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Tableau | Tool strategy | Productivity

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

Here's how to swap Tableau's stale Discover pane for your own web page during a scripted install.

Tim Ngwena •9 March 2020 •1 min read •7 min watch •876

Part ofWhat's new in Tableau 2020.1

Tableau 2020.1 lets you replace the default Discover pane content with a custom web page, ideal for status updates or server downtime notices across many users
You can set the Discover pane either after installation or, more efficiently, during a scripted command-line install pushed out by IT
Key install arguments include a quiet-install flag, a no-restart option, accepting the EULA, and the setting that defines the Discover pane URL
A license-reporting argument can ping a Tableau Server so admins can track who is using fixed license keys and manage rotation
Navigate to the folder containing the installer, then run the install file with your chosen arguments to apply all settings at once

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.

7:03If you've enjoyed this video, hit subscribe

7:05.

7:05If not, thanks for watching.

7:07Let me know what kind of content you'd like

7:09to see below and I'll catch you in the next

7:11video.

7:12Thank you.

In 2020.1 tableau added the ability to customise the discover pane: You can do it 2 ways. In this video, I’ll show you how to do it during installation and in a future video I’ll show you how to do it after installation.Tableau’s Guide: https://help.tableau.com/current/desktopdeploy/en-us/desktop\_deploy\_automate.htmBe sure to check out out my professional home, @The Information Lab for more great Tableau, Alteryx and AWS content. Visit my blog https://tableautim.com Say hi on twitter: https://twitter.com/tableautim?l -----Join my Discord Server. https://discord.gg/shBuxXr it’s a little sparse at the moment but hang in there.