Initializing help system before first use

Creating Workbooks

Tableau workbooks are created and edited using Tableau Server. After creating a workbook, it must be associated with the Xpress Insight app by adding an entry in the companion file.

Before creating a Tableau workbook, ensure that your companion file defines at least one mirror table and data source. The following example defines a mirror table containing a single entity, and a data source containing the mirror table: 
<database-mirror table-prefix="example_">
  <mirror-tables>
    <mirror-table name="my_table">
      <entity name="my_entity"/>
    </mirror-table>
  </mirror-tables>
  <data-sources>
    <data-source name="my_data_source">
      <mirror-table-ref name="my_table"/>
    </data-source>
  </data-sources>
</database-mirror>
Note A Tableau workbook can only utilize a single data source. This data source may contain several mirror tables, but the tables may have overlapping index sets so that they can be joined together into a single SQL query. See the Xpress Insight Developers Guide for more information about how to configure mirror tables and data sources.

Complete the following steps to create a new Tableau workbook:

  1. Open the companion file by double-clicking its filename.
  2. Ensure that the companion file contains a valid Tableau data source.
  3. Choose a name for the new workbook and add a new tableau-workbook entry to the companion file, specifying your chosen workbook name and setting the managed attribute to true.
    See the Xpress Insight Developers Guide for more information about how to define custom views in the companion file.
  4. Save the companion file and publish the project to Xpress Insight.
  5. Open the Xpress Insight sidebar by clicking its name.
  6. Click Tableau, which is the fourth button from the left in the sidebar.
    The Tableau Server launch page opens in a new browser tab.

    You may be prompted to log into Xpress Insight before this page appears.

    If the mirror database is empty, you are prompted to mirror a scenario. This is to ensure that the workbook data source contains some data.

  7. (If prompted) Select the scenario to mirror, and click Continue.
    Tableau Server is launched.
  8. Open the Default project in Tableau Server.
  9. Click the Data Sources tab.
    A list of data sources appears. The data sources defined in the companion file is prefixed with the mirror table prefix for the app.
  10. Click the name of the data source that you want to use in the workbook. Only data sources that belong to the current app should be used.
    A list of workbooks linked to the data source appears.
  11. Click New Workbook to the right of the datasource name.
  12. Create the content of the workbook.
  13. Click Save As in the page header.
  14. Enter the workbook name exactly as you entered it in the companion file.
  15. Click Save.
  16. The workbook is downloaded to Xpress Workbench.
    Important New workbooks created in Tableau Server will not appear in Xpress Insight until you log out of Xpress Insight and log back in. Log out by clicking your username in the top right of the screen and then clicking Log Out.
Parent Topic Interacting with Tableau Server