Tableau Workbook Optimiser: New in Tableau 2022.1

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

0:01covering the new Workbook Optimizer in

0:04Tableau 22.1.

0:06Let's just get straight into it and let me

0:08show you how this works.

0:09When you go to publish a workbook, if I

0:11just go to server up here and hit publish,

0:14you'll see that the usual publish interface

0:16will pop up. But at the very bottom, if I

0:18just sort of

0:19highlight the space here, there's a new

0:21option which is called the Workbook Optim

0:23izer. When you

0:24go ahead and click on that, it brings up

0:26this pop-up. And this pop-up is I think a

0:28really, really

0:29nice step. For a long time when people have

0:31been building workbooks, there's been a lot

0:34of sort of

0:34best practice that sometimes goes as

0:37folklore. People will say, "Oh, don't build

0:39too many tables,

0:40don't do too much of that, don't do too

0:42much of this. Oh, don't use fix, don't use

0:45expanding

0:45dashboards." All of these things are just

0:47little tips and tricks that you pick up

0:49while talking

0:50to people. But what Tableau have done here

0:52is they've codified it into a best practice

0:54optimizer. And the optimizer doesn't change

0:57your workbook, but it gives you guidance on

0:59how you can improve it and how you can make

1:01things better in the actual workbook.

1:03And so if you look at this screen, there's

1:04a couple of elements. Let's just break this

1:06down

1:06a little bit. You've got the number of

1:08tests that Tableau has run on the top right

1:10-hand side. So

1:12it has passed 10 out of 12 tests. The two

1:15that it's failed are here in red and amber.

1:17Now,

1:18typically Tableau doesn't use red, amber,

1:20green. So I wonder if that's just a styl

1:22istic thing for

1:23this particular feature. Everywhere else in

1:25the product, they use the blue and orange

1:27sort of

1:27moniker. But nonetheless here, it kind of

1:29makes sense. It kind of is like a traffic

1:31lock system,

1:32but for those who are color blind or who

1:34are visually impaired, this might be a

1:35little bit

1:36tricky. So maybe one for the feedback for

1:38the future. Now, if we expand each and

1:40every one of

1:40these, you do actually get an explanation.

1:43So if we start at the top, the one in red,

1:45multiple data sources have unused fields.

1:47Now this is actually quite a good one

1:49because when you

1:50publish workbooks to production databases,

1:53you're supposed to take out any fields that

1:55are unused

1:55because essentially when the workbook loads

1:57, it's going to load those fields, even

1:59though they're

1:59not being used. So it does take up a little

2:01bit of compute time that's unnecessary. So

2:03here, you're

2:04being told what those fields are. You've

2:06got the sales target and you've got the

2:08Superstore sales.

2:10You've actually got these fields here. So

2:12these fields and that field there are not

2:14being used in

2:15the entire workbook. So it's saying, hey,

2:17just remove these from the extract or just

2:19mark them

2:19as unused fields and hide them. And then

2:21Tableau won't even bother looking at them.

2:23So that's a

2:23really, really nice thing. And then the

2:26final step is they've added a little link,

2:28which takes you

2:29off to some supporting guidance. So if you

2:30go and click on that, we actually get taken

2:32to a page.

2:33And at the moment, these aren't working. I

2:35'm recording this video just a little bit

2:37ahead

2:37of the release just to get ahead of it. But

2:39nonetheless, when you do go to the link, it

2:40will

2:41actually show you the support guidance on

2:43that feature. So I know Tableau is working

2:45to build

2:45some of these guides because they are very

2:47specific to this optimizer to kind of give

2:49it all

2:49some context in one nice place. But

2:51nonetheless, this is here. I think this is

2:53fantastic.

2:54So it's a really sort of nicely broken down

2:56thing. Here's something that's going wrong.

2:58Here's how you can improve it. And here's

3:00why it helps. Super clear. You don't have

3:03to be an expert

3:04anymore to know how to optimize a workbook.

3:06That is a huge win for lots of companies

3:09who are

3:09building workbooks, and it's going to make

3:11a lot of life easier. Now, if we dig into

3:14these tests

3:14a little bit, you can see here that one is

3:16unused fields. We have this one, which is

3:18one needs

3:19review calculation uses multiple data

3:21sources. You can see this is Amber, not

3:24because this is a bad

3:25thing to do, but because it can sort of

3:27slow things down when you're using multiple

3:29data sources.

3:29Let's say using something like a blend that

3:31does slow down the query time. So Tableau

3:33is just

3:33telling you know, hey, if you can do this

3:35with a single data source, why not do that?

3:38So again,

3:38if you're really sort of looking for those,

3:40you know, fine tuning milliseconds and

3:42performance,

3:43and this is going to be something you can

3:45look at as well. So calculating using

3:47multiple data sources

3:48obviously something there. Again, we've got

3:50these links, but they don't quite go to

3:51where they

3:52should go because the pages haven't been

3:54loaded yet. Now, if I go down to the 10

3:56that passed,

3:56I like that they're showing you what's

3:58working really well. This is sort of a nice

4:00checklist.

4:01So let's just make this a little bit bigger

4:03so you can see what this actually is. So we

4:06've got

4:06the number of data sources being used,

4:08unused data sources, number of views in a

4:10dashboard,

4:11number of visible worksheets, number of

4:13hidden workbook sheets, calculation length,

4:16number of

4:16LODs, multiple connections in the data

4:18sources, number of filter and non-material

4:21ized columns.

4:22So this is a really thorough check. I mean,

4:24if you don't know much about optimizing

4:26workbooks,

4:27if all you did was look at this before you

4:29published and then did a little bit of

4:31research

4:31and use some of the help guides to really

4:33drill into them, what it will do is it will

4:35get you into

4:36a good practice of doing these as you build

4:38in the first place. And so for a lot of

4:40people,

4:40I'm hoping they're just going to open up

4:42Tableau, go to publish, and there'll

4:43probably be an initial

4:44effort to start to try and standardize how

4:47some of this is done within an organization

4:49.

4:49But nonetheless, this is going to be a huge

4:51, huge help. Some of the things I'd love to

4:53see is an API

4:54around this. I can see lots of server

4:56admins who will look at this and go, huh, I

4:58'd love to run

4:58this optimizer score on all the workbooks

5:01on my server so that I can get the work

5:03books that aren't

5:03performing well, see if any of that

5:05correlates with performance issues that I'm

5:07seeing, and maybe

5:08we can tackle that and I can just create a

5:10list, a task list that I can send to users

5:12and say, hey,

5:13I found your workbook. It's getting a low

5:15score on the optimizer. Here are some steps

5:17that are

5:17recommended by Tableau. And by the way,

5:19Tableau have these supporting help guides

5:21to make that

5:21work. That would be a fantastic little step

5:23. I'm sure it's possible. I'm sure this is

5:26just

5:26a early release. Now, the other thing that

5:28I'm looking forward to that I know Tableau

5:30has already

5:30committed to doing in the future at some

5:32point is that they're going to add things

5:34to this test.

5:35Now, I don't know what those will be. All I

5:37know is when Tableau does something like

5:39this, this is

5:40never just the first release. This will get

5:42enhanced in the future. Maybe we'll get

5:43categorization.

5:45That's a little bit of a long list to sort

5:47of stare down. I'd love this to be broken

5:49down into

5:49data sources, design, and optimizations,

5:52you know, that kind of separation. So you

5:54can really break

5:55down where the work needs to be done. Do

5:57you need to go and do this in the data

5:58source or do you

5:59need to go to do this elsewhere? And the

6:01other thing I'd love to see is some tests

6:03around

6:03accessibility. Now, I'm not entirely sure

6:06if this is in the works or not, but

6:07nonetheless,

6:08accessibility guidelines have been

6:09something that have been really sort of

6:11prominent over the last

6:12few years and Tableau themselves have been

6:14making strides to improve the accessibility

6:17of dashboards.

6:17I'd love if this test was checking things

6:20like font sizes to check, hey, are you sure

6:22this is,

6:23you know, supporting your needs for the

6:24users if they have issues with this? Is

6:26your mobile

6:27a dashboard optimized for touch? Those

6:29kinds of small things. Is your dashboard

6:32going to work

6:32with a screen reader really, really well?

6:34Are there things you can add to your image

6:36in terms

6:36of metadata to make it easy for someone who

6:38's visually impaired to read the information

6:40using

6:40a screen reader? That kind of stuff would

6:42be super, super helpful and I hope that it

6:44comes

6:45in the future. Nonetheless, I guess this is

6:46why this is version one because we can

6:48always feed

6:49these ideas back into the product. But

6:50nonetheless, I think this is really cool.

6:52Now, if you do make

6:54changes to this optimizer, you can rerun

6:56the optimizer right at the bottom. So you

6:58can see

6:58here at the bottom, you can just rerun it

7:00and it keeps a score from the last time you

7:02run it. So

7:03you can see last run at 3.10. If I go ahead

7:06and close this, it goes back to the usual

7:08dashboard.

7:08If I go back, hit publish workbook, it'll

7:11open it up again. And if I go back into the

7:14optimizer

7:14again, it has the last run that I did. So

7:17when you open it, it's not redoing the run.

7:20You have to go

7:21back in here and rerun the optimizer. You

7:23'll get a new time because I've run it

7:25within the minute.

7:26It's not quite sort of setting up. You'll

7:28get a new run here at the bottom and then

7:29you can go and

7:30check this thing. So it's like a proactive

7:32to-do list. You can fix something, get it

7:34to work and

7:35hopefully see that change in the future as

7:37well. So I think this is a really nice

7:38feature. I'm not

7:39going to go too much into the mechanics of

7:41how it works and so on. I think it's pretty

7:43self-explanatory

7:44and one thing I should have done is just go

7:46on and essentially finish the cycle. So you

7:49can essentially

7:49just go on, do everything you need to do

7:51here. Go to workbook optimizer. If you

7:53close it, it closes

7:55the whole thing down. I would like that to

7:57go back to the publish workbook interface

8:00so I don't

8:00have to keep sort of hopping around. I don

8:02't know if I'm potentially missing a step

8:04here. If I hit

8:06escape, it just goes back. So you know, I

8:07don't know if I'm missing something if

8:09there's a shortcut,

8:10but I'd love to be able to just go back to

8:12this page so I can make changes if that

8:14makes sense

8:15and in a familiar place that I'm sort of

8:17used to. But nonetheless you do have the

8:19publish step right

8:20there. So when you're done you hit publish

8:22and it carries on with the publish as

8:24normal. So you do

8:25get this back here and you can go ahead

8:27publish. That didn't actually sort of make

8:28as obvious sense

8:29to me. Now that it's done it, it makes a

8:31lot more sense and you know, it should just

8:33go back to the,

8:34it should just say back and then I'll go

8:36back to this and then we can go. Anyway

8:38that's a small

8:38thing. Hit overwrite and off the workbook

8:40goes. I'm publishing to Tableau Online. Now

8:43this is also

8:44going to be available on WebEdit so you'll

8:45be able to do this in the browser which is

8:47perfectly fine.

8:48I don't have an instance of Tableau Online

8:50that's been updated with that feature just

8:52yet,

8:52so I can't show you the web interface but

8:54it's pretty much the same. It's pretty much

8:56the same

8:56capability as you'd expect anywhere else.

8:59So I think this is going to be a really

9:00nice quality

9:01of life improvement especially for people

9:03who are looking to improve their workbook

9:05performance. Now

9:06one thing I'm going to do if you've not

9:08seen my video about the Tableau Exchange,

9:11one particular aspect of the Tableau

9:12Exchange that I get really frustrated with

9:14are the accelerators.

9:16Now the accelerators are essentially

9:17templates. They're designed to help speed

9:19up the work that

9:20you're doing but in my view a lot of the

9:22accelerators don't really stick to best

9:24practice. So in another video I'm going to

9:27be taking the you know 10 or so acceler

9:29ators,

9:30maybe even all of them, maybe we'll do that

9:32. We'll take all of them, run them through

9:33this

9:34optimizer and see how well they score on

9:36that basis. So check out that video once it

9:39's uploaded

9:39on the channel. Stay subscribed, join us on

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9:54catch you in the next video. Thanks for

10:00watching.