Get Started with the Tableau Exchange

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Name the four types of products available on the Tableau Exchange.
  
• Explain why to use a Dashboard or Viz Extension in Tableau.
  

Products in the Tableau Exchange

Tableau is a visual analytics tool that helps you analyze data in different ways, from a basic line chart to a scatterplot with marks of varying shapes and sizes. Tableau Extensions are tools that help boost your analysis.

The Tableau Exchange offers four products: Accelerators, Connectors, Dashboard Extensions, and Viz Extensions. Each product helps aid your analysis in different ways. Let’s explore each type.

Tableau Extensions

Tableau offers two types of extensions: Dashboard Extensions and Viz Extensions. They’re web applications that extend the native visual capabilities of Tableau. And they’re hosted on the Tableau Exchange.

Internal Tableau developers, trusted partners, and third-party developers build the extensions. With the Tableau Developer Program, partners and third-party developers can customize and extend Tableau to fit their organization’s needs. If you’re a developer, see the Tableau Extensions API documentation on GitHub to create your own extensions.

Tableau Extension Security

Because extensions can potentially access data in the workbook, Tableau supports two ways of hosting extensions.

• Network-enabled extensions run on web servers located outside your local network.
  
• Sandboxed extensions run in a protected environment without access to any other resource or service on the web.
  

Before downloading an extension, make sure you understand what it does and identify potential risks to your data. Some extensions don’t need to access the underlying data in the workbook. And all the JavaScript code runs in the browser on your computer. With those extensions, no data leaves the computer even if the extension is hosted on a third-party web server. Check the extension description to be sure you understand if your data can be accessed or not.

Tableau provides security measures and has strict security requirements for extensions.

• All extensions must use the HTTP Secure protocol.
  
• Anyone using a Network-enabled extension is prompted to allow the extension permission to run. The extension must request permission if it accesses the underlying data.
  
• The URL of the Network-enabled extension must be added to a safe list before it can run on Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud.
  

In the next unit, you learn more about how to find and use extensions.

Resources

• External Site: Tableau Exchange
• Tableau Help: Add Viz Extensions to Your Worksheet
• Tableau Help: Use Dashboard Extensions
• Tableau Help: Use Partner-Build Connector from the Tableau Exchange
• Tableau Help: Extension Security—Best Practices for Deployment
• Tableau Help: Manage Dashboard and Viz Extensions in Tableau Cloud