If you spend a lot of time building reports in Tableau, you’ve probably found yourself asking the following questions about the relationships those reports have with your data sources:
- If I change a column name, how many workbooks will be affected?
- Which dashboards are using data extracts?
- Which workbooks are using calculated fields?
It’s likely that you’re not keeping track of all these connections and dependencies (because you are naturally spending your time developing reports). With the Data Source Audit tool, part of Workbook Tools for Tableau, this is something that you don’t need to worry about anymore.
How the Does Data Source Audit Tool Work?
You start by selecting the desired workbooks from your local machine or Tableau Server. Drag your mouse across the thumbnail image to get a quick glance into the contents of the workbook or browse longer lists of workbooks in a sortable list. You can also right-click and open the workbook to view its contents.
Let the Data Source Audit Begin
Once you’ve selected the workbooks you want to audit, you’ll click the “Next” button to proceed with the first step of the audit.
The next screen will provide a quick glimpse into the results of the audit. Use the filters on the right-hand side of the screen to narrow down your results even further.
Select a particular connection/server/database/column from the filters, and you’ll be able to see the workbooks that are tied to your selection.
You’ve only begun to see the power of Data Source Audit. Click “Send To” at the bottom of the screen. You’ll have the option to export the results of the audit to Tableau, Excel or PDF. We know that you are a Tableau fanatic, so you’ll want to start by exploring that option first.
When you click the “Tableau” button, the application will create a packaged workbook with the results of the audit. Here’s a quick view of the summary screen. There’s so much more, but we just wanted to give you an idea of where things start.
We know the real fun comes with creating your own visualizations, so go ahead and create a new worksheet to explore the options that we’ve included in the data window.
Get Data Source Audit and More with Workbook Tools for Tableau!
With Data Source Audit, you’ll save countless hours trying to dig up information about data connections and dependencies. We’ve made it easy, so you can spend your time creating more stellar reports or maybe checking out some of our other time saving tools.
Data Source Audit is only one of many awesome features that come with Workbook Tools for Tableau. Try them all out for yourself by downloading the free trial of Workbook Tools for Tableau.