Readers:
Last week, Tableau released Tableau V2018.1 and Tableau Prep (formally Tableau Maestro). Yesterday, they send me the Tableau 2018.2 Beta and its overview documentation. Boy, are some exciting things coming our way!
I would like your feedback on one particular feature. If we can now write-back to a database using the Extensions API, does that mean we can create OLTP data entry dashboards using Tableau? Good idea or bad idea?
I look forward to your feedback!
Best regards,
Michael
Features of Tableau 2018.2 Beta 1
- Dashboard Grids – We all know that the details matter. Gridlines now appear as an overlay above dashboards to help with better visual alignment of dashboard elements. Toggle on or off as desired. See a preview of dashboard zones when moving their position for better layout alignment and design, and use keyboard arrows to nudge or resize.
- Automatic Mobile Layouts – Build mobile-friendly dashboards in seconds with automatic phone and tablet layouts. Use these layouts as they come, or customize further to create the best mobile experience for your dashboard.
- Dashboard Extensions – Use the Extensions API to create dashboard extensions. Dashboard extensions give you the ability to interact with data from third-party applications directly in Tableau. Capabilities like write-back to a database, custom actions, deep integration with other apps, and custom UI are all at your fingertips. As dashboard extensions are published to Tableau Server and Online, site administrators can manage which extensions are allowed to run.
- Tableau Services Manager for Windows and Linux – Tableau Services Manager (TSM) brings you a brand new Tableau Server admin experience for Windows and Linux on the web. With a streamlined user experience, it’s easier to automate many Tableau Server management tasks, including hot topology changes for backgrounder and VizQl Server processes. Enjoy greater admin flexibility with less downtime.
- Spatial Join – You can now join datasets where the only common element between the two is location. Easily analyze points within a geographic area for a deeper understanding of your spatial data.
- Tableau Server on Amazon Linux 2 Distro – Tableau Server now works with Amazon Linux 2 Distro one of the most popular Linux distributions on AWS.
- Identity auto-sync with SCIM for Tableau Online – Streamline the user permissioning process by auto-syncing with your existing cloud-based ID management systems. Seamlessly grant or remove access to Tableau by permissioning users in Okta.
- Downgrade Workbook Improvements – Understand the impact of downgrading a workbook from Tableau Server or Tableau Online before you do it. When you choose to downgrade a workbook you will now see a prompt letting you know whether that workbook is fully compatible, if there are features that may be lost, or if that workbook won’t work.
- Negative values on log axis – Easily view heavily skewed distributions with the option to show negative values on a log scaled axis.
- Smooth Tooltips for Mobile – By long pressing and dragging across marks you’ll be able to see tooltips work on mobile and tablet.
- Transparent backgrounds and filters – You can now give worksheets completely transparent backgrounds. Build beautiful and creative dashboards with the freedom to float multiple sheets cleanly over the other. You can also make filters, highlighters, and parameters transparent, making it easy to support color consistency across zones.
- Stand-Alone Tableau Bridge – Tableau Bridge is now available as a stand-alone download. With this update, you are able to run Tableau Bridge without allocating a Tableau Desktop license to it.
Features Planned for 2018.2 Beta 2
- Command cancellation for Tableau Server and Online – Authors and viewers of web content can now cancel a long-running action. Using the cancellation dialogue enables users to avoid refreshing a page to exit a long-running command and keep their changes.
- ISO-8601 standard weeks – We’ve brought ISO standard calendar support to Tableau. You can now use ISO-8601 defined weeks in calculations and visualizations for better calendar-based analysis.
- Backgrounder Job Admin Tool – GetJobList API – GetJobList API provides a programmatic way to pull a list of completed, running, and pending jobs.
- Backgrounder Job Admin Tool – CancelJobList API – The CancelJob API gives you the ability to reclaim resources from running and pending jobs.
- Fields list for published data sources – See more information about your published data sources. You can now see descriptions and a summary of calculated fields from a data source’s default landing page on Tableau Server and Online.
- Google Drive Connector – Users can now connect to Excel CSV files, and Google Sheets stored in Google Drive.
- AMIs for Tableau Server for Linux – Take advantage of another deployment option for Tableau Server for Linux. You can now deploy Tableau Server for Linux from the AWS and Azure Marketplaces via AMI/Machine Images.
- Web authoring improvements – Web authoring continues to become more powerful than ever before. This release includes the ability to create annotations on the web, the addition of familiar keyboard shortcuts, find data fields through search, and enable better control over sorting during web authoring.
- Cross-database join performance improvement – Enjoy faster performance on cross-database joins when combining a small file-based table with a larger database table.
- MDX query performance improvement – Parallel execution and improved caching provide better performance for your MDX queries.
- Mapping Update – We’ve updated Pennsylvania Congressional Districts to 2018, allowing for up-to-date state and national maps of the upcoming US election cycle.
- Nested Sorting – Enjoy a more intuitive sorting experience. Sort dimension values within the context of each pane for better top- or bottom-n analysis of your data.
- Custom Tableau Online admin views – Create custom administrative views to understand your Tableau Online usage data like never before with curated usage data sources.
- Connect to data and data prep enhancements – Connecting data on the web continues to improve with file upload enhancements and additional data prep capabilities such as joining related fields across databases.
- Connect to Google BigQuery from the web – Gain access to the trove of data in Google BigQuery by connecting to your data directly from the web.
- Tableau Bridge – Tableau Bridge continues to improve its stability and reliability with a new streaming API for faster delivery of on-premises data.
Michael Sandberg's Data Visualization Blog 