Tableau

Overview

Tableau Desktop is a visualization software that provides tools to query, analyze, and aggregate data from multiple data sources. The following guide outlines the initial configuration steps and includes examples of using the Tableau Desktop to build charts from historical data stored in ATSD.

Dataset

Download sample series commands. The series contain the national import and export statistics over a period of 30+ years. The series are seasonally adjusted and are collected on a monthly basis.

To load the data, log in to ATSD and submit these commands on the Metrics > Data Entry page.

Prerequisites

Install Tableau

  • Install Tableau Desktop 10.4
  • Copy ATSD.tdc to the Tableau Repository. On Windows the repository is located in the C:\Users\{username}\Documents\My Tableau Repository\Datasources directory

Install ODBC-JDBC Bridge

  • Install ODBC-JDBC gateway
  • Ensure that the Strip Escape checkbox is enabled and Strip Quote is disabled

If your ATSD installation has more than 10000 metrics, consider adding a tables={filter} property to the JDBC URL to filter the list of tables visible in Tableau.

Configure Connection

  • Launch Tableau
  • Select Connect > To a Server > Other Databases(ODBC)
  • Select the ATSD DSN from the drop-down list. This is the DSN you specified during ODBC-JDBC bridge setup
  • Click Connect and wait a few seconds
  • Leave the Server,Port, Database and String Extras fields empty
  • Click Sign In

Review Tables

  • Enter a keyword and click Search. For this exercise, search for the bi.ex_net1.m table.

  • Drag-and-drop the table to Canvas area
  • Click Update Now.

Visualization

  • Click Sheet 1
  • Click OK to acknowledge the warning about limitations
  • Set Datetime to the columns field
  • Set Value to the rows field

Since time and datetime represent the same recorded time as different data types (long and timestamp), select only one of the columns in your queries.

Inspect a subset of the visualized data:

  • Select some data points in the view
  • Right-click and choose View Data

Examples