Tableau delivers APIs for developers to create new experiences with data analytics

Tableau Software has announced  that it has delivered new APIs that make it possible for developers to build new experiences for its customers and extend the possibilities of Tableau. Developers also have access to Tableau’s Developer Portal, Tableau’s community for developers to share, support and engage with fellow developers.

“Tableau is opening up our platform to provide more choice and flexibility to our customers,” said Francois Ajenstat, Chief Product Officer at Tableau. “It’s about enabling developers to build new experiences for people to more easily see and understand their data. It’s about enabling automation and simplification to deploy Tableau. And it’s unleashing opportunities for developers to integrate embedded analytics into every area of the business.”

Integrating With Your Business Systems

Tableau’s APIs give developers the flexibility to connect with any data source and integrate Tableau in any application for easy embedded analytics. The Tableau Community has used these APIs to build new Web Data Connectors, embed Tableau visualizations into web sites, scrape data and create Tableau extracts, and build a tracking tool to follow interactions with visualizations. These are just a few of the customized integrations with Tableau that help businesses make use of their data no matter where it’s stored, share insights with their customers in real-time and interact with Tableau in the way that works best for their employees and communities.

“We’re dedicated to helping everyone make use of their data, wherever it lives,” said Craig Bloodworth, Chief Technology Officer at The Information Lab. “Tableau’s Web Data Connector makes it easy for us to build connectors that tap into the world of data on the web and help all Tableau users discover brand new insights and make quick decisions.”

Extending the Possibilities with Tableau

Tableau partners are already taking advantage of new Tableau APIs to bring the power of natural language generation (NLG) to Tableau. Automated Insights, Narrative Science and Yseop have leveraged the Tableau JavaScript API enhancements to bring Tableau customers new ways to tell stories with their data.

According to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms* report, “Natural-language generation of insights is the next phase in the evolution from standard reporting to storytelling with descriptive text to augment the visually depicted content.”

“Our extension, Narratives for Tableau, enables Tableau Server, Tableau Public and Tableau Online customers to generate intelligent narratives about their data visualizations that can be easily embedded and shared,” said Stuart Frankel, CEO of Narrative Science. “Advanced NLG enables communication and sharing of data-driven insights more easily and effectively and the market agrees. Narratives for Tableau has only been available for a few weeks but the demand has exceeded our expectations.”

Automating and Simplifying Tableau Deployment

Tableau’s new APIs can help streamline deployments and automate business processes:

• Automate administrative tasks with the REST APIs
  The Tableau REST API has been expanded with more metadata information options, user result filtering, and the ability to return to your Tableau Server version.
• Leverage Data Integration and Data Prep processes
• Using the Web Data Connector, refresh an external Data Prep job from Tableau while remaining in your flow of your analysis.
• Create a template workbook in Tableau and easily deploy that across multiple servers and/or databases
  Keep your data source connection up-to-date with the new Document API
• Extend core Tableau capabilities with value added third-party solutions

“Alation helps organizations using Tableau Server to fully embrace self-service analytics while lowering the barriers to user compliance with data governance policies,” said Satyen Sangani, CEO of Alation. “We’re excited about Tableau’s new APIs because they will enable us to further enhance our joint customers’ experience by surfacing more data governance related information directly to Tableau users from within their data visualizations.”

Sharing Ideas Among the Tableau Developer Community

Tableau 10’s new APIs were created with input from the Tableau Community through its Developer Portal. The portal is designed for developers to access the APIs and SDKs, get samples, share best practices, get support from the community and engage with other developers.

The APIs are available now as part of Tableau 10, the latest version of the company’s software that was launched on August 16.