Tutorial: Configure a Tableau Report in BI Helper with filters
In this tutorial, we will walk through the steps to set up a Tableau report for bursting and distribution in BI Helper, using the Retail Sales Report as an example.
The Title page has a report level filter called District Manager, which we will apply to generate user-specific PDFs and email them to the respective users.
BI Helper follows a three-stage process to generate and distribute Tableau reports — Schedule Report, Generate PDF and Send Email. The detailed steps are as follows:
- Create your BI Helper account at https://portal.bihelper.tech. Sign in and go the Job Summary tab, where you will see the Retail Sales Report. Click on the Edit icon (orange pen) under Actions.
- This takes you to the Schedule Report tab in the Job configuration section. Check that the job name is Retail Sales Report. Save and go to the Generate PDF tab. Enter your Tableau credentials as detailed in the Tableau Online Authentication section below.
- You can now see the Tableau projects and workbooks to which you have access.
- Define the report filter as District Manager (refer to the Filter Configuration section below). Enter the filter values for which the reports are to be run in the table in the Generate PDF tab.
- Save and go to the Send Email tab. Set up and validate your sender mail ID and enter your email subject and body. Click on Update to complete your job setup and return to the Job Summary tab.
Click on the Play button to run the Retail Sales Report. PDFs of the report will be emailed to the recipients defined by you. Your users, both internal and external, don’t need to have Tableau licenses to receive their reports.
Tableau Online Authentication
As part of Tableau Online Authentication, you need to provide BI Helper the Tableau URL, site name, Personal Access Token name and secret.
a. In the following URL: https://prod-apnortheast-a.online.tableau.com/#/site/bihelper/views/RetailSalesReport-Demo_16141395161860/Title?:iid=2, the Tableau URL is https://prod-apnortheast-a.online.tableau.com.
b. Site Name: In the above URL, bihelper is the site name.
c. Personal Access Token and Secret: Personal access tokens provide Tableau users the ability to create long-lived authentication tokens. The tokens allow users to run automation with Tableau REST APIs without requiring hard-coded credentials or interactive login.
Please refer to Tableau Documentation — Personal Access Token for more details on security, use cases, revoking tokens, token lifetime, monitoring token usage, and more.
Filter Configuration
BI Helper supports filter application in a Tableau report. To filter a view using a field, you need to provide BI Helper the Field Name and Field Value. BI Helper will apply all the specified filters to each of the selected views.
The field name and field value must be exactly as shown in the workbook’s underlying data.
Defining the District Manager filter: In the Tableau report, the Field Name of District Manager is DM. This name has to be entered in BI Helper, as shown in the two screenshots below.
Multiple Filters: BI Helper supports the application of multiple filters to a view. The Field Names and Field Values need to be separated by the pipe (|) operator. See the below illustration to apply multiple filters to your report.
To configure a Tableau Report in BI Helper without filters, see this tutorial.
BI Helper
BI Helper bihelper.tech is a simple, secure and cost effective SaaS solution for PDF report distribution in Tableau and Power BI. You only need a single Power BI / Tableau license to generate your PDF reports.
Resource: BI Helper Tutorial | Report Distribution in BI Tools
