FileMaker + Tableau … how do these platforms complement each other well and what new opportunities are available for building data visualization solutions?
We’ll start with a brief discussion about building dashboards within FileMaker using native charts and JavaScript libraries (d3.js), then compare with Tableau. Then we’ll take a deeper dive looking into what is now possible integrating FileMaker and Tableau for rich, dynamic, real-time data visualization.
Look forward to sharing this conversation with you all...
Once I see it this way, I can't go back to rows and columns.
- Vince Menanno on Data Visualization, #PauseOnError
Session Notes:
- Your client says: "I need this report in this format".... then, 3 days later: "Oh, actually I need same data but totally different format."
- need for flexible, real-time manipulation of data
- Tableau - helping people see and understand their data
- In Tableau, every field in your data can be one of these 4 "Pill" types
- Tableau Desktop is the desktop product - runs on macOS, Windows (compare with FMP/FMPA)
- With FM 16, Tableau connector using Data API (aka "REST API") with FMS
- Requires valid (not default) Certificate on FMS
- Basic example: data source = drag & drop a data file to populate data in a Tableau worksheet.
- Can refresh from the data source (full works better than incremental)
- Build a bar chart of Sales by region. Worksheet.
- The data is manipulated in a "worksheet".
- The visualization will be shared via a "dashboard".
- Dynamic charts: "Show me: Sales by region, with breakdown by color". Intelligent filters auto appear on sidebar menu.
- Typical ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) process can be a slow first step (Extract, from a data warehouse)
- Now connect Tableau worksheet to FileMaker as a data source. Create a Layout with fields you'll want as data source.
- Consider security -- access privileges for users, Data API.
- Let Tableau handle the equivalent of Summary fields.
- Demo set up FMP URL, and set up Actions in Tableau dashboard. Clicking on Tableau (a sement of the bar chart) brings up the record in FMP. Voila!
- Users in your company can use Tableau to subscribe to a data source, and combine that with other data sources, for mashup visualizations in Tableau.
- Publishing a dashboard - via Tableau Server (similar to FMS, this is a full-on server, runs on Windows) to Tableau Desktop native applicaton, or Web (browser, HTML).
- Now...take the Web dashboard and stick it in a FileMaker Web Viewer!
- Another option is Tableau Online (free to publish dashboards, but publicly visible).
- Tableau Public: free, to build dashboards, but publishing only with Tableau Online.
- If you want a free trial and taste of Tableau, get Tableau Public and try it locally. However...
- **Be careful not to publish an FMP URL in public.**
Blog post
https://blog.beezwax.net/2017/05/09/filemaker-16-tableau-a-match-made-in-data-heaven/
Questions for further discussion
- Why recommend this to an organization already using FileMaker?
- great question <more discussion needed>
- See all of the other dashboard/viz options in Tableau!
- Cross-tab or Time-series charting is hard in FM.
- Why is Tableau, and/or Tableau + FileMaker better than the other options?