Tableau Online Connector

Tableau Online is the analytics platform fully hosted in the cloud which publishes the dashboards and shares discoveries with anyone. Here the users can Invite colleagues or customers to explore hidden opportunities with interactive visualizations and accurate data, which are easily accessible from a browser or mobile app.

OvalEdge uses REST API to connect to the data source, which allows users to crawl the data objects (Tables, Table Columns, etc.) and build Lineage.

Connector Specification

The following is the list of objects supported by the Tableau Online connector.

Prerequisite

The API used by the connector is given below:

Service Account with Minimum Permissions

The minimum requirement to access the Tableau-Online Server is to be the site administrator or site role of Explorer.

Establish Environment Variables (Optional)

This section describes the settings or instructions that users should be aware of prior to establishing a connection. If your environments have been configured, skip this step.

Configure Environment Names

The Environment Names allow users to select the environment configured for the specific connector from the dropdown list in the Add Connector pop-up window.
You might want to consider crawling the same schema in both stage and production environments for consistency. The typical environments for crawling are PROD, STG, or Temporary, and may also include QA or other environments. Additionally, crawling a temporary environment can be useful for schema comparisons, which can later be deleted, especially during application upgrade assistance. 

Steps to Configure the Environment

1. Navigate to Administration | Configuration. 
2. Select the Connector tab.
3. Find the Key name “connector.environment”.
4. Enter the desired environment values (PROD, STG) in the value column. 
5. Click ✔ to save. 

Establish a Connection

To establish a Tableau Connection:

1. Log into the OvalEdge application
2. In the left menu, click on the Administration module name, and click on the Connectors sub-module name. The Connectors Information page is displayed.
3. Click on + New Connector. The Add Connector pop-up window is displayed.
4. Select the connection type as Tableau. The Add connector with Tableau-specific details is displayed.
   
   

   Fields	Descriptions
   Connection Type*	The selected connection type ‘Tableau’ is displayed by default.  If required, the dropdown menu allows the user to change the connector type and based on the selection of the connection type, the fields associated with the selected connection type are displayed.
   License Add-Ons	All the connectors will have a Base Connector License by default that allows you to crawl and profile to obtain the metadata and statistical information from a datasource.  OvalEdge supports various License Add-Ons based on the connector’s functionality requirements. Select the Auto Lineage Add-On license that enables the automatic construction of the Lineage of data objects for a connector with the Lineage feature.  Select the Data Quality Add-On license to identify, report, and resolve the data quality issues for a connector whose data supports data quality, using DQ Rules/functions, Anomaly detection, Reports, and more. Select the Data Access Add-On license that will enforce connector access via OvalEdge with Remote Data Access Management (RDAM) feature enabled
   Connection Name*	Enter a Connection name for Tableau. Users can specify a connection name to identify the Tableau connection in OvalEdge. Example: Tableau_db
   Environment	The environment dropdown menu allows you to select the environment configured for the connector from the dropdown list. For example, PROD, or STG (based on the configured items in the OvalEdge configuration for the connector.environment). The purpose of the environment field is to help you identify which connector is connecting what type of system environment (Production, STG, or QA).   Note: The steps to set up environment variables in explained in the prerequisite section.
   Tableau Content UR	To enter the name of the Tableau site.  Reference document: https://help.tableau.com/current/api/rest_api/en-us/REST/rest_api_concepts_auth.htm
   Is Token Based Auth(Y/N)	Tableau Online requires Token Based Authentication as ‘Y’ Note: Please refer to the Additional Information Section to know about Token-based Access.
   Username*	Enter the Username to access the Tableau Service account.
   Password*	Enter the password to access the Tableau Service account.
   Tableau API Version	The Tableau versions supported by OvalEdge are 2.8, 3.0, 3.1. Default value REST API for Tableau server 10.5 REST API for Tableau server 2018.1.6
   OvalEdge Server	No inputs are required.
   Connection string*	Set the Connection string toggle button to automatic to get the details automatically from the credentials provided.  https://{server}/api/2.6
   Default Governance Roles*	The admin will select a specific user or a  team from the governance roles (Steward, Custodian, Owner, and other governance roles) to get assigned to the data asset.  The dropdown list displays all the configurable roles (single user or a team) per the configurations made in the OvalEdge Security>Governance Roles.
   Admin Roles	Select the required admin roles for this connector. To add Integration Admin Roles, search for or select one or more roles from the Integration Admin options, and then click on the Apply button.  The responsibility of the Integration Admin includes configuring crawling and profiling settings for the connector, as well as deleting connectors, schemas, or data objects. To add Security and Governance Admin roles, search for or select one or more roles from the list, and then click on the Apply button.  The security and Governance Admin is responsible for: Configure role permissions for the connector and its associated data objects. Add admins to set permissions for roles on the connector and its associated data objects. Update governance roles. Create custom fields. Develop Service Request templates for the connector. Create Approval workflows for the templates.
   No of archive objects	It is the number of last modifications made in the metadata data of a dataset at Remote/source. By default, the number of archive objects is set to disable mode. Click on the Archive toggle button and enter the number of objects. For example, the connection is crawled if a user updates the count as 4. It will provide the last 4 changes that occurred in the remote/source of the connector. Users can observe these changes in the ‘version’ column of the ‘Metadata Changes’ module.
   Select Bridge	With the OvalEdge Bridge component; any cloud-hosted server can connect with any on-premise or public cloud data sources without modifying firewall rules. A bridge provides real-time control, making managing data movement between source and destination easy. For more information, refer to Bridge Overview

5. Click on the Validate button to validate the connection details.
6. Click on the Save button to save the connection.  Alternatively, you can also directly click on the button that displays the Connection Settings pop-up window to configure the settings for the selected Connector. The Save & Configure button is displayed only for the Connectors for which the settings configuration is required. 

Connection Validation Errors

Connector Setting

Once the connection is established successfully, various settings are provided to retrieve and display the information from the data source. 

The Crawling of Report(s)

The user can use the Crawl/Profile option, which allows the user to select the specific schemas that need to be crawled. For any scheduled crawlers and profilers, the defined run date and time are displayed to set.

1. Navigate to the Connectors page, and click Crawl/Profile option.
2. Select the required Report(s).
3. Click on the Run button that gathers all metadata from the connected source into OvalEdge Data Catalog. 

Additional Information

Generating Token-Based Authentication

Tableau SSO Authentication: The Tableau server is enabled with SSO or SAML integration, Rest API will not support it. Instead of that, we need to generate PAT (Personal Access Token) for that user.

The following are the steps to generate PAT (Personal Access Token):

1. Login to Tableau Online Server and navigate to the My Account Settings.
   
   
2. In the My Account Settings page, click on the Settings tab and enter the Token Name in the Personal Access Tokens field.
3. Once after providing the Token Name the Create new token button gets enabled and clicks on the Create new token button, a pop-up window with the secret token is displayed.
   
4. Click on the Copy to clipboard button and navigate to the OvalEdge application Tableau Add Connection page and provide the password and select Is Token Based Auth(Y/N) option as ‘Y’.

Troubleshooting Tableau Authentication

In case, if the authentication fails, we can troubleshoot Authentication using curl from the VM.

<tsRequest> 

  <credentials personalAccessTokenName="kavyagv" personalAccessTokenSecret="X3d/mUyURfomNvNcQ==:EKqhHRq9qfYe4Otn3DlNkMtJI" >

<site contentUrl="ovaledgetestonline" />

  </credentials>

</tsRequest>

Save the above Request to an XML file, say signin.xml.

Now, run the below curl command. With this, we can change the request and try different scenarios instead of going for a new build with changes or additional logs.

curl https://prod-apnortheast-a.online.tableau.com/api/3.9/auth/signin -X POST -d @signin.xml

Similar Requests can be executed for other Tableau operations as well.

FAQs

The difference between Tableau On-Premises and Online Server Connection:

1. Tableau On-Premises  - For this type of connection, we need to provide Token based Authentication as ‘’’N’’
2. Tableau Online  - For this type of connection, we need to provide Token based Authentication as ’’Y’’.

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