Tableau’s easy-to-use user interface and loaded features have made it a popular tool amongst the community, and even a non-technical user can easily work on it. It recently released an update to its 2021 version, the Tableau 2021.3. Released on 7 September 2021, the new update aims to bring more efficiency and tools to enhance workflow.

Here are some exciting features from the latest update:

Tableau Slack Notifications

Tableau has integrated its visualization prowess with Slack, and together, it will broaden not only the aspects of analytics but also the flow of businesses. With the release of Tableau 2021.3, notifications can now be directly received via Slack. Slack will directly notify when a set goal or threshold is reached to either an individual or a whole team. Another new feature is the mentions update. Whenever one is ‘@’ mentioned, Slack will send out notifications through which one can access the dashboard or reach out to the commenter directly in Slack. Insights can be shared directly to help collaborate on analytics with just the click of a button.

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Better Data Management with Tableau Prep

If you have numerous missing rows in a data table, Tableau can now help you fix that. Using the Tableau Prep feature, data can now be automatically filled to prevent missing rows based on the provided dates, date times, or integer. This allows the downstream processes to have complete datasets to work on, and this aids in building more accurate visualizations. Tableau Prep also features options to automate multiple flow jobs through linked tasks and ensure its sequence so that every task completes successfully right after the other.

Improvements to Tableau Catalog

Tableau will also allow pop-up notifications, or email subscriptions, for Data Quality warnings to help identify the data’s potential issues. The receiver has to simply click the link provided in the email to go directly to the previously impacted dashboard, and additional details can be seen on the Data Details panel. With Tableau Catalog, we can now see the inherited description within the web authoring flow for the fuller context of the data. If a particular description for a field or column exists upstream from that field or column in that data source or workbook, the information about where the description has been inherited from can be seen. 

Introducing Personal Space

Personal Space is a newly introduced private location available on Tableau Server and Online, where the users can save content before it is ready to be shared with others. A user can explore data and staging workbooks in their own dedicated and confidential space, and admins would now no longer have the need to create private projects for each and every individual on-site. Personal Space will be available to every user holding an Explorer license or above. This dedicated space for drafting content makes the site cleaner for other users and easier to find relevant content.

Create your Personalised Start Experience

If you have used the previous versions of Tableau, the Tableau Start Page has been a favorite. From Superstore to Regional and World Indicator sample workbooks, the start page features everything you need. With the 2021.3 update, you can now set customized workbooks you want to display in the samples area to match the specific needs. Users will now be able to access content that is relevant to their product instantly. New users will be able to get up and running with sample data and pre-populated workbooks, distribute corporate data sources, create specific highlights for the business, and bring together teams setting fun challenges. The options to customize are endless and full of possibilities!

Increased trust, transparency and support

Coming later this year will be the new security features that will help increase flexibility and segmentation. Administrators will be allowed to centrally configure which users and groups have access to which particular slices of data. With centralized row-level security, also known as CRLS, Tableau admins can define and manage row-level security features among the data tables present and apply the same to all the connected Tableau flows, data sources and workbooks that depend on that data. Through virtual connections, users can create and share access to different tables through a database connection, embed service account credentials, and extract data from data tables centrally to reuse within the Tableau Server and Online space. Calendar support improvements for the ISO-8601 calendar have also been extended to more databases, such as the DB2 connector. 

When connecting to Salesforce data using the custom SOQL, multiple objects at once can be accessed using the SOQL relationship, using which fields from multiple objects in a single query can be pulled at the same time. 

Updated Tableau Mobile

New updates to Tableau Mobile have also been added. The new improvements bring along an improved notification experience, new notifications tab to see shares, comments and prep flows, all in one place. This consolidates all the important changes across the organisation. Tableau Mobile now supports Blackberry and Airwatch devices to provide quick and secure ways to leverage data. The new app includes a fresh design that is faster and more optimised, new ways to search and browse with Tableau Server, and Online as well as offline capabilities that are quick to load and offer more interactivity for visualisations.

The new Tableau 2021.3 looks to be an update loaded with features and functionalities that will only increase the productivity within the tool. Every aspect of a perfect visualization tool is covered, and it seems that it will take Tableau to newer heights of popularity. You can download the latest version of Tableau using the link here.