Web Data Connector in Tableau Server
Web Data Connector to connect to data that is accessible over HTTP and that doesn't already have a connector. A web data connector is an HTML file that includes JavaScript code. We can create our own web data connector or can use a connector that is already exist and written by someone else. The web data connector must be hosted on a web server running locally on your computer, on a third-party web server, or on Tableau Server.
Web Data Connector Tableau Server
We should use a trustworthy web data connector.
There are sample web data connectors available and written by tableau.
1. Facebook Sample Connector
2. Googlesheets Sample Connector
3. Incremental Update Sample Connector
4. JSON Sample Connector
5. Socrata Sample Connector
6. XML Sample Connector
A web data connector uses REST API and converts the data to JSON and passes it to tableau.
Example: Setting up the environment
We need git and npm (node js package manager and node js installed)
Get the WDC SDK (web data connector software development kit)
Open a terminal in the directory where you want to download the WDC SDK. Then run the following command to clone the WDC git repository:
git clone https://github.com/tableau/webdataconnector.git
Change to the directory where you downloaded the repository:
cd webdataconnector
Install dependencies with npm:
npm install --production
Start the test web server:
npm start
Open a browser and navigate to the following URL:
https://localhost:8888/Simulator/index.html
After that, we can see the simulator screen on our web browser.
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Trying the sample
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In the WDC URL field, confirm that the URL is set to the sample USGS Earthquake Data connector:
../Examples/html/earthquakeUSGS.html
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Click the Start Interactive Phase button to display the user interface for the earthquake WDC.
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Click the Get Earthquake Data button.
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Click the Fetch Table Data button to download the data and display it in a table.
Related Page: How To Build Your First Advanced Dashboard In Tableau?
Create HTML page
1. First create a new file named earthquakeWDC.html and save it in the top-level directory of the webdataconnector repository.
2. Create a javascript file for the connector. Name it earthquakeWDC.js and save it in top level directory
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Create an event listener for the UI button in Html page.
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WDC will get data in JSON format and pass it to the tableau. So let’s create schema for that.
3. Now we are all set. Save all and start the server by typing npm start in cmd
4. Open the browser and go to
https://localhost:8888/Simulator/earthquakeWDC.htmlHTML FILE
JS FILE.PNG "JS File - 1")
.PNG "JS File - 2")
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IF everything works fine when we click the Get Earthquake data button we should see the result.
Now pass this to tableau.
On the start page, in the Connect pane, click More Servers… > Web Data Connector.
https://localhost:8888/Simulator/earthquakeWDC.htmlIf everything works fine, then we should get the visualization
Here we have successfully obtained the data and put it into a tableau.
List Of Tableau Courses
| Tableau Advanced |
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| Data Visualization and Dashboarding Fundamentals |
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About Author
| Name | Viswanath V S |
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