Data Management

Web Data Connector (WDC)

The WDC is a collection of APIs that enables developers to connect Tableau to any data on the web.

Use Cases: Create custom connections to data on the web and make that data available in Tableau.

Benefits: Create your own WDC that reads data from virtually any site that publishes data in JSON, XML, or HTML. Allows for interactivity with your user through forms for selection and filtering.

Examples of existing WDCs: Reddit, Jira, Strava, Twitter, Facebook, Blockspring.

Level of Support: Tableau-supported

Resources:

• Help
• Samples on GitHub
• Project on GitHub

Extract API

Create custom scripts that pull your data into Tableau data extracts.

Use Cases: Connect to data sources with the Extract API and write the data into extract files (in the .hyper file format for Tableau 10.5 and later).

Benefits: If you can connect to your data, you can use the Extract API to create data extracts that improve performance and provide offline access. If you have data sources that are not currently supported, you can use the Extract API to get the data into Tableau. Runs on MacOS, Windows, and Linux systems, and your choice of programming language (C, C++, Java, and Python).

Level of Support: Tableau-supported

Resources:

• Help Extract API 2.0 for .hyper format
• Samples (.hyper format)
• Help Tableau SDK for .tde format, if you are using Tableau 10.4 and earlier
• Samples (.tde format)