

1:41see it's all coming from a Cloudinary

1:43bucket. Think of it like an S3 bucket

1:45essentially. It's got everything in there.

1:49This is what we're going to be working with

1:51. Let's switch back to the tabs that we need

1:55. We can click OK and start building

1:57something with this chart.

2:00We'll click sheet 1 and you'll see that it

2:02starts to take an extract. This will take a

2:05little bit of time to CSV. Hopefully I can

2:07feel the air while it's doing this.

2:107 seconds, 8 seconds, 9 seconds, 10 seconds

2:12. Come on, there's as many roses as that.

2:14Should be faster tab load.

2:16Let's get into this. You can see here if I

2:20just bring in, let's call this the public

2:21ID. The public ID is the name of the image.

2:24You can see these are our different image

2:25names and they're all there.

2:27If we go ahead and bring in the secure URL,

2:29you can see these are all the images. It's

2:32pretty clear to see that there's a whole

2:33range of image types. These are actually

2:36all supported in this latest release of

2:38Tableau.

2:39But as ever, there's some limitations. They

2:41have to fit within a certain size frame.

2:43This was actually doubled to 200 kilobytes

2:45from 100 kilobytes. That's something new

2:48and nice.

2:49There's also been some small formatting.

2:51The images will naturally center themselves

2:53to the frame that they're in. You're

2:55probably thinking, what do we mean by frame

2:57?

2:58If I limit this down just to the AWS icons

3:00that I've got here, you can see I've

3:03already pre-grouped them. You can see that

3:06I get this much smaller list of items.

3:09Essentially, to enable image roles, you

3:10have to right click the URL, go down to

3:11image role and select the URL.

3:14There's a hint that more image types will

3:16come later on, but you can see that it

3:18actually replaced the URL with the images.

3:21There's a couple of things special about

3:23this specific images. If I just scale this

3:25down, you can see that it naturally centers

3:28them.

3:29Everything is nicely centered. If I was to

3:30give it too much vertical space, they'd

3:32naturally try and fill the height.

3:34The images behave in what I would think is

3:36still a slightly weird way because they try

3:38and fill the height or the width. One of

3:41them always gets filled.

3:43Sometimes you want padding, but I'll show

3:45you how I solve that here in Cloudinary.

3:48Cloudinary serves the URLs to us. We're

3:51actually able to edit the URL to adjust the

3:53image. That's the power of using Cloudinary

3:55to do all of this.

3:57You can see these are nicely loaded and

3:58they're perfect. These are SVGs.

4:02My point about SVGs is that not many people

4:04know that they're actually called a vector

4:07image. If you take a PNG, an image file

4:10like a JPEG or anything that's essentially

4:12a rasterized image, the way they store

4:15images is they essentially say, "Look, this

4:17dot has this color."

4:19It works its way across a whole entire grid

4:21to form an image. The way they compress the

4:23image is they take all that information and

4:25they simplify it in a way that means

4:27whatever you're working with, the file is

4:29always going to remember the rough, correct

4:32position of certain colors.

4:34You might lose some detail, but frankly,

4:35your eyes don't notice. That's why you can

4:38get some really large images into small

4:40file sizes.

4:41SVGs work a completely different way. Let

4:43me just show you what I mean by that.

4:45If I go ahead and open one of these SVGs,

4:47you can see this is my folder.

4:50If I open one of these SVGs and I'm going

4:52to open it in a coding tool like Visual

4:54Studio Code, what you'll see is that the

4:57image is not defined by dots.

5:00It's not defined by something you would

5:02expect to see in an image like pixels and

5:04coordinates.

5:05It's defined by essentially a formula and

5:08it's very similar to spatial mapping in

5:11Tableau.

5:12So as an example, if we see this SVG, you

5:13can see it's got a height, it's got a box,

5:16and then it's got a width, and that's

5:17roughly telling you the proportions of what

5:20's going on.

5:21And then what starts to happen is you

5:23basically get a standardized format telling

5:26you this is the SVG, and then you have what

5:29's called a path.

5:30And the path is essentially drawing the

5:31coordinates of the object that we have in

5:33mind.

5:34Then there's a fill color. This fill color

5:36actually fills the color of the specific

5:38shapes.

5:39So we opened up the AWS Lambda image, and

5:41if I go back to my file explorer and we

5:43just open this with, let's say, preview.

5:46Can I open this with preview?

5:47It's not going to let me open this up with

5:48preview. If I double click it, let's see

5:50what applications opens it.

5:52SVGs typically open in Illustrator on my

5:54computer because it's a vector image.

5:57If it pops up on screen, we'll be able to

5:59see it, but it's decided to pop up off

6:01screen.

6:02And here it is. And you can see the power

6:04of this SVG image. If I just double click

6:08this, and let's just zoom out of this.

6:11Let's just move across. Let's just do this.

6:13There we go.

6:14You can see it's just basically one path

6:16going all the way around, and once it's

6:18drawn that path, it has one color.

6:21So that's all you get in this particular

6:22logo. One path, one color. Super simple.

6:25And the thing you maybe noticed, or you

6:27didn't notice, is that as I zoom in and out

6:29, it's infinitely sharp.

6:31So that's the power of an SVG. They're

6:33really, really sharp, and all company logos

6:36now typically get made in this format.

6:38Logos have been making these formats for a

6:40long time in vector formats.

6:43PDFs are vector formats, strictly speaking,

6:45if you only put images and certain types of

6:47graphics into them.

6:49So using these is super powerful. Look at

6:51this. This Lambda logo is one kilobyte.

6:54In fact, if you look at all the SVGs, the

6:57biggest size is one kilobyte.

7:01The smallest size is 508 bytes. We're

7:05talking trivial amounts of data here.

7:07They're just so small, and they don't have

7:09to be just simple.

7:11You can open up something as complex as

7:14this DynamoDB logo.

7:16Let's just zoom out. You can see this one

7:17is a little bit more complex.

7:19Yes, it looks different, but again, it's

7:20really, really small.

7:22What I did is I went and got the Tableau

7:23and Salesforce logo in SVG format.

7:26Here you go. Salesforce logo is a bit more

7:28complex. It's nine kilobytes.

7:30I'll open this here in Illustrator, and you

7:32'll see that this is a Salesforce logo.

7:34I downloaded it from a website that

7:35converts these for us.

7:37You're probably thinking, "What does this

7:38look like in a formula?"

7:40So let's go ahead. Let's go back and open

7:42this in VS Code.

7:43As soon as we're in there, you'll see, let

7:46's word wrap this so you can see, okay, this

7:48is a little bit more complicated.

7:50But the same principle applies. You've got

7:52different paths.

7:54You've got this path here, and you've got

7:56another path here, and they have slightly

7:57different colors.

7:58This path fill here is the white color.

8:01This is the actual text for Salesforce.

8:03This cloud path here, this one here at the

8:05top, is actually the blue cloud that goes

8:07all the way around the image.

8:08There's a few other images here. There's

8:10another fill there, and so on and so forth.

8:12But you get the idea. This is a bunch of

8:14numbers, normal images, PNGs, JPEGs.

8:17They're actual pieces of information, so

8:19they take a lot more storage to store that

8:21information.

8:22So what's my point? Why am I laboring on

8:24about SVGs?

8:25It's because we should all be using SVGs

8:27where possible.

8:29Images only need to be used where you're

8:31using an actual photo or graphic that can

8:34only be taken in the form of an image.

8:37You can even get tools today that will take

8:39an image and convert them into an SVG just

8:41to get the size down.

8:43But strictly speaking, if you're working

8:44with logos, you're working with icons, let

8:47me just tell you now, SVGs all the way.

8:50SVGs are supported in Tableau Desktop. You

8:52don't have to just have them coming through

8:54image rolls.

8:55You can just go ahead and bring in an SVG.

8:57If I go to a dashboard here, for example,

8:59let's see how good this is.

9:01Let's bring in an image type here. We'll go

9:03ahead and choose an image. We'll go in here

9:04.

9:05Let's bring the Salesforce logo. Let's

9:07bring that in here, and you'll see that it

9:09loads it up.

9:10Let's fit and center the image. Apply and

9:13voila. Look at that. Nice and crisp.

9:16Everyone should be using these. If we go

9:17ahead and go to floating and look at this.

9:21As I change the size of it, it stays sharp

9:23every single time and it's tiny. It's the t

9:25iniest file.

9:26This is not going to bloat your workbook.

9:28This is going to make your workbook perform

9:29ant.

9:30It will always be sharp. As small as I make

9:32this, if I even dare make this, let's go

9:34make it tiny.

9:35Look at that. It's still sharp. This is the

9:37power of SVGs.

9:39So I am laboring this point really hard

9:41because this is super important to

9:43understand.

9:44Please, everyone, let's start using SVGs.

9:47Now that I've done that, there's a couple

9:49of other things to bear in mind with this

9:51release.

9:52Other image types are supported. What I did

9:54is in my little dataset, I went and got a

9:58couple of other types.

9:59Let's go ahead and take GIFs and WebP and

10:01hit apply.

10:03I'm not expecting all of these to load

10:04because I think they will have issues.

10:07But you can see they've actually all loaded

10:09absolutely fine and this is super nice.

10:12Now this image here and this image here

10:14have transparent backgrounds.

10:16The reason that's super cool is because I

10:18think you can add animated elements to your

10:20dashboard.

10:21Look at this. These images have just come

10:23through and they immediately look beautiful

10:25.

10:25They're just really, really nice to work

10:26with. You can see I've got some WebP images

10:28.

10:29WebP images are a compressed format that I

10:31think Google have pioneered to get really

10:34large images down to a really scalable size

10:37.

10:38I don't know how these got through the size

10:40restriction because if I go show you these

10:43images, they're actually quite big.

10:46You can see here that's definitely over 200

10:49kilobytes. You can see that that image is

10:51actually specifically this one here.

10:53So what I still don't quite understand is

10:56even though Tableau have a limit, it seems

10:59like you can sometimes go over that limit

11:01and you don't get penalized.

11:04What it might be though, and here's

11:06something to bear in mind, what it might be

11:09is that because I'm using Cloudinary,

11:11Cloudinary itself is potentially rendering

11:13these images in a more performant way.

11:16For example, if I look at this GIF and I

11:18scroll down, you can see that Cloudinary

11:20might actually be looking at this

11:23parameters of the page and figuring out

11:25that, look, this is the rough size I need.

11:28And so it's just loading what's needed for

11:29that frame rather than trying to go and

11:31load the actual original image.

11:33That's the only thing I can think of to

11:35explain that quirk. But I'll be asking

11:37Tableau that question and we'll try and

11:39figure things out.

11:40And so this is really, really nice. You can

11:43make this super interesting. For example,

11:46if I was to do this, let's go ahead and you

11:49know, you could do something nasty like it

11:52's not going to let me do this.

11:54I keep on thinking of ideas and then I try

11:55and do them and I'm like, God, I can't be

11:57bothered with all the hacks required.

11:59I've just made a video about hacks. So

12:00check that out. But if I go ahead, let's go

12:03ahead and let's not show this header.

12:06Let's just keep this here. Let's keep just

12:08this item here so you can see we've got

12:10this nice item. We'll go ahead and hide

12:12labels.

12:13I'm going to give you a flavor of what I'm

12:14thinking. Go to a dashboard. And then what

12:18we'll do is we'll go ahead and I'm just

12:20going to add a I cannot be bothered.

12:23Actually, I can be bothered to do this. I'm

12:24not going to I'm not going to lose this

12:25battle here. I'm going to put a container.

12:28I'm going to format it.

12:30Let's go out to layout and we're going to

12:32format this container to be black. Let's go

12:34ahead and do that. Boom. Perfect.

12:37OK. So you're probably wondering, hey, what

12:38is the point in this? Well, look, using

12:41this new image support, what you can do is

12:44go ahead and make this floating.

12:47Let's go here. Here we go. Here we go. I

12:50thought this might happen. I wanted to make

12:52this sheet transparent, but I know in

12:54desktop this is possible.

12:56But I'm not sure in here we go. Background

13:02none. It's not going to let me do it.

13:04It's not going to let me do it here. There

13:06is a way to make a sheet transparent, but I

13:08don't think I'm going to be able to do it

13:09here.

13:10What I was hoping to do was to do something

13:12slightly different. So let's do this. Let's

13:15edit this alias.

13:16I'll grab the link and we'll copy this hit.

13:18OK. And then I will just show you what I

13:21was trying to achieve. And you guys can

13:23figure out actually how to do it.

13:26So let's go ahead. Bring in. Let's go bring

13:28a floating image. OK. You see, it just

13:31gives us the box.

13:32We'll go ahead and link to the image. We'll

13:35just use the same image where we're using

13:37before. Click apply. Hit OK.

13:39There you go. And now look at that. OK.

13:42What I was trying to do was to put this

13:45image as part of a sheet.

13:48And the reason that's important is because

13:50putting a static image like this is is no

13:53no use.

13:54But if this is a sheet, then what you can

13:56do is you can have different sheets

13:58activate different animated elements for

14:00your dashboard.

14:02So this could be a dashboard about Coke.

14:04You can see I've just gone on to Giphy and

14:06I found this nice gift that Coke have put

14:09up on their website to use in certain brand

14:11assets to use in the gift app.

14:13And I put it in the bottom right hand

14:15corner as an asset, a graphical asset. And

14:18it brings life to the dashboard.

14:19Maybe you're doing a dashboard about

14:20Christmas. Maybe you're doing a theme

14:22dashboard. And it might just help to have a

14:24little bit of flourish on the dashboard.

14:26Bring it to life. Do something different. I

14:28think this is a really nice touch. So this

14:30is just a taste of what's possible.

14:33I think with images, I've not really seen

14:35people take images to the next level.

14:37I think too many people are still using the

14:39basic stuff. And you're probably saying,

14:40hey, Tim, why don't you show us what you're

14:42supposed to do?

14:43I'll get to it at some point. And I think

14:45there's just so much more you could be

14:46doing with images, especially if you use a

14:48cloud service to support images.

14:50So I'm working with Cloudinary. We're going

14:52to make some content first on how to use

14:54Cloudinary a little bit better and so on

14:55and so forth.

14:57And then I have a nice idea of a themed

14:58dashboard where we're going to take images

15:00to the next level. We're going to use them

15:03for everything.

15:04I know it'll involve some hacks, but

15:05nevertheless, stay tuned to find out more.

15:08But anyway, that's a really long video on

15:10this particular topic.

15:11It's really quite a simple feature. Images

15:13now support different image types.

15:15But I think there's so much more people

15:17could be doing with images, specifically SV

15:19Gs and GIFs as sheet elements that are

15:22interactive and changeable on the dashboard

15:24.

15:25Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the

15:26next one.

15:27[silence]

15:37[ Silence ]