User functions in Tableau: Use server attributes to control your workbook.

0:00Hey, it's Tim here. Today I'm going to be

0:01touching on a set of functions that I don't

0:03think are used

0:04enough. These are actually the user

0:06functions. Essentially the user functions

0:07allow you to check

0:09whether the current user has certain

0:11attributes that are acquired from Tableau

0:13Server or Tableau

0:14Online. Let's get stuck in and then maybe

0:16you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.

0:18I'm going to

0:18go ahead and connect to Sample Superstore

0:21Sales, the standard data source of Tableau.

0:24Every single

0:24demo uses this data source. What you can

0:27see here is just a standard view and I'm

0:29not actually going

0:30to build anything. I'm just going to start

0:32off with this very simple view because I

0:34actually

0:34want to show you these functions up front.

0:36The other thing I want to just call out is

0:38that

0:38there's a little section at the very bottom

0:40right. If you just see here, it actually

0:42has my name.

0:43Actually a lot of people think that this is

0:46simply Tableau being aware of who they are

0:48and just

0:49logging in. But not many people actually

0:50think to do this, which is to click on this

0:52little drop down

0:53and see that you can actually simulate

0:56usage of your dashboard given specific

0:58users. Now you can

0:59see that I'm on here twice. That's

1:00essentially because I'm connected to my dev

1:02instance. So this

1:03Tim Neguenna here at the top is actually my

1:06viewer instance of myself using my personal

1:09email.

1:10And the second one is my Server Admin

1:13instance of myself using a slightly more

1:17high level access to

1:18the whole entire Tableau Online site. You

1:20can also see that I've got two groups, one

1:22called a

1:22new group, which I literally just created,

1:24and another one called Data Rockstar. Okay,

1:27so there's

1:27only two people here and then they've also

1:29got this group here called All Users.

1:30Essentially,

1:31it shows you some of the information that

1:33you can actually get from Tableau Online.

1:35Let me show you

1:36where this actually comes from. So let's go

1:38back to Tableau Online and you'll see that

1:40this is my

1:40Tableau Online instance. If I just go down

1:42here to the left hand side, if you're

1:43wondering where I am,

1:45I've just gone over here to Groups. And if

1:47I click on the Groups section here, you'll

1:49see that I have

1:49those same groups. So these groups are

1:52being dynamically pulled by Tableau Desktop

1:54into the

1:54Tableau Desktop environment, and then it's

1:57able to use that as context for my visual

1:58izations. Okay,

2:00so this is something that you can sort of

2:01cleverly use because the fact that you can

2:03check if someone

2:04is part of a group means you can actually

2:06use this to do things like conditional

2:08calculations,

2:09depending on which group someone is part of

2:11. So let's just dig into some of these

2:13functions.

2:13That's what this video is about. So let's

2:15go ahead and create a calculated field. And

2:18we can

2:18just start using them, there's sort of no

2:19prerequisite, they don't even need you to

2:21put

2:21anything inside of the calculation window

2:23for them to work. I'm just going to make

2:25the text super

2:26large. So you can see that. And if I go to

2:27this little drop down here, you'll see that

2:29you get a

2:30list of groups that are basically where the

2:32functions live. And if you go to the user

2:34functions, you'll see that we get these

2:37nice sort of I think how many is it six

2:39functions here that

2:40we can use. And these are all essentially

2:42checking information on Tableau Server. So

2:45let's try each

2:45of them one by one and see what they do. I

2:47'm just going to click inside of the

2:49calculation window

2:50and double click full name. And I'm just

2:52going to call this full name. So let's just

2:54see what that

2:55does. So let's hit apply. And now that I've

2:58hit apply, you'll see that it actually

3:00creates this

3:01calculated field over here. Because of the

3:03way this works, it's not actually using

3:06anything from

3:06the data set. So that's why you'll see that

3:09it's actually sort of not part of our

3:11orders or returns

3:12table that's actually created in this. I

3:14call it sort of the limbo actually, down

3:16here. So

3:17everything here that doesn't sort of live

3:19as a sort of indent from these other tables

3:22essentially

3:23is being created in a space that isn't

3:24inside of those tables. It's just slightly

3:27hard to understand.

3:28If you check out my data model video, I do

3:29actually go into that in more detail. So

3:31let's

3:32drag full name into the view. And you can

3:33see that if I drag the full name into view,

3:35you can see that

3:36the full name is Tim Lebama. Thank you. So

3:38there we go. That's the function pretty

3:40much in a nutshell.

3:42Now, because it's this literally returning

3:43this, it means that it applies this almost

3:45a bit like

3:46a parameter. So if I was to actually get

3:48some sort of aggregate values into this

3:50view, and just drop

3:51it in, it essentially just applies this

3:53full name to the entire workbook. It's like

3:56a parameter

3:57that's being dynamically fed by the Tableau

3:59server and into that sort of parameter, it

4:01's putting your

4:02user details. Okay. Now, what I can also do

4:05is I can also check what domain I'm part of

4:07. Okay, so

4:08let's close this function. And I'm just

4:10going to duplicate this because again, I'm

4:12super lazy.

4:13If I go to edit, and I just type in domain,

4:16and we can just highlight this, go back to

4:19my user

4:19functions, and select user domain, you'll

4:22see that it replaces that. So you can just

4:24see, that's all

4:25I need to type. This is a valid

4:27calculations, you can see that just here.

4:29It's saying that it's

4:31valid. So I don't need to do anything else

4:33for this to sort of work. Okay, so let's,

4:35let's just

4:36get out of this and just hit apply. And you

4:39can see the user domain has been created.

4:41So it's sort

4:42of over there. And if I drag that into the

4:44view, you'll put that in front. And you'll

4:46see the

4:47domain is external. And this is because

4:49essentially, I'm not actually on Tableau

4:50Online, I'm actually

4:51not using a Windows domain. In this

4:53particular case, that's what this actually

4:55is. Now, to just

4:56explain this in more detail, in some

4:58organizations, you can actually create

5:00something called a Windows

5:01domain. And the domain basically just

5:03explains to you, infrastructure and

5:05technology, what part of

5:07the business you work in. So a typical

5:09example, if you're a global organization,

5:11you might be in the

5:12EMEA domain. And that means all the

5:14technology and infrastructure you use is

5:16part of the EMEA

5:17infrastructure. Okay, this allows IT

5:19professionals to essentially put people

5:21into different groups

5:22for various sort of reasons I won't go into

5:24. But that's essentially what it is. And you

5:26might

5:27actually choose to run certain conditions

5:30based on whether someone is part of one

5:32domain, or another

5:33domain. So that's just something to be

5:35aware of, if that makes sense. A good

5:36example here might be,

5:37let's say you have different currencies in

5:39different domains, and actually matches up

5:41one

5:41to one, you could actually use this to do

5:43some little currency conversion, using some

5:45maybe

5:46dynamic fields coming from other data sets.

5:48Okay, so that's a really sort of nice, nice

5:50to have a

5:51little feature there. And the other thing I

5:53can actually pull out is the username. So

5:54let's

5:55duplicate this out. And let's duplicate

5:57this. And then let's edit that again. And

6:00let's call this

6:01username. Now my username and full name are

6:03not the same thing. So let's just go ahead

6:06and select

6:06user and double click username. And again,

6:09I'll just make this large. So you can see,

6:12again, you

6:12can see this is valid. This is all you need

6:14to write. It's very, very simple username.

6:16Now I

6:17can just hit apply this will of course head

6:20over down here to the bottom left hand side

6:22. And now

6:23if I drag username next to domain, you can

6:26see that in this case, my username is

6:28actually my email,

6:29the reason being, I'm actually using Table

6:31au online. So this is always going to be the

6:33case.

6:33Now in some organizations, your username

6:35might be not your email, it might be just a

6:37first name,

6:38dot last name, it might be whatever sort of

6:39structure that's set up for you on Tableau

6:41server

6:42or Tableau online. But this is really

6:44powerful, because essentially, you can

6:47check various details

6:48about the user without ever having to, you

6:50know, do anything. Now, I'm just going to

6:52show you how

6:52you can simulate this and make sure that it

6:54's actually working. So I'm going to go

6:56ahead and

6:56close this little x here. And I'm going to

6:58go to the bottom. And what I said earlier

7:00on is that

7:01actually this other Tim here is actually

7:03using my personal email. So I'm going to

7:05actually have to

7:06grade this out. So you can't see it. So if

7:07I switch to that, you'll see that again, I

7:09'm still

7:10external. But now you can see that it's

7:11switched over to my personal email. If I

7:13switch back to my

7:14other one, then you can see that this is

7:16all good. Okay, so this is a really sort of

7:19nice to use

7:20feature. Now, there are a couple of other

7:22things in this little drop down, if I just

7:23go in here,

7:24and I select new group, you'll see that

7:26everything gets zoned out. Now, the reason

7:29that is, is because

7:30essentially, I'm behaving like I'm just

7:31part of the group. So when you do that, you

7:33don't you're

7:34not actually an individual, it's basically

7:37Tableau is feeding that parameter with

7:39variables and saying

7:40actually, this person is just part of this

7:42group, we don't know who they are. And so

7:44that's why

7:45everything disappears when I select that.

7:47So don't be worried when you select a group

7:49, and everything

7:49disappears. The functions we've written so

7:51far are just about the individual. And

7:53therefore,

7:54that's all you should use them for

7:56essentially pulling the individual

7:57information out,

7:58you might use this to specifically target,

8:01let's say certain group of people with a

8:03specific

8:04calculation, because you know, that's what

8:05they do. But that's not really the best way

8:07to do

8:07things. It's normally better to get the

8:09consistent sort of set of behavior across

8:11every everyone set

8:13up. And then you're able to do that. The

8:14other thing you can do is you can actually

8:16pull this

8:16information and customize the dashboard. So

8:19you could, for example, put a little

8:21message to say,

8:22Welcome to him, today's view is this. And

8:24these are the numbers. So you can actually

8:26build sort

8:26of nice structured sentences using these

8:29functions inside of Tableau. So that's the

8:32sort of typical

8:32use case for these things. Now, the other

8:34group of functions are the ones that allow

8:36you to check

8:37if someone is part of the group. So to do

8:39this, what I'm actually going to need to do

8:41is go back

8:42into my little sort of window here. And I'm

8:44going to click on this data rockstar group.

8:46And I'm just

8:46going to go and grab this, this little name

8:49here at the top, because what I want to do

8:51is actually

8:51create the calculated field and check if

8:54these two things are the same. So now that

8:56I've done that,

8:57let's go back in here. And what we can do

8:59is we can just go ahead and create a new

9:01calculated field,

9:03I'll go down to this drop down here, and I

9:04'll go back to my user functions. So you can

9:07see here

9:08that we have two sort of conditional three

9:10conditional functions, actually, so is full

9:13name

9:13is member of and is username. Okay, so the

9:16is member of is the one I'm going to

9:17actually start

9:18with, okay, returns true if the current

9:20user is a member of the given group false.

9:23Otherwise,

9:24this uses a Tableau server to resolve group

9:26membership, if logged on, otherwise, it

9:28always

9:28returns false. So basically, if it can't

9:30connect to the server, it's going to return

9:33false, which

9:33is important if you're going to use this

9:35for security reasons, okay. But let's go

9:37ahead and

9:38create something called group name. And in

9:40here, I could actually use a parameter for

9:43this, but I'm

9:44just going to type data rockstar in there,

9:45I'm just going to make sure it's exactly

9:47what was on

9:48server, okay. And then that's basically our

9:50group name. Okay, so there, you can see if

9:53I just drag

9:53this out, you can see that the group name

9:56that we just created manually is exactly

9:58the same.

9:59Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to

10:00switch to the first thing because I know

10:02that person is

10:03not part of this data rockstar group. Okay,

10:05I know that because I set this up, I can

10:07actually show

10:07you that as a matter of fact, you can see

10:09that the data rockstar is actually my other

10:11email, it's not

10:12my personal email. So let's go back in here

10:14. And let's actually try and do this is

10:16member of

10:17function. So now I'm basically, you know,

10:19in this in this group. So let's go ahead,

10:22create a

10:22calculated field. And I can actually just

10:25go and use the function called is is member

10:28of okay,

10:28let's make this larger. And I can just call

10:31this is member of actually just a good name

10:34is member

10:36of, okay. And what I can do is I can

10:38actually then just put group name, okay,

10:41because I created that

10:41previously, I just wanted to make it nice

10:43and easy. So you can see what's going on.

10:45Actually,

10:45when you put it in as a problem. So let's

10:47go look at this argument one is member of

10:50must be a

10:50n string literal. So basically, what this

10:53is saying is I can't put like a calculation

10:56in there.

10:56I think it actually wants me I was trying

10:58to be smart, and it's not worked. So let's

11:01do this. I

11:01think it specifically wants a string and

11:03they go. So that's a nice little quote. I

11:06don't know why

11:06that is actually I would assume that would

11:08have worked that you can clearly see that I

11:10've clearly

11:11tried this. And I must have forgotten how

11:13to work it. So now you can see this is

11:15valid. So this is

11:16all good. And now we can just hit apply.

11:19Okay. And we're going to check if this user

11:22this personal

11:23user is part of the data rockstar group,

11:25and I'm just going to put it next to group

11:27name.

11:27And we should see a false Okay. And now the

11:30key thing here is if I change this to the

11:32other user,

11:33you should see, let's just make sure I

11:35click on the right part, you've got to

11:36click on that arrow

11:37very specifically. If I select him now, you

11:40should see that turns to true, you can see

11:42that I am

11:42indeed a data rockstar, excuse the pun. So

11:45let's go back and you can see that

11:47switching and it works,

11:48everything sort of works as expected, which

11:50is really, really good. The last couple of

11:52functions to check, let's go ahead and

11:54create another calculated field, let's go

11:57to user.

11:57And all the work we did before was

11:59pointless. So basically, I can I can do

12:01this one. So let's

12:02check his full name. And I can go ahead and

12:05type my full name. And both of these are

12:08going to

12:08resolve true, because I'm, I can use the

12:11same name in both instances. So let's just

12:13type this

12:14out as it was. And you can just essentially

12:16see that this is working as expected, I'm

12:18doing this

12:19super fast, because, you know, I know how

12:21to use Tableau. So this is just sort of

12:23normal. But if

12:24let's say I misspelled my name, and I hit

12:26apply, you'll see that that turns to false.

12:28That's a nice

12:29way for us to check that it's actually

12:31doing what it should be doing. Okay, let's

12:33hit apply to get

12:34that back into the right place. Last but

12:36not least, let's duplicate this again,

12:38because you know me,

12:39I'm very lazy. I say this in every video,

12:41and it's really is true. If I go in here

12:44and select user,

12:45you'll see we've done his full name we've

12:47done is member of his username is the last

12:49one. So let's

12:50go ahead and replace this by double

12:52clicking that. And you'll see that actually

12:54decided to wrap

12:55everything around it. That's not what I

12:57wanted. So let's just go ahead and remove

12:59this. I was trying

13:01to be smart again, it just failed to me,

13:03she just stopped being smart. And just

13:05close this, okay.

13:06And let's see if this is going to work. Now

13:08username and full name is slightly

13:10different.

13:11So don't forget, the username is going to

13:13be different. In this case, I will have to

13:15go ahead

13:15and type my email in here. And we'll just

13:18set this to my personal email, I'll have to

13:20blank this out

13:21in the video and hit apply. So his full

13:24name is there. And let's just call this is

13:27username,

13:28and hit apply. And now that we've hit apply

13:30, you'll see that this has gone over down

13:33here.

13:34And now we can go ahead and grab that and

13:36put it at the very end. And you'll see that

13:38his username

13:39on my personal emails was true. But if I

13:42hit OK, and switch over to my other account

13:44, you can see

13:45that it then turns false. So there you go.

13:47These are some amazing Tableau server

13:50functions that you

13:51can use inside of your dashboard to do

13:53specific things for specific people. But

13:55the most useful

13:56one in my opinion, the one that the only

13:58one you should really use here is this one

14:00group name,

14:00because essentially, what this allows you

14:02to do a very sort of good use case is let's

14:05say you work

14:05in fast moving consumer goods. And you have

14:07someone in the biscuits team, you have

14:09someone

14:10in the crisps team, and you have someone in

14:11the cosmetics team, people in lots of

14:13different teams.

14:14And what you might decide to do is you

14:16might decide to add them to specific groups

14:18, if I just go,

14:19if I just exit out of the mark, select

14:21everything, oh, God, what am I doing here,

14:24if I just exit out

14:25of that, and deselect everything, you might

14:28actually go ahead and decide to create a

14:30group

14:30for each of those business units, because

14:32those business units apply across the whole

14:34entire

14:34organization. And then what you can do is

14:36you can actually go in here and write

14:38conditional

14:39calculations, because it's really common in

14:41fast moving consumer goods that the biscuit

14:43team

14:44calculate return on investment on

14:46advertising a completely different way to,

14:48for example,

14:49cosmetics team, because those two different

14:51parts of the business might be actually,

14:53you know,

14:54doing different kinds of promotions and

14:56different kinds of financial transactions

14:58altogether. So you

14:59might have to sort of do conditional

15:00calculations for different types of the

15:02business, depending on

15:04who they are. And essentially, you do that

15:05for the individual and where they belong.

15:07And the other

15:08way to do it would be a parameter. So you

15:10could give the user parameter to be able to

15:12change that.

15:13But if you're pretty dead certain about how

15:14something's going to work, then this is

15:16sort

15:17of one way of doing it. That's probably not

15:18the best use case, but just an example of

15:20what you

15:21could do with this function once you've got

15:22it working. So that's pretty much it. I

15:24hope you've

15:25enjoyed this video. I hope you've maybe

15:26thought of some more interesting ways you

15:28could use this.

15:29Essentially, all these functions allow you

15:31to check a user status on Tableau server on

15:33Tableau

15:34online, and then it allows you to do things

15:36with them inside of a calculation. So you

15:38've got three

15:38Boolean functions is member of is full name

15:41and is username. And then you've got some

15:43other functions

15:44which just return information to group name

15:46, username and domain just return the values

15:49to you.

15:49Okay, thanks for watching. I'll catch you

15:51in the next video. If you haven't done so

15:52already, check

15:53out TableauSim.com. Follow me on Twitter

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15:58and I'll catch you in the next video!