<Update: Since this post, Tableau has announced the upcoming availability of a MongoDB Connector by the end of 2015, looks promising…>
I am using the Alteryx MongoDB Connector to generate TDE files to feed Tableau, since Tableau does not offer dedicated extractors. I have to admit that the ramping up was rocky, and that anyone in that situation should benefit from the findings exposed in this post. Extraction is now swift from a AWS hosted MongoDB.
Old habits die hard…
The main obstacle I found when ramping up on Alteryx was to understand how to perform a very basic task: Joining two tables!
The mainstream SQL way to Joins was ingrained in me, reinforced by Tableau Blending and Alteryx has adopted a quite different approach with the objective of being more user friendly by not requiring knowledge of SQL. Yet the first step is tricky, as the Alteryx way can require a sequence that adds the Union tool to the Join tool…
Here is the standard Alteryx explanation:
http://community.alteryx.com/AlteryxArticle?id=kA0E00000000VyhKAE
Yet, I wish I had this excellent resource when I started:
http://www.theinformationlab.co.uk/2015/02/05/joining-data-tables-tableau-alteryx/
When reporting on any type of business performance indicators, it is very useful to compare the actuals to some targets, to visualize attainment. This can be a challenging endeavor in Tableau, as the model offers many different way to aggregate and present data.
Using Superstore sample Data Source, Let’s implement the following business scenario: during the Year 2014 planning exercise, it is decided that 2014 sales should increase uniformly by 80% over 2013 sales, and therefore we want to display the 2014 Actuals performance against this 2014 Plan/Target of 2013 sales * 1.8.
This post shows how to put together a Tableau workbook with an optional display of targets as per below:
Try the On/Off switch for target display and note that selecting a Quarter displays quarter results