Faster Data for Tableau: 3 Killer Features in SQL Server 2014
I’m a huge fan of Microsoft SQL Server. It’s a very user-friendly database with a wonderful tool stack, making it a perfect fit for many data warehouses that feed data to your Tableau users. The latest release, SQL Server 2014, gives us even more things to be excited about. Though there are a bunch of […]
10 Ways to Drive End-User Adoption of Tableau – Part 2
Ready to pick up where we left off? Last week, I posted “10 Ways to Drive End-User Adoption of Tableau – Part 1.” This week, I finish things off with Part 2. In this piece, I cover the remaining five ways in which you can bolster end-user adoption of Tableau. Let’s get started. Adapt Design […]
Connect Ruckus Access Point to ZoneDirector through Command Line
There are several ways to connect an already configured Ruckus Access Point to a ZoneDirector manager. If the device is on the same subnet as the ZoneDirector, the director should see the device automatically. If the device is not on the same subnet and can communicate to the ZoneDirector’s network, you can connect the device […]
Tableau Essentials – Worksheet Canvas
The Worksheet Canvas For the Tableau Desktop Interface (see Figure 1), we have covered the Toolbar and the Sidebar. Today, we will examine the rest of the worksheet, focusing on all of the options and controls from the Worksheet Canvas. Figure 1: Tableau Worksheet. Cards & Shelves We’ll only do a quick overview here, as […]
Don’t Take NULL for an Answer – Make Tableau’s ‘getWorkbook()’ and ‘getActiveSheet()’ Functions Behave Correctly
NULL errors have cropped up twice in recent development projects utilizing Tableau’s JavaScript API. In one instance, getWorkbook() returned this error: SCRIPT5007: Unable to get value of the property ‘get__workbook’: object is null or undefined In another instance, getActiveSheet() returned this error: Uncaught Error: Internal error. Please contact Tableau support with the following information: Unknown […]
Tableau Essentials – The Sidebar
Today we continue exploring Tableau’s interface. We will focus on the functionality and features of the Sidebar, commonly known as the Data Window among Tableau users. The Sidebar The Sidebar is located on the left-hand side of the Tableau worksheet (depicted in Figure 1 below), just beneath the drop-down menu options and the Toolbar. Figure […]
10 Ways to Drive End-User Adoption of Tableau – Part 1
I often see Tableau developers fall into the “Field of Dreams” fallacy. With the perfect formula or the bar chart just right, they’ll have the perfect dashboard that everyone will want to use. We’re tempted to think, “build it and they will come.” That’s not really the case. The formula should be perfect, and the […]
The Future of Business Intelligence – 5 Things to Consider
Last week, I did a little ranting about data cubes and explained why I like Vertica. This week, I’m going to discuss the near future of business information systems and share some thoughts that you should consider before investing your time and capital. Data Sources Will Multiply I’ve personally counted over 190 commercially-available data and […]
Tableau Essentials – The Toolbar
The Toolbar Below is a screenshot of the Tableau worksheet interface connected to a generic Excel datasource (Orders). We will focus exclusively on the row of buttons just below the menu drop-downs at the top of the page – the Toolbar. Tableau often has multiple ways of completing a single task – drop-down menus, right-click […]
3 Reasons Why I Prefer HP Vertica
Since I did a little bashing of cube technology the other day, I suppose that I should explain why I also said that I prefer HP Vertica. Vertica Scales Using Tableau with Vertica is like peanut butter and jelly. They just go together. Why? When you are probing a sizable and granular data set, you […]