What's in the Tableau 2022.4 Release of Tableau | Tableau tutorial

0:00Hey, it's Tim here. 22.4, it's just around

0:02the corner.

0:03Tableau just updated the coming soon page

0:05for this release.

0:06The pre-release has been pretty light, so I

0:08'm pretty keen to see what's in this release

0:10.

0:10Let's get started.

0:11OK, so the page is up.

0:12I'll put a link to this in the description.

0:14You can go ahead and have a look at it.

0:15In this video, I'm just going to go run

0:17through what the features are.

0:18You can check the timestamps to see what

0:20features you're particularly

0:21interested in to jump ahead if you want to

0:23do that.

0:23Let's have a scroll down.

0:25And for the record, if you use Tableau

0:27Cloud,

0:27there is sometimes this odd instance where

0:30some of these features are already

0:31available, depending on when Tableau

0:33upgrade your particular instance of Tableau

0:36Cloud.

0:37Tableau Cloud runs in different AWS regions

0:40, and those are updated at different times.

0:42So you might even see some of these

0:44features ahead of the release.

0:45Just so you're aware.

0:46So let's take a look at this feature.

0:48Now, it's always interesting what Tableau

0:50start the page with,

0:50because I always think these are the sort

0:52of features they're excited about.

0:53So we've got Tableau external actions.

0:56So let's go have a look at this.

0:58Tableau external actions delivers a native

1:00integration with Salesforce Flow

1:02to help automate business processes, saving

1:04you time and money

1:05by connecting your dashboards to Salesforce

1:07.

1:07You can make decisions in context and run

1:09flows without leaving Tableau.

1:11So in essence, what I think this is, is

1:13is a sort of workflow automation capability

1:16that links in with Salesforce.

1:17So this is very much a Salesforce and Table

1:19au pairing

1:20alongside all of the Salesforce features we

1:22've seen for a long time

1:23over the last couple of years.

1:25So that's going to be a nice feature to

1:26have.

1:27Now, the next one is image rolls.

1:29I'm super excited about this.

1:30I previously did a video about a service

1:32called Cloudinary,

1:33which actually does real time conversion

1:35and editing

1:36and manipulation of images just using URLs.

1:39The reason I did that video is because at

1:42conference last year,

1:43Tableau showed this capability of image

1:45rolls,

1:45and they said it would be coming this year.

1:47And so now that we have it, it's absolutely

1:49fantastic,

1:50because if you pair those two services with

1:52this feature,

1:52I think some amazing things can be done.

1:54I'm going to be working on some examples in

1:56my upcoming video.

1:57But in essence, image rolls allow you to

2:00work with images

2:01natively inside of Tableau by simply

2:03specifying the URL of an image

2:05and Tableau will be able to support those

2:07images within a table.

2:08So you can see here the description is

2:10pretty, pretty robust.

2:11Now, there's going to be people trying to

2:14do all sorts of quirks

2:15and tricks for this.

2:16Like, you know, people will try and load

2:18all sorts of things

2:18into images, GIFs, all sorts of things.

2:21So once we actually get our hands on this

2:23feature

2:23and start playing around with it, we'll get

2:25a better sense

2:25of how those images work and what the

2:27limitations are.

2:29If I just do a quick scan of this,

2:30Tableau can now dynamically map images to

2:34links in your data

2:35and encode them as exportable row or column

2:37headers.

2:38This new capability makes it possible to

2:40manage image assets

2:42externally to prevent work sizes from

2:43becoming too large.

2:44So the main use case here is, let's say you

2:47are a company like Facebook

2:48and you have emojis and emoticons that you

2:52want to track

2:52and you want to do some analytics on which

2:54emoticons are being used the most.

2:56There are hundreds and thousands of these

2:59things that exist

2:59across different language sets, across

3:02different use cases.

3:03So when you try to do a visualization of

3:04this, it's impossible to expect

3:06someone to load all those images into the

3:08workbook as images.

3:09And so what this lets you do is specify the

3:12image as an asset,

3:14i.e. using a URL hosted somewhere, maybe

3:16AWS S3.

3:17And then when Tableau loads those images

3:19from that URL,

3:21it's actually able to load those images

3:22from that location.

3:23So you're essentially externalizing the

3:25images from the workbook.

3:26The other thing this might enable you to do

3:28is also work in instances,

3:30for example, in consumer goods. Consumer

3:32goods, you're often looking at products.

3:34You want to be able to see the exact

3:35product and the exact sort of design or

3:38color.

3:39And when you have these assets already

3:41available in the cloud,

3:42as most fashion outlets do, they have all

3:45these assets pretty much done

3:46because obviously imagery is an important

3:48part of their business.

3:49You can actually link to those assets

3:51directly within Tableau.

3:52So you don't have to rebuild some sort of

3:54image workflow.

3:55You can just lean on the existing image

3:56workflow you might have.

3:57And that's where the service I talked about

4:00previously from Cloudinary comes in.

4:01So this is going to be an amazing feature.

4:04Of course, this was just one of those

4:06things that will make life so much easier.

4:08The next one, replace a data source per

4:10sheet.

4:11So this is interesting.

4:12Selectively replace data sources on a works

4:14heet level without complicated workarounds.

4:17Previously, replicating data sources would

4:19apply to all worksheets in the workbook

4:21using the data source.

4:22Now you have greater control and can select

4:24to apply data source changes to only the

4:26current worksheet.

4:27So that's quite nice.

4:28This gives you a little bit more finesse

4:30and control as to how your data sources

4:32work.

4:32So I think that's going to be another one

4:34of those quality of life improvements.

4:36A proper string function.

4:38Guys, this is probably one of the most

4:39requested items on the Tableau Ideas page.

4:43I'll put a link to that in the description

4:45below.

4:46And the proper string function is actually

4:48one of those functions where I think people

4:50who've worked with databases have asked,

4:52why isn't this there?

4:53Anyway, let's read through the description.

4:55Format string fields using the proper

4:57function instead of complex workarounds

4:59calculation.

4:59This new function converts strings to a

5:01proper case.

5:02The first letter of a text string and any

5:04letters following non-letter characters are

5:06capitalized while the rest are converted to

5:09lowercase.

5:10So if you've got a list of names here, you

5:12can see that Tableau will turn that into a

5:14much, much nicer list of names because you

5:17're just using a calculation that does

5:19exactly what you're seeing on screen.

5:20Takes the first letter of every word, makes

5:22it capitalized and the rest are just all

5:24lowercase.

5:25So that's a nice thing to see.

5:27I'd love to see sentence case in there as

5:29well so you can actually understand what's

5:32going on within like a sentence.

5:34Anyway, that's another request.

5:37Usage metrics, total views and favorites

5:39are displayed as metrics in the new usage

5:42tab.

5:42With these insights, analysts can better

5:44understand what workbooks are popular so

5:46they can build content that really reson

5:48ates with their audience.

5:49Viewers can leverage usage metrics to

5:51validate that the content is widely used

5:53and trustworthy.

5:54So this is a bit meta.

5:56And this is sort of using metrics to talk

5:59about like analytical content.

6:02And so it feels like Tableau is repurposing

6:04something they've already built for users

6:07to help them communicate how certain things

6:09are doing.

6:10When these sorts of things happen, I always

6:12feel like there's some sort of direction.

6:14And I don't quite get the direction of this

6:18because if this was put like a metrics

6:20capability, then fine.

6:23But yeah, I just I don't see the value of

6:26this because most companies who actually

6:29care about these metrics just create dash

6:33boards that tell them how multiple reports

6:35work.

6:35And so maybe the idea here is an analyst

6:37can add these metrics, which reduces the

6:39load on those kinds of things.

6:41But again, it could also create a very

6:44unhealthy dynamic because we all know that

6:46views don't really mean anything.

6:48The way Tableau counts views is actually

6:50contested if you've ever done Tableau

6:52server Postgres views.

6:54I'll put a link to that as well.

6:55There are three or four different way of

6:57counting views on Tableau server as well.

7:00So once you dig into the weeds, it can

7:02actually become quite a complicated topic.

7:05A couple more languages, Swedish entire

7:07language support.

7:08That's going to be great. It's interesting.

7:10Over the years, Tableau in the last year or

7:12two has really ramped up the language

7:13support across lots of different languages.

7:15So that list is getting very long and very

7:17well supported.

7:18It makes sense for a company that's global

7:20and obviously sits in the Salesforce

7:22ecosystem.

7:23If we go down to virtual connections,

7:25additional connector support.

7:27So Tableau adding new connectors to the

7:29virtual connectors list.

7:31They've just added cloud connectors to 22.3

7:35.

7:35I've literally just done a video on this,

7:36which will either come out after this video

7:38or before this video, one of the two.

7:40But they're adding more connectors.

7:43So this is great because then virtual

7:44connections are becoming so powerful.

7:46Unfortunately, you're going to need the

7:47data management add on to be able to

7:49benefit from this, which is a real stinker.

7:51But nonetheless, that's their multiple

7:53connections in a virtual connection.

7:56So within virtual connections, you can now

7:58connect to an additional database to pull

7:59in an entitlement table.

8:01This feature simplifies the process of

8:03creating policy statements and removes the

8:05requirement to duplicate entitlement tables

8:07across databases.

8:08So this is super interesting.

8:10I actually just showed this capability in

8:12my previous video about virtual connections

8:15.

8:15And because I was using a beta instance of

8:18Tableau Cloud, I didn't realize that this

8:20was actually a feature set for the next

8:22release of Tableau.

8:23So that's super cool to see in that video.

8:26I basically show that I was adding in

8:27multiple connections across different cloud

8:29instances and it was absolutely great.

8:31So this makes it very easy to bring data

8:33sources together and still be using a

8:35powerful capability of virtual connections.

8:38The next virtual connection feature refresh

8:41data from virtual connection editor.

8:43So this is nice.

8:44You can I assume you can nudge a data

8:46source and tell it to refresh in essence.

8:48So within the editor of the virtual

8:50connection, you can now manually refresh

8:52the database connection to get the latest

8:54data.

8:54So this is essentially, I guess, a quality

8:56of life improvement.

8:57As you're working in this view, you can

8:59update the data to make sure you're seeing

9:01the latest information as it updates in the

9:03database.

9:03Credential and rotation API.

9:06So using the new credential and credential

9:08APIs, you can programmatically change

9:10credentials for virtual connections and

9:12automate operations.

9:13There are three new API endpoints to help

9:15you get virtual connections, get virtual

9:17connection connections and modify virtual

9:20connection connections.

9:21Man, how do I really need to work on the

9:23terminology?

9:24There's too many connections in that in

9:27that sentence, not even that sentence in

9:29those names.

9:30Modify virtual connection connections.

9:32Shouldn't it just be modified virtual

9:35connections, modify virtual connect, get

9:38virtual connections, get virtual.

9:41Wait, what?

9:42Get virtual connections, get virtual

9:45connection connections.

9:47Oh, man, I'm really lost.

9:49I really lost.

9:52I'm sure this is absolutely correct.

9:54I know and I know a few people on the team

9:55that kind of go through this text.

9:57I'm sure they're absolutely, you know,

9:59category collects on what they're saying,

10:01but I'm really struggling to sort of get it

10:02in my head.

10:03So once I understand that, I'll maybe try

10:05and clarify that when we actually do the

10:07video, when it launches and replace input

10:10steps in Tableau prep.

10:11So you can embrace input steps much, much

10:13easier.

10:14So before you had to do is bring a

10:16connection in and delete the one that's

10:19there and then reconnect the connection to

10:22that new input.

10:23This time around, you can just drag it on

10:24top.

10:24And by the looks of this images, it will

10:26give you the option to replace, which is

10:28quite nice alongside the union, of course.

10:31That's going to be really cool.

10:32External assets default project.

10:35So new external assets are now

10:36automatically added to a new project titled

10:39external assets default projects.

10:41Now, in the previous video, I talked about

10:43moving external assets and when essentially

10:45you got rid of them.

10:47I didn't know where they went.

10:48And this makes so much more sense now.

10:50They go into this folder.

10:51I assume this is the default place for

10:53external assets.

10:54External assets obviously appear if you

10:56have the data management add on because

10:58external assets are just things like

11:00databases and connections and tables and

11:02anything you might connect to to visualize.

11:05Or work with data.

11:06And so there's going to be a default

11:07project for those coming very soon.

11:09Log shark plugin for tableau prep.

11:12Now this is super cool.

11:13And with the new log shot plugin, you can

11:15easily collect tableau prep log files and

11:17automatically generate tableau dashboards

11:20to analyze interactive performance, flow

11:22execution performance and errors.

11:24So this is almost in the realm of, I guess,

11:28helping users of prep understand where

11:30things are going wrong.

11:32But what I don't understand here, log shark

11:35plugin for tableau prep, I think what this

11:38plugin does is it processes log shark files

11:41for you in tableau prep.

11:44So you don't have to use a tool like all

11:45tricks or something else to work with it.

11:47So with new log you can easily collect

11:49tableau prep log files and automatically

11:52generate.

11:53But it does specifically mention tableau

11:55prep log files.

11:56So it feels more like log shark for tableau

11:59prep than it does anything else.

12:02So that's kind of interesting to see.

12:03And yeah, we'll see how that works.

12:05Tableau prep UI improvement.

12:07So simplified tableau prep UI.

12:09I noticed in a prerelease that the lines

12:11were starting to turn squiggly as where the

12:14noodle has come to tableau prep as it were.

12:16Tableau prep makes the process of building

12:19a flow to clean and simple shape data.

12:21Well, I can't read.

12:22Tableau prep makes the process of building

12:25a flow to clean and shape your data

12:26incredibly visual.

12:28With a revamped flow edge graph, we're

12:30reducing visual distractions that arise

12:33when the flow graph becomes larger and more

12:35complicated.

12:36These changes will provide you with a more

12:38legible, flexible and playful experience

12:40when creating flows.

12:41What does that mean?

12:43We'll have to find out when it launches.

12:47I'm not really clear what that means.

12:49Workbook optimizer enhancements.

12:52Enhancements of the workbook optimizer

12:54allow workbook authors to ignore individual

12:56best practices that aren't relevant to them

12:58.

12:58OK, that's cool.

13:00And implement specific best practices with

13:02a single click.

13:03Oh, that's so nice.

13:04So being able to implement a best practice

13:08is really good because it means that Table

13:11au can see what you're doing and it can

13:12suggest and just go do those things for you

13:14.

13:14Making the optimization now a step in the

13:17process rather than just an instruction,

13:19which is a really, really nice thing to see

13:21.

13:22Let's go ahead and look at data guide smart

13:25open.

13:25So data guide is now opens by default.

13:28Data guide smart open.

13:31I swear that in the last release, this was

13:34on by default and then it was hidden

13:37because of a bit of a fallout with with

13:39basically people not liking that it turned

13:42up.

13:43So anyway, data guide now opens by default

13:45when you first access the dashboard.

13:47When you return to a dashboard, data guide

13:49will remain in the state you left it in

13:51open or close to reflect your preferences.

13:53So here's what I think might happen.

13:56Twenty two dot four rolls out for Tableau

13:58Cloud and everyone complains again because

14:01they think this feature has come back to

14:03the way it used to be before it was off by

14:05default.

14:06Now it's going to be on by default, but

14:08only for the first time you load.

14:09And when you hide it, it's hidden, but

14:12every time you first access a dashboard, it

14:14will show up, which most people would think

14:16mean means it's broken.

14:18But actually, it's just going to be a

14:19really weird thing to explain.

14:21I'm looking forward to that video.

14:22We'll try and get that out as soon as we

14:24can, because that is just going to confuse

14:26people.

14:26But let's wait and see what happens.

14:29Web altering enhancements conveniently

14:31access number and date formatting,

14:33including custom number formats, visually

14:35break up sections of your table to improve

14:37understanding by applying table shading for

14:40headers and panes and cells.

14:41The thing about web altering enhancements

14:44is they take up time in terms of the

14:47release.

14:48They are quoted as new features, but they

14:50're just replacing the status quo.

14:52And in some cases, they are adapting the

14:55way it works.

14:55And so I think we're moving to a world I've

14:58said this for so many years now.

15:00We're moving to a world where the web will

15:02be the primary version of Tableau and it

15:04will work a bit like Tableau prep.

15:05But Tableau prep for desktop is actually

15:07just a web container for the web version of

15:09Tableau prep.

15:10So lots more enhancements.

15:13We should probably do like a state of the

15:15state of web altering in 2022 and just see

15:18what's changed, what's gotten better and

15:20how many new additional things we can do

15:22versus what we could do before.

15:24Custom views, REST API.

15:26So, oh, automate management for custom

15:28views at scale.

15:29So we are getting a lot of APIs, APIs left,

15:32right and center.

15:33You can now leverage custom views in

15:35embedded scenarios to deliver relevant

15:37views that save your users filters, sorts

15:39or selections.

15:40The custom views REST API introduces the

15:42following methods.

15:43GetCustomizedViewImage, getCustomViews, get

15:46CustomViews, updateCustomViews, deleteCustom

15:50Views.

15:51So that's really interesting.

15:52I'm giving this an API means you can set up

15:54sort of instructions to check and manage

15:56all these things.

15:57And because if everyone in an organization,

15:59especially a large organization has large

16:01amounts of custom views, they can almost

16:04become a problem in and of themselves.

16:06So it's really useful that there's an API

16:08now that can maybe allow you to do some,

16:10you know, if a custom view hasn't been

16:12accessed in such and such a time, then go

16:14ahead and delete it because it's not been

16:17used after a while.

16:17Delete it.

16:18When someone leaves the organization, go

16:21ahead and find all the related custom views

16:23and delete them as well.

16:24And that's sort of a really useful set of

16:27capabilities.

16:28The embedding API has been getting a real,

16:31real revamp.

16:32And I haven't I haven't properly covered

16:35the embedding API version three because of

16:37the almost relentless pace that they're

16:40adding features to it.

16:42I'm going to wait and do a video once it's

16:43sort of a little bit more stable and we can

16:45give more of a long view of what's

16:47happening with this.

16:48But in essence, the embedding API has been

16:50redone almost from the ground up.

16:52And the new version of the API keeps on

16:54adding features.

16:55The latest version of the API introduces

16:57pagination, allowing developers building

17:00products powered by Tableau to fetch all

17:01underlying data and essentially tells you

17:04what page that you're on.

17:05So you can page through data in a more sort

17:07of programmatic way.

17:08And that's that's a quality of life

17:09improvement really for developers.

17:12Tableau Mobile Salesforce SDK integration

17:15is a Tableau mobile integrated with a Sales

17:17force security SDK to help you implement

17:19mobile security site settings and enforce

17:21policies.

17:22You can now block access on jailbroken

17:24devices or those with debuggers or malware.

17:27So for people who are jailbreaking their

17:30iPhones, you can block Tableau essentially.

17:33So that's good to know.

17:35New accelerators on Tableau Exchange.

17:37So we've got supply intelligence, inventory

17:40, shipment logistics, and we have major

17:42upgrades to production scraps.

17:44That's a bit of an interesting one there.

17:46Tableau Mobile deep linking improvements

17:49seamlessly switch to sites or servers on

17:51mobile based on the destination of linked

17:53content.

17:54When clicking links to Tableau content from

17:56third party applications or sites, you will

17:58be redirected to the Tableau mobile app and

18:00prompted to switch sites or service if you

18:03're not initially signed into the correct

18:05one.

18:05Oh, this is this is pretty nice.

18:07This this has been like a bit of a broken

18:09capability.

18:10And I again, I haven't done enough on Table

18:11au Mobile.

18:12I did one ages ago, but I need to do more

18:14on this because quite a few people do use

18:16Tableau Mobile and it's good to be able to

18:17see it.

18:18XSL JDBC connector on Tableau Exchange.

18:22So there's now a new connector on Tableau

18:24Exchange for XSL.

18:25Salesforce Marketing Cloud connector.

18:27That's a pretty useful connector for those

18:29people who use that feature.

18:31I hear a lot about that connector, but I

18:33know nothing on what it does.

18:34So if you know, let me know.

18:36ServiceNow JDBC connector, TIBCO connector

18:39for Linux and activity log enhancements.

18:42This particular one is specific to Tableau

18:45Cloud.

18:46Audit permissions change history with the

18:48activity log.

18:49This release expands auditing capabilities

18:51by tracking changes to group memberships,

18:54site roles, content moves and more.

18:56And more is always a brilliant thing to add

18:58at the end of the sentence because it just

18:59means yeah, and whatever else we could

19:01think of.

19:01Sort of I got lazy and I stopped the

19:03sentence here kind of statement.

19:06So yeah, that's pretty much everything in

19:0822.4.

19:09And there are always a few things that

19:11sneak in and small changes that we kind of

19:13don't really find out here.

19:15What I always say to people is this is the

19:17marketing statement about what's in 22.4.

19:21What you really want to wait and see is the

19:22release notes for 22.4 because that has the

19:25line by line changes and also things that

19:27don't necessarily make it into the official

19:30launch date, but might come later down the

19:32line.

19:32Because of course, with Tableau Cloud, some

19:34of these things are rolled out in a

19:35slightly different cadence to what we're

19:37used to.

19:38If you're looking for the server version of

19:40some of these features that won't come

19:42until next year in 23.1 actually, because

19:46server only gets updates every six months

19:49and server just had its updates in the most

19:51recent release of 22.3.

19:53So you're going to be getting updates every

19:55other year.

19:55And so the obvious question that has come

19:58up a few times now, we tend to see these

19:59updates now come every six months.

20:01But the problem here is that we don't

20:03actually get features every other month.

20:06So yeah, that's something to look out for.

20:08Yeah, that's pretty much it for this

20:09particular release.

20:11Thanks for watching.

20:12And I'll catch you in the next video.

20:13But of course, I'm still going through 22.3

20:16.

20:16And yeah, if you've got any feedback on

20:17this video, let me know in the comments

20:19below.

20:19Thanks for watching.

20:20I'll catch you in the next one.

20:21Tempt to see.

20:22Hey mate, can I call you back in five

20:29minutes?

20:31Yeah, sure.

20:32Yeah.

20:33Yeah.

20:34Yeah.

20:35Okay.

20:35Bye.

20:41[ Silence ]