Creating my first Tableau web data connector : part 3

At last, the final part of the trials and tribulations of creating my first Tableau Web Data Connector... Part 1 went through the pre-requisites, and building what I might generously term my "user interface". Part 2 was a struggle against the forces of web security. And in this part, we battle against the data itself, until the error-message … Continue reading Creating my first Tableau web data connector : part 3 →

Creating my first Tableau web data connector – part 2

Now for the next part of the creating-a-web-data-connector journey: previously, I had got all the software I needed to create a web data connector installed (well, to be fair Notepad comes with Windows so that wasn't hard) and designed my user interface. Now it was time to move on to Tableau tutorial section 5 - … Continue reading Creating my first Tableau web data connector – part 2 →

Creating my first Tableau web data connector – the highs and the lows: part 1

After having successfully (enough) completed my introduction to creating a real live Tableau web data connector, I wanted to follow the lead of one of the inspirations for this otherwise unnecessary effort - Chris Love's Persiscope on the subject of sharing Tableau-related failure as well as unbridled success - and document something about the less smooth aspects of … Continue reading Creating my first Tableau web data connector – the highs and the lows: part 1 →

Journey complete: a BoardGameGeek collection Tableau web data connector

Several months (!) after setting myself the challenge of becoming familiar with how to create a Tableau Web Data Connector, the good news is...it's done! Well, done enough that I now understand how to create web data connectors should I ever need one in reality anyway. As planned, its a connection via the BoardGameGeek API to your very … Continue reading Journey complete: a BoardGameGeek collection Tableau web data connector →

Accessing Adobe Analytics data with Alteryx

Adobe Analytics (also known as Site Catalyst, Omniture, and various other names both past and present) is a service that tracks and reports on how people use websites and apps. It's one of the leading solutions for organisations who are interested in studying how people are actually using their digital offerings. Studying real-world usage is often far more insightful, … Continue reading Accessing Adobe Analytics data with Alteryx →

Showing continents on a Tableau map

Tableau maps can understand many geographic features, but, somewhat surprisingly, whole continents is not one of them. It's a requested feature but hasn't yet made the grade to be included. However, it was pretty easy to find several shapefiles of continents freely available online. Here's one. Tableau can't read shapefiles (yet). But, inspired by tableaumapping.bi, I then used this … Continue reading Showing continents on a Tableau map →

Tableau dashboards quick tip #2: how do I know what size my dashboard should be to fit in a story?

Here's another little tip that is actually in the documentation, although perhaps not quite where you might expect, and besides, who reads that? In Tableau you can create "Stories". A story is basically a set of dashboards. However, the default "physical" size of the dashboard part of a story is smaller than the default size … Continue reading Tableau dashboards quick tip #2: how do I know what size my dashboard should be to fit in a story? →

Tableau dashboards quick tip #1: why is my embedded web page blank when published?

Tableau dashboards can embed other non-Tableau webpages within them. This can be useful just as a way to show an external web page within your dashboard, or they can have dynamic URL parameters passed into them based on the data in your dashboard, meaning that you can produce interactive product catalogues, mapping systems and the like. In … Continue reading Tableau dashboards quick tip #1: why is my embedded web page blank when published? →

Using a Tableau Web Data Connector to access my Moves app location data

Never one to rush into things :-), here's the second part of my journey towards creating a Tableau Web Data Connector. Next on my plan was to try out an existing Web Data Connector so I could see what they looked like in practice. It's always useful to review examples of other people's work in analytical tools, … Continue reading Using a Tableau Web Data Connector to access my Moves app location data →

Simpson’s paradox and the importance of segmentation

Here's a classic business analysis scenario, which I'd like to use to illustrate one of my favourite mathematical curiosities. Your marketers have sent out a bunch of direct mail to a proportion of your previous customers, and deliberately withheld the letters from the rest of them so that they can act as a control group. As analyst extraordinaire, you get … Continue reading Simpson’s paradox and the importance of segmentation →