A key part of realizing the value of your hard work building great views in Tableau is sharing and collaborating with others on them. This has historically been difficult without expensive or complex “enterprise” software packages. Today I would like to show you how to embed a real-time collaboration feature to your Tableau Server using nothing more then a couple lines of javascript that will allow your users have a real-time conversation about data, something I'm calling VizTalk.
Video tutorial (text instructions below)
- Use Remote Desktop to login to your Tableau Server
- Using a text editor (I prefer notepad++) add the javascript found here (VizTalkJS) just before the closing head tag to the following files:
- auth_layout.html.erb
- download_layout.html.erb
- embedded_authentication_layout.html.erb
- embedded_layout.html.erb
- licensing_layout.html.erb
- single_embedded_layout.html.erb
- single_layout.html.erb
- text_layout.html.erb
- welcome_layout.html.erb
- Restart your tableau server
- Revel in your accomplishment
Now you should see a ‘VizTalk' link in the upper right corner next to your username. Click on this VizTalk link and you'll be able to invite others to join a real-time chat and audio conference. Enjoy!
*Warning: modify these files at your own risk. The Tableau support team will not support this customization and may require you to do a reinstall back to the default settings for any server related issues.
Thanks to the folks at TogetherJS.com for making this possible!
Wow, this is great Ben! It definitely extends Tableau in a very useful way. Thanks for sharing.
Does the conversation/session get databased? Can it be referenced later?
Hi John, Thanks! I don’t think it does get saved but that could be something you add to the platform. Here’s a link: togetherjs.com/docs/#technology-overview
Thank you for showing us how to do that. This is very helpful when working with clients! (no need for gotomeeting/webex!! 😉
Any issue with Version? I installed the script, but when I move over the Tableau elements the cursor won’t follow on the second participant’s screen.
Doesn’t show up on Tableau9 🙁
Looks like a viable solution, but doesn’t appear to work in Tableau 9
Can this be done using Tableau Online?
Not working in Tableau server 9.2 or 9.3 :(. Any work around??
I haven’t been able to test this yet, I believe they changed where these thing would be embedded. If you dig around in the server folders and find it let us know!
Hi Heather, no I don’t believe this is possible.
I believe they changed the architecture on v9. I will attempt to investigate soon and post a response if I find a solution. Stay tuned!
Thanks for this very useful and great Information. It so much helpful to users. Keep up the good work here. Tableau Server helps you to embed live interactive dashboards and provide high security to your data. It is also the most secure way to distribute Tableau workbooks.
mindmajix.com/tableau-server-tutorial