Tableau
Visual analytics platform for connecting to data, preparing datasets, and building interactive dashboards for analysts and teams.
What it does
Tableau is a visual analytics platform used by analysts, data teams and business users to connect to data, prepare and transform data, build interactive visualizations and publish shared dashboards for exploration and reporting. Data connections and source flexibility Tableau provides many built-in connectors for databases, cloud warehouses, spreadsheets and web data. Users can choose live connections for up-to-date queries or use extracts (cached snapshots) to improve performance and schedule refreshes where needed. Connector and driver requirements vary by source and are documented in vendor help pages. Visual authoring and dashboards Drag-and-drop authoring in Tableau Desktop and web authoring lets analysts build charts, maps, combined views and parameter-driven dashboards. Dashboards support interactive filters and actions so viewers can explore slices of data without changing the underlying workbook. Data preparation with Tableau Prep Tableau Prep offers visual workflows for cleaning, reshaping, joining and standardizing data before analysis. Authors can build reusable flows, run them locally or publish prepared data sources for use in Tableau Desktop or Server/Cloud. Developer APIs, embedding and extensibility Tableau provides developer tools: REST APIs, JavaScript embedding, Extensions API, Web Data Connector SDK and Hyper API: to automate publishing and administration, create custom connectors, add dashboard extensions or embed visualizations into applications. Deployment and sharing Tableau content can be published to Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud for distribution, access control and scheduled extract refreshes. The platform documents differences between live connections and extracts to help teams balance freshness, concurrency and performance.
