This blog post is Human-Centered Content: Written by humans for humans.

In one of its newer releases from 2024 (version 2024.2 to be exact), Tableau began to offer Viz Extensions. These are newly offered chart types, which are available as point-and-click selections from within the Marks cards area. Essentially, they are powered by web applications that can extend the native visual capabilities for the Tableau workspace.

For the front-end user, it’s as simple as selecting the Marks dropdown and choosing “Add Extension” like so:

You might be familiar with Tableau offering chart recommendations and templates using the “Show Me” feature located in the toolbar. This is great when pre-selecting the fields you want for your worksheet from your data pane, or ones that may have already been put into the workspace, to see how they might look like in another way.

These Viz Extensions are similar, but implementing them may be best by working from scratch each time.

Ultimately, these extensions can be a helpful lift when trying to build more complex chart types, especially when in a time crunch. When choosing “Add Extension,” you’ll see choices that include Sankey, Radial, Sunburst, Waterfall and Radar, among 30+ others (and growing):

The extensions sit inside of a specialized area of Tableau called the Tableau Exchange. Tableau Exchange is a resource hub for users to gain access to tools and features provided by other partners or third-party providers that help with broader data analysis needs.

The caveat? You still have to produce the charts, using combinations of fields on Columns, Rows or on the Marks shelf. And, as different Viz Extensions get pre-selected, some of the cards shown, formatting options or even the workspace landing page are likely to change. That means there will be some knowledge of how to manage each extension uniquely to still get to your desired output:

The first time you open a new Viz Extension, you are likely to get a prompt about the application needing access to your data, asking you to “Allow” the extension in order to proceed:

Should you have any questions about security or protection of your data, you can read more here.

In short, the code for these extensions is contained in the Tableau system, so your data does not actually leave the Tableau environment. The raw data is never sent externally via the extension or provider itself, which should help offer some peace of mind in terms of overall security. You can however choose to cancel, but your extension won’t load as a result:

The initial question that I had when using these Viz Extensions the first time was, “How or why would a provider offer an extension through the Tableau Exchange?” You’ll quickly find out the answer to that. As you develop using certain extensions, a provider may only give you partial functionality or limited access unless you signup or register for an official account from them. This may or may not require paid access of some sort, so the monetization component helps me understand the “why.”

The Viz Extensions now sit alongside Dashboard Extensions, which have been available through the Tableau Exchange for a number of years now, so this concept may not be so new to some.

Try One Out

I am happy to offer you a safe suggestion to try out your first extension, which happens to be one of my favorite charts, too: The Sankey. Interestingly enough, it’s the first option suggested when adding a new extension, which I like to believe that to mean it was the very first one available (but I will neither be able to confirm nor deny that suspicion).

It could also be because the developer of the extension is “Tableau,” and because they wanted a means of getting all of their users access to this chart, as it’s one that has been in high demand from its community of users for quite some time due to its complexity.

For context, the Sankey would have previously required a 30-step process to help bring the S-shaped Sigmoid curve to life in Tableau. The math involved meant applying a series of nested table calculations, in combination of 1-49 logistic functions, bins, calculations, formatting and axis manipulations to achieve. It was quite a heavy lift:

Now, you simply connect to your data and choose the Viz Extensions from the Marks card area and be on your way! You can have your Sankey in seconds.

Hopefully, this is helpful in explanation the Viz Extensions in detail. So, what are you waiting for? Go try it out!