Tableau Data Source Lifecycle

DataSelf provides preconfigured data source templates for a variety of Reporting Packages. The publishing process makes the templates, and their data, available for reporting.

The publishing process:

1. Connects the data source templates to the appropriate SQL data warehouse,

2. Imports the SQL data in the form of an "extract",

3. Publishes the resulting template-with-data extract to DataSelf Web Server (DataSelf's OEM version of Tableau Server).

The Web Server's extract is then added to the nightly refresh process, so that the end users have their reports with fresh data along with their morning coffee.

"One version of the truth" is easier to maintain when all reports utilize the same published extracts, instead of having a different copy of the data source within each report.

The following link covers the initial publication of Out of the Box or user-created data sources, as well as modifying existing data sources for re-publishing. The document focuses on maintaining the library of templates, updating them, and publishing their extracts for use. It assumes the user already knows the basics of Desktop use and how to add new fields to the underlying SQL data.

https://www.dataself.com/docs/DataSelf_WebServer/PublishingDataSources/PublishingDataSources.html