How to customise the discover pane during a scripted install in Tableau Desktop 2020.1

0:00In Tableau 2020.1 Tableau added the ability

0:05to customize the Discover pane in Tableau

0:08Desktop.

0:09Now the Discover pane is this section here

0:11on the right hand side.

0:12I'll just open up Tableau so you can see

0:14that.

0:15The Discover pane is this gray section here

0:17on the right hand side.

0:19Has some training, resources and visit of

0:21the week or visit of the day.

0:22Unfortunately this hasn't been updated in a

0:24while.

0:25But essentially that is what the Discover

0:27pane is.

0:28And you now have the ability to put a

0:30custom web page inside of this section.

0:32Now this is really handy if you have let's

0:34say a large number of users and you need to

0:37be able to put information, maybe status

0:40updates, server downtime.

0:43These are the kind of messages that are

0:44really handy to put inside of the product

0:46so anyone

0:46altering a Tableau visualization knows

0:49about those events.

0:51Now in order to do that you can implement

0:53the Discover pane in a couple of ways.

0:56The first is to actually change the setting

0:58after installation.

0:59And Tableau have a guide on how to do that

1:02here.

1:02In this video I'm actually going to show

1:03you how to do it whilst you're installing

1:05Tableau

1:06through the command line.

1:08Installing Tableau through the command line

1:10is probably the most effective way that you

1:11can install Tableau onto a large number of

1:14machines as most IT departments have the

1:16ability

1:16to control machines through the command

1:18line or push updates through the command

1:21line to

1:21a large bunch of machines.

1:22So in order to do this you need to be able

1:25to add the setting for the Discover pane

1:27during

1:27the installation.

1:28And that's what I'm going to show you how

1:31to do in this video.

1:33This is the guide I'm going to be following

1:34.

1:34You can see they have the same guide for

1:36Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep.

1:37I'll put a link to this in the video

1:40description below.

1:41And I'm just going to walk you through this

1:43very basic step so you don't have to worry

1:45about reading this entire page.

1:47Although I will highlight that this page

1:49has a lot of the specifics around certain

1:51attributes

1:51that you might want to customize for both

1:54Windows and Mac.

1:55Let's just dive into this and we can see

1:58how this works.

1:59I'm going to switch over to my Windows

2:01environment and you can see here on my

2:03Tableau folder

2:04I've got a script and I've also got an

2:07installation file for Tableau 2020.1.

2:11In another folder you'll see that I have my

2:13C drive and in my programs folder you'll

2:16see

2:16that I do have a Tableau folder because I

2:18have a previous version of Tableau

2:20installed

2:20on this machine but I do not have 2020.1

2:23installed.

2:24So if I go to my start menu you'll see if I

2:27scroll all the way down to the letter T,

2:302019.4 is there but not 2020.1.

2:35So what I did in advance is I wrote the

2:37script that we're going to use today in

2:39this text

2:40file and I'll just go through it in very

2:42simple terms.

2:43I'll just put on a word wrap so we can see

2:46everything in one view.

2:48The first thing you have to do is you

2:50actually have to navigate to the folder

2:53that you want

2:53to run the script from and in this folder

2:56you should already have the installer

2:58available.

2:59So you can see here that I'm referencing

3:01the install file itself.

3:03I've put in a parameter to run this as a

3:06quiet install.

3:07This would be the setting you'd typically

3:09use but for the first setting what I'm

3:11actually

3:11going to do is I'm going to remove that.

3:13I'm going to ask Tableau to sort of launch

3:15itself so we can actually see the

3:17installation

3:18in this video.

3:20You can tell Tableau not to restart the

3:21machine.

3:22This is handy if you're pushing updates,

3:24let's say, during working hours or you want

3:27to make

3:27sure that people don't lose their work

3:29suddenly.

3:30This is a good option to add.

3:31You can accept the user license agreement

3:34and you can see the setting here to set the

3:36discover pin.

3:37I've simply set it to Google.com as a

3:39simple way of setting this up.

3:42Then the last setting is you can actually

3:45have license reporting ping back to a Table

3:48au

3:48server so that you can actually see who's

3:50using the license on their machines.

3:52This is handy if you're administrating a

3:54lot of desktop users and you have a fixed

3:57number

3:57of license keys.

3:58You can actually sort of start to think

4:00about things like license rotation when

4:02certain

4:02people haven't used their keys in a while

4:04or people have left the organization.

4:06This is a nice way of finding out who those

4:08people are and that's available through

4:10Tableau

4:10server but in order to do that, you have to

4:13set up the setting when you install Tableau

4:16.

4:16So I'm going to remove this as well because

4:19we don't need this in our simple setup here

4:23.

4:23Now I'm just going to right click on the

4:24start menu and I'm going to bring up the

4:26Windows

4:26PowerShell admin.

4:27In this case, I'm just using a simple sort

4:30of command line interface.

4:33To be honest, any sort of scripting

4:35interface that allows you to pass commands

4:39to the command

4:40in Windows will work.

4:42You can do this through the command prompt,

4:44not just PowerShell as well.

4:46But in essence, what we need to do is we

4:48need to navigate to the folder where I have

4:49this

4:50installation file.

4:51So in this particular case, it's the

4:52desktop.

4:53So what I'll do just to make sure that I

4:55get it right, I try and avoid typing out

4:57things

4:57as much as I possibly can, is I'll just

5:00paste that in there and now you'll see this

5:02will

5:03change the directory to the desktop folder

5:06and then inside of that, you'll see Tableau

5:09.

5:09Now that I'm in the folder, what I'll do is

5:11I'll just start typing Tableau and then I

5:13'll

5:13press tab to try and autocomplete the

5:15installer file.

5:16Again, this makes sure that I don't type it

5:20or mistype it incorrectly.

5:22So the last bit here is just these commands

5:24here, these arguments here and I'm going to

5:27copy those from my text file and I'm just

5:29going to right click and that will paste

5:31them

5:31into this interface.

5:32So you can see here that this is going to

5:35run Tableau desktop 2020.1.

5:38It's set to not restart the computer,

5:40accept the user license agreement and set

5:42the discover

5:43pane to Google.com.

5:45Now in my case, I'm not running a quiet

5:47install so it will pop up the interface and

5:49we should

5:50see this run as soon as I hit enter.

5:52So let's hit enter and if we just wait a

5:55few minutes, we will see that it will

5:58actually

5:59launch the launcher for Tableau desktop.

6:05So you can see here that I have actually

6:08accepted the terms of the license agreement

6:11.

6:12I'm going to tick here not to send product

6:15usage data.

6:16Because I didn't do a quiet install, this

6:18interface pops up and asks me to tick this

6:20option but I can simply hit install.

6:23You'll see that the installation

6:25essentially just carries on right through.

6:28It's going to use all the default settings

6:31for Tableau desktop.

6:32It's also going to change the discover pane

6:34and on completion, it's actually going to

6:36fire up Tableau desktop and you'll see that

6:39the discover pane is now set to Google.com.

6:44The installation is finished and it's now

6:46just opening up Tableau and there it is.

6:48You can see Google.com here on the right

6:50hand side.

6:51It's not a very effective way or place to

6:54have Google.com but you can see that you

6:57can

6:58essentially load up any sort of web page in

7:02this space.

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