News

Tableau Data Visualization Tool Revamps Mobile Experience

• By David Ramel
• September 15, 2015

Tableau Software Inc. today announced an upgrade to its data visualization tool that adds a new mobile experience.

Following the company's philosophy of helping users access data wherever it resides from wherever they happen to be, in the office or on the go, Tableau 9.1 includes a new mobile app and a new Web data connector, Tableau said.

"Tableau 9.1 builds on our mission to help people see and understand data, no matter where the data resides and what device they're using," said exec Chris Stolte in a statement today. "We've made significant investments in enterprise features and an entirely new mobile app. We also created a Web data connector that helps developers extend Tableau to connect to a limitless number of sources from Facebook to Twitter and Google Sheets. New native connectors to critical data sources such as SAP and Google Cloud SQL are also included."

Developers can also create their own Web data connectors to access any Web-based data in JSON, XML, HTML or other formats. A Tableau Web Data Connector Software Development Kit (SDK) includes templates, example code, a test simulator and documentation to help developers create connectors with JavaScript and HTML.

"The Web data connector helps people choose and connect to any data they want to use," the company quoted Craig Bloodworth, an exec at Tableau partner The Information Lab, as saying. "We've already seen a plethora of connectors being built, from Fitbit to Facebook, Quandl to Import.io ... and we're just getting started. What's amazed me is how quickly the connectors have been produced without the need for programming skills. I've been inspired to create visualizations of my own quantified self data, something that I've never done in my previous five years of Tableau use."

In addition to the new Web data connector, the tooling update features other native connectors to Google Cloud SQL and Amazon Aurora, along with supporting multiple data services in the Microsoft Azure cloud.

"Tableau 9.1 continues to build on enterprise-class Tableau Server, providing more flexibility for companies to more easily manage their deployments," the company said. "Capabilities such as Single Sign On for SAP HANA and support for SAP variables, Mutual SSL Authentication, Product Updates, Scheduled Active Directory Sync, and Rest API updates make it easier to deliver self-service analytics at scale."

A free trial of the data visualization tool is available.