Advance with Assist shares quick solutions to common challenges encountered by the InterWorks Assist on-demand team.
Question: Our users are finding themselves clicking the same filters when they log onto dashboards they have access to. They are curious if there is a way for us to isolate the data for them only. How can we accomplish this without changing our data model extensively?
Upon first reading, this issue could quickly have diverted into a row-level security discussion, a user-filter effort in Tableau or other changes to the dashboard build to accomplish what their users were asking. After a quick 15-minute conversation, we determined that Tableau Server has the built-in functionality that will give this client’s users the desired outcome without any changes to the dashboards or data. Let’s talk through this and highlight a great feature that is often overlooked in Tableau Server: custom views by user.
Custom Views in Tableau Server by User
When users log into a Tableau dashboard, there are a variety of menu buttons they may have the ability to interact with:
On the far left, you’ll notice the View: Original Button. This is the view that was originally published by the dashboard author. As you change and edit filters on the dashboard, you can now save custom views that hold onto your filter selections.
When you click the View menu, you’ll see this pop-up window asking you to name your custom view:
Options for Your Custom Views
Here, you can also decide a couple things:
- Is this what I want to see as my default when I log in to this dashboard? If so, select the Make it my default check box.
- Is this only for me or can it be public? If public, then check the box to Make it public so others can see this view when they click the View menu.
- All views will be saved under My Views and be listed on this Custom Views pop-up for easy navigation.
If something is made public, it will then show up under Other Views at the bottom of the pop-up:
My favorite functionality that custom views bring to the table is their subscription ability. I can now set filters for each view I need of a single dashboard and subscribe to each custom view.
Talk about self-service.
