The Tableau Performance Checklist: Filtering – Avoid Quick Filters That Drive Context Filters
The next item in our Filtering checklist is: “Avoid quick filters or actions that drive context filters. These require reloading the context table and should be avoided wherever possible.” There’s a lot to digest there, so let’s get started. What Is a Context Filter? The filters that you add to your visualization are each independently […]
Pulling Stock Data for Visualization in Tableau
A powerful feature within Alteryx is the Download tool under the Connectors tab. It’s useful for pulling information down from the web. As the amount of data available on the web grows, the value of being able to pull information into a workable format in an efficient manner greatly decreases data prep time, allowing users […]
Matching States to Data Points Using the Alteryx Spatial Match Tool
When creating a data visualizations using U.S. weather data, I’m running into a problem. I have weather data in a dense grid from NOAA, but no way to filter individual states. Some data sources show the contiguous U.S. while others are sections of satellite coverage. None of these sources identify the states that I wanted […]
The Tableau Performance Checklist: Filtering – Avoid High-Cardinality Quick Filters
The next item in our Filtering checklist is: “Avoid high-cardinality quick filters (multi-select or drop-down lists). High-cardinality quick filters are slow to load and render.” Let’s jump right in and see how high cardinality in your quick filters can negatively impact performance. What is Cardinality? In SQL, the cardinality of a set is the number […]
Where the Pavement Ends
InterWorks recently sponsored several employees on OK Freewheel, a statewide cycling tour of Oklahoma. In this post, Scott Matlock recounts his experience riding OK Freewheel’s inaugural gravel route midway through the tour. Above: Team InterWorks at the Texas/Oklahoma Border. We decided to ride our bikes across the state of Oklahoma. This in itself is a […]
Using Symbolic Links to Redirect ProgramData Files and Folder for VDI Environments
During a VDI deployment with VMware Horizon, I discovered that one of the applications in the environment was saving important user information inside the ProgramData folder. Even though the end-user was utilizing persistent disks, the ProgramData folder by default gets saved on the C-drive and would be cleared of any user-specific when utilizing a refresh […]
Visualizing a Flood of Data for the Tableau 10x Contest
The recent floods in Texas and Oklahoma hit home for me. I live outside of Dallas and InterWorks has three offices in Oklahoma. We’ve seen double our normal rainfall this year, leading to major floods impacting metropolitan areas. People have lost homes and family members. All of that comes on the heels of millions of […]
Don’t Bonk at OK Freewheel 2015; Use This Calorie Replacement Calculator
One of my biggest fears when going on a long bike ride is running out of fuel and bonking (a.k.a hitting a wall). It’s a horrible feeling. Your legs feel like jelly, and it seems as if one more rotation of the pedals is impossible. This happens because you you run out of fuel and […]
Three Steps to Making a Better Data Viz
Every day, we are flooded with data visualizations. Whether it’s a bar chart in a newspaper, an infographic you see online or a pie chart you see in a quarterly earnings report, people are turning numbers into pictures all around us. For those of us that love to discover, these visualizations can be a great […]
The Tableau Performance Checklist: Filtering – Avoid ‘Only Relevant Values’ in Quick Filters
Speed counts, people! Today’s report consumers expect their dashboards to run as fast as a web page. Now that high speed internet is the standard in business, that’s a lot to compete with. This is why it is essential to optimize each and every dashboard for the absolute best performance. The next item in our […]