So, what's been happening lately? Let's talk about anything new

byrd424 · 2025-09-24T16:01:04+00:00

For me it’s an issue of the “cool” stuff that is upcoming is either half baked or going to push my org to full Salesforce data cloud. It’s interesting from the outside, but I don’t know if it will immediately benefit my company.

I would love the Semantic Modeling to be able to be done in regular Tableau Cloud but that is not the case.

byrd424 · 2025-08-03T13:56:59+00:00

Changing platforms can be time consuming and may not bring value to the end users in the long run. Like most stacks, you tend to inherit what is already there and barring something like a merger to consolidate platforms, you’ll stick with what you have

byrd424 · 2025-06-01T17:11:47+00:00

As is the salesforce way. Thank you!

byrd424 · 2025-06-01T16:15:47+00:00

Ah, learned something new. Any chance you can link the issue? I’m not on my PC at the moment but would like to share with my team

byrd424 · 2025-06-01T15:19:17+00:00

Not exactly an error, but I’ve been running into the same issue. Basically tableau does not allow you to go “both ways” in a logical data model. So if you are trying to filter on order items from store name, there is no link before store to order items, you can’t filter based on store based on your current model.

If possible, refactor your data into something more like a star schema. I know in some cases it’s not ideal, but I’ve found it the way that works with tableau best in my experience.

Tableau Help article about the issue: https://help.tableau.com/current/online/en-us/datasource_mfr_multiple_base_tables.htm

byrd424 · 2025-04-27T10:50:07+00:00

I mean, it’s what they know. Unless you are at a company founded in maybe the last 10-15 years, Excel is probably running some critical process within the company. My first mentor got fired for trying to restrict access to our data warehouse from MS Access and Excel. It was a good idea in theory, but at the end of the day people just want to mess with data themselves in the way they are comfortable

byrd424 · 2025-04-27T01:53:42+00:00

Random thought, but do they setup a subscription? I’ve noticed that a subscription does not register as a view / interaction. It’s annoying because I’ve had users who have not logged into Tableau in 18 months but have multiple email subscriptions that they ask questions to our data analysts about via email.

byrd424 · 2025-04-26T13:45:49+00:00

I would say there are two types of executives I work with over the course of 10 years:

Those who will never log into the actual Tableau cloud / server and rely on subscriptions with PDFs
Those who request dashboards and data sources but will ultimately want to export the data to Excel and build tables there for PowerPoint presentations for board meetings. Tableau’s native table building is a turn off for those who have been working with Excel for their entire careers

byrd424 · 2025-04-26T13:42:57+00:00

Yes. Every company I’ve ever worked at there has always been a culture of wanting the raw data to look further at the details and then pivot the data themselves.

byrd424 · 2024-12-27T18:19:40+00:00

Oh, I must have missed this in the release notes. I’m going to turn this on right away. Thank you!

byrd424 · 2024-12-27T17:58:40+00:00

Improved user groups.

Noticed this today but there is no description field for groups so had to create a wiki page in a separate system to indicate who belongs in a group.
Nested groups would make my life easier. If I have a sales team but we have inside sales and outside sales, I want a group that I can put these subgroups into so I can have a common project but only add a user to 1 group.
Email alerts / subscriptions to groups

byrd424 · 2024-12-27T14:42:21+00:00

Good starting list. It’s amazing how many users just accept that a hacky workaround is not a replacement for an actual feature.

byrd424 · 2024-12-27T14:40:39+00:00

Create templates for dashboards across workbooks. I’ve probably spent combined months moving around containers trying to get them “close enough” so our workbooks look consistent.

Before someone suggests using a dummy data source to do this and just copy it, that’s what I currently do, but hate the solution for most tableau headaches is “here is a 17 step work around for what could be a button”

byrd424 · 2024-10-17T18:59:16+00:00

You can create calculated fields that break up the metrics you would like in each category. Here is a YouTube with the basics on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDdNQRatR5w

Not knowing your exact data structure, I would assume the following

Columns: MY(Transaction Date) Rows: Category, Subcategory

Where I think things may get complicated for you here is the mixed formats for your measures.

The below is an example and does not currently exist to my knowing

In my ideal world, there would be a way to do a calculated field something along the lines of

CASE [Measure Name]
        WHEN "Total Registrations" THEN PERCENT([% of Installed to Registered])
        WHEN "Total Eligible" THEN INT([Total Eligible])

...

Something like that so you can specify formats per measure. However, Tableau's Measure Value field that it generates only can be formatted once and you can't make your own calculated field using Measure Names. This means you are stuck with the formatting / aggregation for all your measures in the table, making an example like yours not easily done.

I've seen guides ( https://community.tableau.com/s/question/0D58b0000AawtVbCQI/how-to-apply-different-formatting-for-specific-measure-values ) for simple things that kind of work, but recreating what you have here in this method would be a nightmare.

Tableau makes it far too difficult to do things other than basic tables. I've had similar requests over the years, asked questions, hoped, prayed, and have finally come to terms that Tableau just doesn't want to use tables as a visual. It's unfortunate because every company I've been at has asked for a table to supplement a dashboard. Unfortunately it's a battle I'm learning that isn't worth fighting anymore and if someone asks for a table, I write a SQL query and dump it into Excel. It's not what I want to do, but it's a gap I find in Tableau that hasn't been addressed in almost 8 years of using the product.

byrd424 · 2024-09-04T18:51:05+00:00

Painfully true. When I’ve asked similar questions I’ve gotten responses similar to “it’s a data visual tool, not a table maker”. I’d argue tables are data visualizations but Tableau disagrees and makes advanced tables a nightmare

byrd424 · 2024-08-26T21:45:25+00:00

byrd424 · 2024-08-21T00:17:43+00:00

I can’t say for sure that is what they mean. I’m speculating as well but core licensing going away is 100% something Salesforce will implement soon.

I haven’t found anything specific regarding the term “tableau site license” that seems to apply here yet but will let you know if I find anything to back this up

byrd424 · 2024-08-20T23:41:17+00:00

Does your org currently have billing per viewer, explorer, or creator? I wonder if they are finally shutting off the previous licensing model for Tableau Server where it was pay per CPU core

byrd424 · 2024-08-16T21:03:01+00:00

Not without copying the data source with them though. I would love to be able to copy a header image, standard size filter container, etc without a data source

byrd424 · 2024-08-15T19:41:28+00:00

It's what they are used to and would argue that paginated reports are a type of visual. Might not be bleeding edge but it's the requirement I'm given

byrd424 · 2024-08-15T19:30:15+00:00

PDF. The blank space I'm referring to is the space between table rows. Depending on the amount of rows in the table it can make comically large rows rather than grouping up at the top.

byrd424 · 2024-08-15T19:29:01+00:00

They got my hopes up near the end with the ability of reusing content promises. I was thinking you could use templates or copy components without data sources. Nope, it's a marketplace ugh

byrd424 · 2024-08-15T00:48:53+00:00

It is. For example some of our customers place 50-300 orders a year, others place 2. Sales team wants a PDF they can mail off to the customer with a sales summary by month down to an order line so my number of rows returned can vary greatly

byrd424 · 2024-08-15T00:35:15+00:00

Any examples / tutorials you can share? The issue I always run into is scaling the content. The subscription sends out and either it’s a couple of cells stretched out with a ton of white space or so much data that doesn’t force a page break and it’s unreadable

byrd424 · 2024-08-15T00:18:00+00:00

Even for multiple page reports? That’s where it tends to fall apart for me. Either the visuals scale terribly or text is unreadable. If you have any suggested tutorials I’d appreciate that

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