Tableau Extension
The Autom8 Tableau (Dashboard) Extension is where the automation “journey” begins. Part of the Tableau dashboard, it is the gateway to sending the data to n8n for any and all actions to be taken.
With this in mind, the Extension is highly configurable and customizable. There is complete control over how the data is sampled from the dashboard and sent out. On top of that, the Extension can be fully styled and themed to blend into the dashboard and its house style.
Basic usage
Getting started with the Autom8 Tableau Extension is simple, and requires only two things to be set up:
The license key; see Licensing & Legal. The key is to be entered by Creators using the Extension in Tableau Desktop or in Web Authoring on Server/Cloud.
The n8n Webhook URL, obtained during the initial n8n node configuration.
With those two settings in place, Autom8 is capable of communicating with n8n and sending the dashboard’s data to the workflow in question. If you’re completely new to Autom8, a good place to start is the Getting Started guide.
Aside from that, all other settings are optional. They are documented further down on this page for reference.
Authentication
While it is indeed also optional, the settings for authentication should carefully be considered for most uses of Autom8 as well. See the dedicated article on Authentication for more information.
A second warning is applicable here:
Tableau Extensions store settings in clear text
When using any Tableau Extension on a dashboard, and configuring its settings, those settings will be stored by Tableau Desktop in the workbook file (twb/twbx), in clear text.
Specifically for Autom8, this means that a Tableau workbook file that can be accessed or downloaded by someone, will give them access to the following two pieces of information:
The license key for Autom8
The Bearer Auth token used for authentication
Normally, this is not an issue. The only people with access to these Tableau workbook files, should be the same Creators with access to this information (license + Bearer Auth token) in the first place.
Nevertheless, it is recommended to remain careful as to how Tableau workbook files are shared and how workbook download permissions are defined on Tableau Server/Cloud.
Full configuration reference
Below is an overview of all the configurable settings for the Autom8 Tableau Extension. They are categorized in 3 sections: connection, form fields, appearance.
Connection
The connection settings are used to determine how Autom8 will carry out communications between the Tableau Extension and n8n. It also contains more general settings like the field for entering the license key.
License key
Field for entering the license key, applicable each time the Extension is placed on a (different) dashboard. For more information, see: Licensing & Legal.
n8n webhook URL
Field for entering the n8n webhook URL, i.e. where the data will be sent when the user/Viewer interacts with Autom8.
One thing to keep in mind is how n8n handles test webhook URLs vs production webhook URLs. For more information, consult:
Getting Started | 3. Testing and sending data from Tableau to n8n
https://docs.n8n.io/integrations/builtin/core-nodes/n8n-nodes-base.webhook/workflow-development/
Bearer token
See: Authentication.
Data approach
This settings determines which data present on the dashboard will be sent to the n8n workflow. Note that this always refers to summary data, and not underlying data. If more details/columns/… need to be sent, it is necessary to add them to the sheet so they’d become part of the summary data of the sheet.
The options for the Data Approach are:
Selected Marks: send exactly those marks that were selected by the user, on a single sheet.
Specific Sheet: send all of the summary data of a sheet; all rows, all columns. When using the “Specific Sheet” option, the sheet in question can be selected in the configuration dialog as well.
All Sheets: send all of the summary data, from all sheets. Bear in mind that when using this, the data from different sheets may have different columns. Autom8 will perform a “dumb” union of all the data on all the sheets. In other words:
If the data structure (columns) is the same on all sheets, this will result in a nicely unioned table with all sheets' uniform data.
If the data structure (columns) is different on the dashboard’s sheets, this will result in a table with gaps in certain columns and certain rows, where there are “mismatches” between sheets.
Refresh dashboard after successful call
Toggle that tells Autom8 to refresh the dashboard’s data for the Viewer after the execution of the n8n workflow. This is useful in scenarios like writeback where the data of the dashboard is directly manipulated by the n8n workflow.
Note that this relies on the n8n node being configured to respond “When Last Node Finishes”. See the documentation for more info: n8n Action Node.