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Tableau | Data visualisation

How to use target web zones in Tableau Desktop 2019.1 +

Tableau 2019.1 finally lets you fire a URL action into a specific web zone, so let me show you how to run dynamic Google searches from your dashboard.

Tim Ngwena •11 January 2020 •1 min read •7 min watch •705

Part ofWhat's new in Tableau 2019.1

Watch on YouTube

Tableau 2019.1 lets URL actions target a specific web object rather than any web container on the dashboard
Naming web objects by typing 1 and 2 as their URL generates labelled placeholders that make targeting much clearer
Place web objects in a shared vertical container to tidy up layout when sitting them side by side
Setting a URL action to run on Menu rather than on Select keeps it in the tooltip and avoids accidental clicks
Allowing multiple values on a URL action lets several selections feed into the dynamic query

0:00In Tableau 2019.1 Tableau have added the

0:06ability to target specific web containers

0:10when you use an

0:11action. So essentially they've updated the

0:14URL action so you can target a specific

0:16container.

0:17Well if you've never used URL actions

0:20inside of a dashboard to a web object then

0:23I'm also going to

0:24walk you through that process. So just tune

0:27in you can build this alongside with me and

0:30I'll walk you

0:30through the feature. So what I've done is I

0:32've opened the sample workbook. This is the

0:35superstore

0:35workbook so you can follow along with that

0:38and I've gone to the product drill down

0:40page. Now what

0:41I'd like to do is essentially I'd like to

0:44be able to put in a dynamic search query

0:47into Google and

0:48so you can actually see here that to do a

0:50very basic search on Google you just need

0:52to add the

0:53term at the end of this query. So I'm

0:55actually going to copy that and then I'm

0:57going to go back

0:58to Tableau. Okay now we're in a dashboard

1:01so what I need to do is enable a dashboard

1:04URL action.

1:06So I'll go over to the dashboard menu, I'll

1:08go over to actions and then I'll add an

1:11action and

1:12we need the URL action. Okay now what I'd

1:15like to do is I'd like this to trigger when

1:18we look at the

1:20product view. Now at this point I actually

1:22don't know which is which so let me close

1:24this and let

1:25me just find out which is which and I

1:27normally do this by just clicking on one of

1:29them and then it

1:30highlights that for you. So the product

1:31view is this top one and the product

1:33details is this

1:34bottom one. So that's actually what I want

1:37to use. Now the other thing I need to do is

1:40add a space

1:41for this web container. So I've just gone

1:43to my layout here to see what's going on. I

1:46think that

1:47the best place to add this would be the

1:49right hand side and that would be probably

1:50the easiest place.

1:51So I'll go back to the dashboard tab and

1:53then I just want to drag a web object and I

1:56want to put

1:56it as far to the right hand side as I

1:58possibly can and in this particular part I

2:01'm actually not

2:02going to put a specific URL. I'm just going

2:04to type the number one. The reason is it

2:06actually

2:07generates a URL for you and it puts the

2:09number one and then what will happen is if

2:12you drag another

2:13one and let's say you put that I'm going to

2:15put that on the right hand side of that as

2:17well and

2:18I hit two then it will name that too. So

2:20you can see that I've got these side by

2:23side but now this

2:24left hand side section looks very squashed

2:27so why not let's fix that. So let's take a

2:30vertical

2:30container I'll put it in between these two

2:33web windows and then I'll simply move the

2:37web objects

2:38inside of that container and now they share

2:41the same vertical container. If I go to the

2:44layout

2:45tab I can actually see that one and two are

2:47labeled appropriately. It's using the URL

2:50to

2:50name the web objects. So these are the two

2:53web objects. Now I'd like to add a URL

2:56actions and

2:57I appreciate that my table is not showing

3:00fully so we'll correct that a little a

3:03little later on

3:04maybe I'll just do this now just to get

3:06more of it in and I think that's just about

3:08enough.

3:08So let's expand the space here and let's

3:11add the URL action. So I'll go to the

3:14dashboard menu at

3:14the top I'll go to actions and this

3:18interface will come up. If I go to add a

3:22URL action

3:23it's going to want me to add a URL that it

3:26can use. So I'm going to paste the one that

3:29I copied

3:29off google and what I want to do is

3:32dynamically replace this last item here

3:36with my category.

3:37Okay and I'd like to replace the label for

3:41this to match where you're going to go to

3:45and I can even add on google. Okay so view

3:49category on google and I'm going to leave

3:52this

3:52as a menu because what I'd like to do is

3:54have it available in my tool tip not on

3:56click. Clicks can

3:58sometimes be activated accidentally so

4:00actually having it in the menu is a nice

4:02user experience

4:03sort of objective and now the new feature

4:05in 2019.1 is this option here being able to

4:10target

4:11the specific web object and you can see

4:13here naming them one and two makes it much

4:15much easier

4:16for me to know which one it's going to. So

4:19if I have this first one go to the top

4:21click okay and

4:23then I'm going to add a second one and for

4:25the second one we're going to do something

4:27slightly

4:27different. What I'd like to do is view the

4:30subcategory. So the subcategory later to

4:33the

4:33product so let's bring that in if we can

4:36where is it in this list. I think it might

4:43be in this

4:44data set so apologies that I had the wrong

4:47view selected there. So what I'd like to do

4:50is make

4:51this chart have a URL action paste that in

4:54there and now in this example I need to use

4:57a subcategory.

4:58Now I could have multiple subcategories

5:01available to me so what I'm going to do is

5:04I'm going to

5:04allow multiple values and I'm just going to

5:06leave that as is and for this one we

5:08actually go to

5:09number two. So what I want to do is just

5:11show you the difference between the two

5:13options

5:14and now we have two URL actions they

5:17activate through the menu and they're going

5:20to activate

5:21on these two sections and because we've

5:24named our web objects one and two it's much

5:27easier to see

5:28what's going on. Okay so I'm just going to

5:30click on furniture and you can see here

5:32that I can view

5:33furniture bookcase chairs and tables and if

5:36I click on that it loads it in the second

5:39space

5:40and you can see it's literally just entered

5:42that term straight into Google. If I go on

5:44the top one

5:45you'll see that this has got a some

5:47interactivity to re-space things. I can go

5:51and view technology

5:52on Google and you can see that it does a

5:54search dynamically on Google. So actually

5:57being able to

5:58dynamically search different web objects is

6:01actually a really really powerful thing.

6:03The way

6:04you could fix this in a in an actual

6:06dashboard is to have a web page a holding

6:08page essentially

6:10that asks the user to make a selection on

6:12the left hand side and you'd have to

6:15generate this in HTML

6:17and you'd have to host it somewhere on the

6:18internet so the dashboard could access it

6:20but then once the user makes a selection it

6:23becomes something interactive that they can

6:25use.

6:26I hope you found this video useful if you

6:28have subscribe drop a like otherwise let us

6:32know the

6:32kind of content you'd like to see in the

6:35comments below.

Rollup

Tableau 2019.1 lets a URL action target one specific web object rather than firing into any web container on the dashboard, which makes it possible to run dynamic queries (like a Google search) from different views into different, clearly defined spaces.

Built on the Superstore sample workbook's product drill-down dashboard, using a basic Google search URL that just needs a term appended to the end of the query string.

The Breakdown

Build the base query you'll make dynamic 0:41

Start with a plain URL (Tim uses a Google search link) that only needs a term appended at the end - this becomes the template your action will insert field values into.
Add a web object for each target 1:40

Drag a web object onto the dashboard for each destination you want to drive dynamically; you'll wire up the actual URL later, so leave the content blank for now.
Name web objects by typing 1, 2, etc as their URL 2:01

Instead of a real address, type a plain number into the web object's URL field - Tableau uses it to generate a labelled placeholder, which makes the objects easy to tell apart later when you're choosing a target.
Group side-by-side web objects in a vertical container 2:21

If placing web objects next to each other squashes the rest of your layout, put a vertical container between them and move both objects inside it so they share the space cleanly.
Create a URL action and paste in your dynamic query 3:09

From the dashboard menu, add a URL action, paste your base URL, and replace the relevant part of it with the field you want to drive the search - give the action a clear label describing where it leads.
Run the action on Menu, not Select 3:41

Set the action to trigger from the tooltip menu rather than on click, since click-triggered actions can fire accidentally - menu placement is a better user experience for this kind of interaction.
Target the specific web object by name 4:00

This is the 2019.1 feature itself: in the action's target settings, pick the numbered web object you want the action to load into, rather than letting it land in whichever web container happens to be on the dashboard.
Repeat for a second action and allow multiple values if needed 4:21

You can add further URL actions pointing at other fields and other named web objects; if a field can have multiple selections feeding the query, turn on 'allow multiple values' so several selections are passed through together.

Worth Knowing

Naming web objects by typing a number as their placeholder URL is a workaround, not a real address - it's purely there to generate a readable label for targeting.
Menu-triggered actions sit in the tooltip rather than firing on click, which avoids accidental activation but means users need to know to open the menu.
For a genuinely interactive experience you'd need a real holding page (built in HTML and hosted online) prompting the user to make a selection, rather than relying on the placeholder approach shown here.

Use It When

Reach for this when you want a dashboard selection to drive an external web view - like a search, lookup or embedded page - and you have more than one web object on the dashboard, so you need to control precisely which one each action updates.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

Transcription: On-device — NVIDIA Parakeet v3 for recent videos, OpenAI Whisper large-v3 for earlier ones. The transcript never leaves the machine or gets published.
Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

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