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Tableau | Data visualisation

Tableau 2020.2: Workbook upload to tableau server

Tableau 2020.2 lets you upload a workbook straight to the server, no desktop publishing required.

Tim Ngwena •6 May 2020 •1 min read •3 min watch •4.6K

Part ofWhat's new in Tableau 2020.2

Tableau 2020.2 adds an 'upload a workbook' option in the server's New dropdown, removing the need to publish from Tableau Desktop first
The upload is capped at 50 megabytes, so it suits small workbooks rather than large ones
During upload you can set the name, choose a project (which acts like a folder), add a description and tick 'show sheet as tabs'
Data sources are held inside the uploaded workbook, but you can still edit connections and refresh extracts from Tableau Server
Once uploaded, the workbook behaves like any other, so you can change metadata and manage permissions

0:00One of the new features in Tableau 2020.2

0:03is the ability to upload a workbook

0:05directly to the

0:05server without having to first publish the

0:08workbook from Tableau desktop. Let me show

0:10you how that

0:11works. You can see here that I've created a

0:13project called workbook upload and over

0:16here in the new

0:17drop down you get the ability to create a

0:20new project, create a new workbook and this

0:23new option

0:23to upload a workbook. Now if I just zoom

0:26back out and I click the upload you get

0:28this interface.

0:29This interface allows us to essentially

0:31pick the file and then add some attributes

0:33to the workbook

0:33before we publish it up. Note that there is

0:36a limit here of 50 megabytes okay so this

0:38isn't

0:38going to be good for very large workbooks.

0:40It's ideally for workbooks that are quite

0:42small.

0:43I'm going to go ahead and choose a file

0:45here. I'm going to choose superstore. This

0:47is the default

0:48workbook that comes in Tableau desktop, one

0:49of the sample workbooks along the bottom of

0:52the view.

0:52I'm going to select that and open that and

0:54you can see here that it's basically taken

0:57the name

0:57of the file. It's transposed that to the

0:59name so we can see the name has been

1:01updated. The project

1:02remains the same but I can move it around

1:04the server if I want to. Essentially think

1:06of these

1:07projects as folders around your server. In

1:08fact they've even got the icon and then the

1:11last thing

1:11is the description. I can just give it a

1:13basic description here. Okay and now the

1:16last option

1:17here is to show sheet as tabs. If I tick

1:20that I'll see each tab as each sheet as a

1:23tab although this

1:23is confusing. This technically means view

1:26in this particular instance but we'll skip

1:28past that small

1:29issue and just hit upload. As you can see

1:31it's really really fast. I haven't sped

1:34this video up

1:34to sort of simulate the speed or anything.

1:37This is the real experience and I'm

1:39uploading to

1:40Tableau Online here so granted this will be

1:43a slightly better experience in some cases

1:47compared

1:47to how you might experience it when you've

1:49got an on-premise server where you may be a

1:52little

1:52bit under resourced. But that said the work

1:54book once uploaded behaves like any other

1:56workbook.

1:57The only thing you have to bear in mind is

1:59that the data sources are held inside of

2:01the workbook

2:02itself. Now if you've got database

2:04connections and you've taken an extract of

2:07the data then you

2:08could of course edit the connection and

2:10then publish those or refresh those data

2:12sources here

2:13from Tableau Server itself. But otherwise

2:16you've got all the other features of a work

2:18book. You can

2:18go in and change the metadata even work

2:21with permissions as well and make them easy

2:24to use.

2:24Okay that's pretty much the feature in a

2:26nutshell. If you've got any questions about

2:28the feature drop

2:29them in the comments below I'm pretty

2:31responsive to comments. If you like the

2:33video hit the like

2:34button subscribe and then hit the bell

2:36otherwise if you don't like the video then

2:38let me know what

2:38you'd like to see in the comments below.

2:41Alright take it easy see you in the next

2:43one.

You can now upload your workbook direct to tableau server form your desktop rather than having to publish it up. Find out how in this video. Be sure to check out out my professional home, @The Information Labfor more great Tableau, Alteryx and AWS content. Visit my blog https://tableautim.com Say hi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tableautimFiles used in my videos for 2020.2 videos: https://j.mp/2YvaEot ----Join my Discord Server. https://discord.gg/shBuxXr it’s a little sparse at the moment but hang in there.