Automate Tableau Tasks with vvtableau

Introduction

Welcome to the world of automated Tableau tasks! In this blog post, we will explore vvtableau, an R package developed by VU Analytics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as part of the vusaverse collection. With vvtableau, you can streamline your Tableau workflows and save time by automating repetitive tasks in Tableau Server. Let’s explore the vvtableau package and how it could enhance your Tableau experience with R!

What is vvtableau?

vvtableau is an R package that provides a seamless interface for interacting with Tableau Server using the Tableau REST API. It is part of the vusaverse collection, a set of packages developed by VU Analytics to support data pipelines. With vvtableau, you can automate various Tableau tasks, such as:

downloading workbooks from the server;
setting up refresh data extract data alerts;
retrieving server object information directly from R; and
managing locally hosted workbooks through the XML methods.

Getting Started with vvtableau

To get started with vvtableau, follow these simple steps:

## Install the package from CRAN 
install.packages("vvtableau")

## Or install the development version from GitHub 
devtools::install_github("vusaverse/vvtableau")

## Load package 
library(vvtableau)

## Authenticate on the Tableau Server

tableau <- authenticate_server(
  server = "https://your.tableau.server.com",
  username = "your_username",
  password = "your_password" 
) 

## The above "tableau" object can now be passed in every Tableau REST API method.

Key Features of vvtableau

vvtableau offers a range of features to automate Tableau tasks and enhance your Tableau experience. Here are some key features:

download_workbooks_server(): This function allows you to download workbooks from Tableau Server. You can use it to automate the process of retrieving workbooks and saving them locally, which can be helpful for regular backups.
get_server_refresh_tasks(): With this function, you can retrieve information about extract refresh tasks on Tableau Server. By automating the retrieval of refresh task details, you can monitor and manage data refresh processes more efficiently.
get_server_users(): This function enables you to retrieve information about users on Tableau Server.

For a comprehensive list of features and detailed documentation, we recommend referring to the official vvtableau documentation. It provides in-depth explanations and examples to help you make the most of vvtableau in your R workflows.

Contributing to vvtableau

vvtableau is an open-source project, and contributions from the community are highly encouraged. If you encounter any bugs, have feature requests, or would like to contribute code improvements, you can open an issue or submit a pull request on the GitHub repository.

Introduction to vvtableau