Tableau versions and version numbers explained in 10 minutes

0:00Hey it's Tim here. In today's video I'm

0:01going to show you how Tableau versions work

0:04and how to find

0:04out which version of Tableau you're using

0:06whether it's Tableau Online, Desktop, Prep,

0:09whatever you're

0:09using I'm going to show you how to find out

0:11the version. Let's get stuck in. Okay so I

0:13'm going to

0:13start first with Server and Tableau Online.

0:15I'm actually here on Tableau Online but

0:17Tableau Server

0:18has exactly the same technique. The first

0:20thing you need to do is head over to this

0:22question mark

0:23here on the top right hand side that I'm

0:24highlighting in red. Once you click on that

0:27there's another option at the very bottom

0:29that says about Tableau Online and when you

0:31get there

0:31you get the version number sort of laid out

0:33for you. Now the thing you need to worry

0:35about here

0:36is just these first few numbers. I'll

0:38explain this towards the end of the video

0:40but all you need to

0:40worry about is 2021.4.0 that's the version

0:44I'm on. I'll explain all those dots and

0:47what they mean a

0:48little later on. Now if I head out of Table

0:51au Online, let's close this, here I'm on

0:53Tableau Prep.

0:54The way to find out here is very simple. I

0:56'm actually on a Mac here so this is going

0:58to be

0:59much much easier. It's sort of slightly

1:01different in Mac and Windows. I clicked

1:03help there but it's

1:04actually different on the Mac. You go to

1:06this title here and in that option you have

1:08the about

1:09version there and again you get the same

1:11sort of pop-up and the version numbers

1:13displayed here. So

1:14Tableau Online is on 2021.4.0 whereas my

1:18Tableau Prep version here is on 2021.4.3.

1:22Now that doesn't

1:22really matter because everything is on 2021

1:26.4 but in essence if you have some issues

1:28maybe there's

1:29some bugs you might find that your server

1:31is still running an older version and again

1:34I'll explain

1:34the version numbers shortly but that's just

1:36the important thing to bear in mind. Those

1:38dots

1:38actually do matter especially when issues

1:41turn up. So let's close Tableau Prep and

1:43let's head to

1:43Tableau Desktop. Again I'm still on a Mac.

1:46Now Tableau Desktop and Tableau Public

1:48share the same

1:49setup so again they're going to work the

1:51same way. So for this you go to Tableau

1:53Desktop anytime

1:54you've got it open you go over here to the

1:56Tableau option you'll see there's a few

1:58more options.

1:58If I open the about page you'll see that

2:01this time here at the very top we get that

2:03version. So this

2:04is on 2021.4.2. So Tableau Prep, Tableau

2:08Online and my Tableau Desktop at least on a

2:10Mac are all

2:11on slightly different versions but the key

2:14thing here is they're all on 2021.4. Okay

2:17so that's a

2:18Mac done. Let's go over to Windows and find

2:20out how that works. So now here I'm on my

2:22Windows

2:23Virtual Machine. Actually I'm remoted into

2:25my desktop which is right next to me it's

2:27not virtual

2:27at all but I'm in remote desktop connection

2:30here and if I go to help and I click about

2:32on Tableau

2:33Desktop you'll see that I get the exact

2:34same setup here. So it's slightly different

2:36between Mac and

2:37Windows but that's how to find out the

2:39versions and by now you should know how

2:41this works on

2:42Tableau Prep. If I go to the help option

2:44there hit the about Tableau Prep Builder

2:46you'll see that we

2:47get the option there and the version

2:48numbers right there at the bottom. So that

2:51's all the ways of

2:52finding out which version. Now if you're

2:54using something like a Tableau utility or

2:56anything that

2:57runs in the background what they'll

2:59typically have is some sort of

3:00documentation that allows

3:02you to either do some command line

3:04parameters that will tell you the version

3:07or if it's a utility

3:08that runs in your taskbar like Tableau

3:10Bridge if you right click on that there

3:12will be an about

3:12section that will explain which version it

3:14's on. Those tend to need to be updated to

3:16match the

3:17versions of Tableau Online or server that

3:19you're running so just be aware of that but

3:21other than

3:21that that's how to find out what version of

3:23Tableau you're running. Okay now I've

3:25explained

3:25how to find out which version you're using

3:27now it's time to explain what the versions

3:30actually

3:30mean. How did the version system work for

3:32Tableau? Let me go over to the browser here

3:34and you can see

3:35that I've just written down the different

3:37versions we came across whilst looking

3:38through what versions

3:39I had installed on my machine. For Tableau

3:42Online we had 2021.4.0, for Tableau Desktop

3:45we had 2021.4.1

3:47and for Tableau Prep we had 2021.4.3. That

3:50's essentially because each of these

3:52software,

3:53Tableau Online, Tableau Desktop and Tableau

3:55Prep are released at slightly different cad

3:57ences. I'll

3:58come onto that a little later but what's

4:00really key here is that the version number

4:02okay and

4:03that's what you need to pay attention to.

4:04If I scroll down I've actually broken it

4:06down for you

4:07so here we have 2021 part one that's

4:09essentially just a year so we're in 2022

4:12now so every version

4:13this year is going to start with 2022. The

4:16release essentially typically relates to

4:19the quarter so

4:20there's typically four releases a year and

4:23they come out roughly every every three

4:26months so you

4:27know that makes sense there's there's four

4:29releases a year they come out every quarter

4:31essentially is how it works but in essence

4:34the second part is just the release so 2021

4:38.1 was the

4:39first release in 2021. 2022.1 will be the

4:43first release in 2022 so that's essentially

4:46how that

4:46works it's really that simple. This last

4:48dot here this catches a lot of people out

4:50this is just the

4:51patch version for that particular release

4:54so if you think of each release each

4:57quarter as being

4:58a distinct thing essentially they might go

5:01back and fix things within that release.

5:03Now let's assume

5:04that Tableau releases a new version of

5:06Tableau in the first part of this year of

5:08course it will be

5:09called 2022.1.0. The .0 means it's the

5:13first release of that particular release if

5:16that makes

5:17sense. Now when they find mistakes or when

5:19we report mistakes in the products or when

5:21we get in

5:22touch with them and say hey this isn't

5:24working correctly they install patches and

5:26those patches

5:27are then deployed as subsequent point

5:29releases to that release so in this

5:32particular case we'd go to

5:332022.1.1 and so if I actually go to the

5:37Tableau release pages if I just go here

5:39Tableau releases

5:41if I go to the release page I can actually

5:43do this a slightly different way I don't

5:46know why I searched

5:46that particular term I think this would

5:48this will work just fine if I go to this

5:50page and I just

5:51look at Tableau desktop if I open this

5:53little drop down you'll see that there's

5:55multiple releases okay

5:57so 2021.4 was the first one because of the

6:00log4j issue they released a patch so 2021.4

6:03.1 and then

6:04after that 21.4.2 if I go back a bit

6:07further you can see that they do patch

6:09these quite frequently

6:10and so if I keep going back you'll see that

6:13you know you can even go all the way to

6:152020.3.14

6:17which is essentially the 14th patch of the

6:202020.3 release so it's a bit of a tongue tw

6:23ister to sort

6:23of get all this right but in essence all

6:25the products get updated at slightly

6:27different

6:28cadences and so that's why those things

6:30matter now the reason these patches matter

6:32is sometimes

6:33they fix known issues if I go to the top

6:36and I just go and I search Tableau known

6:39issues

6:40known issues are essentially things that

6:42Tableau are aware need fixing inside of the

6:45product so

6:46if I go into this and I just go down here

6:48and I look at this you'll see that there's

6:51actually a

6:51list of things that Tableau are aware that

6:53need fixing and you can see these are open

6:56items and

6:56they typically tell you the product that it

6:59affects now when they fix these things they

7:01're

7:01actually included in patches and those

7:03patches will have release notes so if I go

7:05to let's go

7:06to one that doesn't have anything about log

7:084j let's go to 21.3 let's go to this one 21.

7:113.5

7:13let's open that up and if I go all the way

7:14down you'll see the release notes contains

7:16updates to

7:17log4j 21. okay that's a log4j one of course

7:20they went back and fixed a bunch of stuff

7:22let's find something they didn't fix okay

7:26that still still contains a log4j issue let

7:30's go all

7:30the way back let's go to 24 here come on so

7:33you can see here there's a resolved issue

7:36and this

7:36issue id is actually something you would

7:39have found in this page here so this page

7:42here has

7:42these issues ids and over here when they

7:45get fixed you'll see them in the versions

7:47so the reason that

7:49final dot matters is that sometimes you

7:51come across a bug and you need it fixed and

7:53you therefore

7:54need to understand exactly which version

7:56you're on in order to make sure that you

7:57get the version

7:58that no longer has that problem I can't

8:00tell you how many times I've been using

8:02Tableau desktop

8:03prep or whatever and thought that I don't

8:05know how to use something thought that I've

8:08sort of

8:08forgotten how to use something only to find

8:10that actually it's a known issue and you've

8:12come across

8:13a an edge case and they're normally workar

8:15ounds for this there's normally other ways

8:17of doing

8:17the same thing in Tableau anyway but you'll

8:19find them all here and they should be

8:21documented

8:22I will also say that not all known issues

8:24are actually logged on this page which is

8:26why it's

8:27also important to check this page but you

8:29know genuinely send in your requests to

8:31Tableau support

8:32and make sure they validate that it's a bug

8:34so that you are not wasting your time you

8:37know

8:37bashing it against the wall trying to fix

8:39something that you can't fix so that's how

8:41all the versions

8:41work if I go back here to the version I

8:43have in Excelidraw the first part is the

8:45year the second

8:46part is the release and the last part is

8:48the patch that's all you really need to

8:50know now what I will

8:51briefly say is that look all of these

8:53software have slightly different cadences I

8:55've mentioned

8:56this already but they update in slightly

8:59nuanced ways because in essence each

9:01product has sort of

9:03come from a different heritage so if I go

9:05to Tableau prep Tableau prep doesn't tend

9:08to update

9:08old versions with new features so for

9:11example if you find a bug in 2021.3.3 the

9:15only option here

9:16is to upgrade to 2021.4 because they only

9:19update that version for a short window of

9:21time you can

9:21see that they move quite quickly and they

9:23tend to release these things on a monthly

9:26cadence so you

9:27can see that they actually did do some of

9:29these patches if I go back here to 21.2.3

9:32they actually

9:33did patch this I believe with the log4j bug

9:36so it's really really important that you

9:38sort of

9:39do check these and make sure that you kind

9:41of make sure that you're using the right

9:43version and you're

9:44not going to be sort of left behind because

9:46you've you're stuck with an old version

9:48that isn't going

9:49to get updated so Tableau prep has that qu

9:51irk it's actually interesting they updated

9:53the log4j issue

9:54here on this one because they previously

9:57said they wouldn't update this version so

9:59that's sort

10:00of interesting to see so you know they do

10:01change their mind as well but nonetheless

10:04that's that's

10:04how it works I'll stop rambling and

10:06hopefully you found this video useful

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10:14someone who might find it useful and yeah I

10:16'll catch you in the next video.