Developing smart alerts using Tableau

Manojraj, Analyst II- business intelligence, MiQ

When using most visualization tools, like Tableau, we have to log on to the tool to see the data to make decisions. This is called a pull medium, which is a manual process. Periodic reports are sent to the client or internal teams by downloading (pulling) them manually as a PDF or JPEG from the Tableau server. The reports are attached to an email and sent to clients. Because this process is so manual, it can result in delays. How can we fix this problem? Is there an automated solution? And how can we increase engagement through analytics? Let’s learn how to send an email from a Tableau dashboard and also attach a Tableau report using Tableau Server Subscriptions.

A peek into the process

One analyst at MiQ can support anywhere from five-ten clients on any given month. They analyze huge volumes of data from a variety of sources. In such scenarios, the volume and the quality of the data is critical to the business insights that they produce. The drop in data volumes for a variety of technical reasons is blocking their progress. So they conduct volume checks on data sources manually on a weekly/biweekly basis. This approach is not scalable when they add more clients to their portfolio. A simple alert email to key stakeholders will increase the chances of expediting the action and any related resolution. The ability to detect changes in data volumes earlier and informing the relevant stakeholders is critical. MiQ has used this feature in developing a “data quality system” that has significantly improved the actionability for this process.

Let’s look at three points:

1. A detailed explanation of the alerting feature. What are the inputs and tableau elements required to develop this feature?
2. How is the alerting system created helping our analyst teams in the monitoring process and added efficiency to their workflow?
3. An alternative approach to sending reports through subscriptions.

Here’s an example:

An analyst monitors the data volumes for three clients. The following Tableau dashboard presents the information about the stakeholders and the metrics that will be monitored and alerted for.

How to use this feature

We can send emails from Tableau by implementing email IDs as an input in parameter. Custom text can be included to the emails. Using a dashboard ‘Action’ and ‘Mailto’ you can send an email from a Tableau dashboard.

1. The email template is expected to be as follows, in which there are a few fields from the data table and I will use the template to communicate with client

2. We need to compose a URL based on the above email template, which is to be included in a URL action.

3. The syntax of the URL is as follows:

Mailto:<Parameters.SenderEmail>?Subject=<Parameters.Subject>&Body=<Parameters.Text1>. <Parameters.Text2>

4. Create the worksheet which has the metric information which should be shared with the client

5. Create a parameter for Subject, Body & sender email or receiver email

6. In the worksheet click on Worksheet menubar -> Worksheet -> Action

7. In the actions, click on the add action to create an action function over the sheet

8. Select Go to URL option

9. Below popup will be displayed

10. We will select the sheet that contains our field.

11. In the URL textbox, we will type in the below tags which is created as parameters

Mailto:<Parameters.Receiver email>?Subject=<Parameters.Subject> &Body=<Parameters.Text1> <Subscribers>, <Parameters.Text2> <Client name>. <Parameters.Text7> <Conversions previous week> <Parameters.Text8> <Conversions this week> <Parameters.Text3> <WOW> Percentage <Parameters.Text4> <Parameters.Text5>

12. Once you will cover the above step and click on your dashboard it will give you a drop-down option to select the hyperlink

13. Once you click on the Hyperlink (Email to Client) it will redirect you to the email account to send an email to the person whose email id you have mentioned in the parameter

You have successfully created the first automation process using Tableau to send an email.

Another option for automation

You can easily set up subscriptions to send content directly to the inboxes of your targeted end users at the frequency they require. This feature will enable the user to attach a Tableau dashboard as an image or PDF using subscriptions in the Tableau server. You can use tableau Server Subscriptions to email a Tableau dashboard. This would be a whole dashboard that is sent as part of a subscription. A timer can be configured for when to send, and the email won’t be sent if the dashboard is empty.

• One of Tableau’s interactive data visualisation product’s most crucial features is thought to be the Subscriptions feature. It is by far the simplest technique to guarantee that you regularly evaluate the most important and relevant information. Once you’ve subscribed to a dashboard, the data is distributed by email.
• In Tableau, you can easily subscribe to reports that you need on a recurring basis. Subscribed dashboards/sheets will be delivered to your inbox in the form of a PNG image linked to jump directly to the interactive version of the dashboard.
• The user will be notified via e-mail when the report is updated. These schedules are defined by a server administrator

1. Log into the tableau server.

2. Open the view or dashboard to which you wish to subscribe, or subscribe to an entire workbook by opening a single view or dashboard belonging to that workbook.

3. When we hit the Subscribe option the below window will popup

4. Subscribe users — Add the users or user groups in the ‘Subscribe Users’ box that you would like to receive the email. They must have ‘view’ and ‘download Image/PDF’ permissions.

5. You can add yourself manually or select the checkbox next to “Subscribe me.” Including yourself can be beneficial to ensure emails are properly sent as scheduled and make it to the correct inboxes (Note: users who have access to the particular site will be available in users list)

6. Include — Choose whether you want to send the entire workbook or just the current view. If you choose to send the entire workbook, each dashboard will appear in order, one on top of the other vertically.

7. Format — Pick whether you want an image, PDF, or both. If your choice is a PDF, it will arrive as an attachment, and you can choose the size and orientation. An image will be embedded in the email message, which the end-user can directly click on to be taken to the actual dashboard within Tableau Server.

Consider this: If you send an image, it will more likely attract their attention, where a PDF attachment might go easily unnoticed. You can even send both if the end-user could benefit from having the attachment for presentations.

8. Subject — Choose an email header that is something meaningful to alert the receiver to what they are looking at.

Consider this: A good subject line will attract your audience’s attention and increase the chances they open the email over getting ignored or, worse, sent to the trash.

9. Message — This is the email body copy which you can add additional content.

10. Schedule — Select the frequency you want the email sent. You can either pick When Data Refreshes or a decided Frequency. If you choose the latter, you can then decide how often (i.e., daily, weekly, monthly), at what time, and what day(s) you want to send.

11. Click ‘Subscribe,’ and you are good to go.

Subscription is configured and in the scheduled time email with the selected report will be share with the subscribed user.

These simple yet powerful features in Tableau can help improve engagement.