# Tableau Server & Online Tagging Updates in 2020.3 & Metdata API

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2020-09-25
- **Format:** Video · 11 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data engineering, Tool strategy, Analytics
- **Tools:** Tableau (cloud, data management, metadata api, server)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/tagging-updates-metadata-api
- **Watch:** https://www.youtu.be/gFTh9ibaoT8

I walk through the tagging updates in Tableau Server and Tableau Online 2020.3, which let you tag individual assets like databases, tables and columns rather than just workbooks and data sources. I also demonstrate how to query those tags using the Metadata API interface. Note this requires the Data Management add-on to access external assets.

## Key takeaways

- Tagging assets such as databases, tables and columns requires the Data Management add-on, accessed via the External Assets section
- In 2020.3 you can tag individual columns (for example flagging PII fields) as well as databases and tables, not just workbooks and data sources
- Tags are universal and not restricted to a content type, so the same tag can be applied across databases, tables and columns
- Applying a tag to a workbook automatically pushes it down to the sheets and published data sources inside it
- The Metadata API interface lets you query tags and the assets they're applied to, ideal for exporting into an external metadata system for organisation-wide tracking

## Chapters

- 0:00 Tagging updates and Data Management add-on
- 0:40 Exploring external assets
- 2:09 Tagging databases, tables and columns
- 5:14 Finding tagged content with filters
- 6:39 Querying tags with the Metadata API
- 10:02 Wrap-up and further resources

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/tagging-updates-metadata-api

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena