Tableau Integration

[Kevin_Kinkade]

Can you add an integration with Tableau (the same way that Google Sheets currently integrates with Tableau)?

Alternatively, can you tweak your API so that Air Table to Sql Server via Zapier allows a user to edit an existing row and then sync that row with a table in Sql Server?

[Shane_Pierce]

I also need help with this. Thanks in advance,

Regards,
Shane.

[Kevin_Kinkade]

Shane, I found an interim solution.

Check out Railsware AirTable Importer. You can basically use it as a pseudo api to pull your data into google sheets (on a 1hr cadence, or quick if you manually hit refresh), then live connect the google sheets to Tableau.

[Tim_Beyers]

I’m trying this as well since Sheets works for pulling in live data on publicly traded stocks and Airtable doesn’t – at least not without some Python scripting (from what I can tell).

Have you had success with the Railsware integration getting you what you need in Tableau? How has it impacted your use of Airtable?

[Kevin_Kinkade]

Yes the railsware add-in to Google Sheets helps and is easy to set up. It doesn’t impact Airtable, it just replicates the data once per hour

[Torben_Schultho]

I would love to see this being implemented. Maybe you guys can get in touch with Tableau Devs?

[Bill_French]

Hi Torbin, and welcome to the community!

Torben_Schulthoff:

Maybe you guys can get in touch with Tableau Devs?

Despite the benefits of a seamless integration with Tableau, one of the challenges for [any] vendor is to pick integration winners and back them with long-term commitments for comprehensive support of the feature set. This also applies to internal design choices such as the Charts Block.

But charting - in general - is a very slippery slope because no person or team can ever predict and develop the perfect charting tool. Tableau comes close, but a quick examination of their forum demonstrates that even the best in the business fall short in some ways. This is not uncommon in data visualization tools and it’s why I believe open-design choices are the best strategy.

The recent addition of Vega-Like is a good example of how data visualization integrations should emerge. But the most important aspect of this integration is that no one at Airtable had to contact anyone at Vega.

In my view, this is how good integrations should work; they should be able to emerge without collaboration because if deep conversations are required to pair any two systems, one or both of the vendors has failed to create a truly open architecture.

[Stephen_Orr]

Tableau has a WDC (web data connector) connection type that can be used by third parties to provide customers with seamless integration with Tableau without needing to ask Tableau to build a native connector. I’ve found at least one other app, Wrike, has used this method to provide their customers with Tableau connection support Connect Tableau and Wrike – Wrike Help Center
This WDC for Airtable was written by a Tableau employee who has posted YouTube tutorials on how to build Tableau WDCs Glitch :･ﾟ✧
It would be great if the Airtable team adapted this to include authentication (like Wrike’s) and hosted it. Problem would be solved.

I’ve requested this feature here: Airtable Hosted Tableau WDC

[ScottWorld]

@Kevin_Kinkade I mentioned this in other Tableau threads, but I would recommend doing this in a no-code/low-code way with Make's Tableau integrations. Make also has SQL integrations as well, which you were also asking about.

[Rich_Easyapps]

Hi there, bumping this for visibility since we've created our own solution for this. We’ve launched our own Airtable Tableau Connector to build off of the one made by Airtable Labs.

The main difference between our Connector and Airtable’s is that ours supports the full range of many-to-many relationship types, including Multiple Linked Record fields and Multiple Users fields. You can build Tableau reports off of your Airtable data even when your Base contains these many-to-many relationships.

Other points of interest:

• ETL built specifically for Airtable - Our Connector was built from the ground up for Airtable, so its Extract, Transform, Load process prepares Airtable data for immediate consumption in Tableau.
• Data filtering at the source - It’s super easy to specify which tables and views you export, so you don’t have to waste time filtering out data in each Tableau report you create.
• 100% secure - Because of Tableau’s unique Web Data Connector architecture, all of your data flows directly from Airtable to Tableau without ever touching our servers. That applies whether you're using Tableau Desktop, Server, or Cloud.

Link to the landing page is here (there’s a 30 day free trial).