Setting up Tableau Webhooks Integration: 2 Easy Methods

Tableau is a Business Intelligence tool leveraged by organizations to visualize and gain insights from their data. Tableau is known in the community as a leader in Analytics with a platform that is easy to use and offers countless integrations.

Webhooks are automated messages sent from Apps when any event/thing happens. They deliver a Message or Payload to a certain URL, which is the App’s phone number or location. Webhooks are almost always faster than polling and require less effort on your part.

In this in-depth article, you will get to know about Tableau Webhooks Integration, along with the considerations you should have in mind during the process and the main challenges you might come across while integrating them.

What is Tableau?

Christian Chabot, Pat Hanrahan, and Chris Stolte founded Tableau in 2003 as a Business Intelligence and Data Visualization platform. It became extremely well-known because every firm needed to get critical insights from a variety of data sources while also collaborating with all of the company’s personnel. Visualization is a fantastic way to examine massive volumes of data, and Tableau delivers exactly that.

Key Features of Tableau

• Tableau allows you to ask questions about your data using natural language.
• It links to both On-Premises and Cloud-Based Data.
• It links to any Cloud-based database application, including Salesforce and Google Analytics, as well as SQL-based databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, etc).
• Tableau features a drag-and-drop mechanism that is simple to use.
• Tableau makes it simple to mix data from several sources.
• Tableau offers a variety of visualization methods for exploring and discovering Data Trends.
• Tableau allows you to create Interactive Dashboards and share them with people inside and outside your company.

What is Webhooks?

Polling and Webhooks are two ways for your Apps to communicate with each other and share information. Polling is like knocking on your friend’s door and asking if they have any sugar (aka information), but you have to go and ask for it every time you want it.  Webhooks are like having them throw a bag of sugar at your door every time they buy some. You don’t even have to ask; they just hand it over whenever it’s available.

When something happens, Webhooks send automated messages from Apps. They send a Message or Payload to a unique URL, which is effectively the App’s phone number or address. Webhooks are mostly always faster and take less effort on your part than polling.

Why do you need Tableau Webhook Integration?

Tableau Webhooks enables you to build custom applications or workflows based on the tableau outcomes. With Tableau Webhooks you can send text messages or Slack notifications whenever a data source refresh fails, or when a new workbook is created. You will receive a notification when your workbook is updated. Tableau Webhooks can also be used when a data source is published, email a data steward asking them to review and certify it.

Methods to Set up Tableau Webhooks Integration

• Method 1: Manually Setting up Tableau Webhooks Integration using APIs
• Method 2: Using Hevo Data to Set up Tableau Webhooks Integration

Method 1: Manually Setting up Tableau Webhooks Integration using APIs

• Step 1: Install API Library
• Step 2: Familiarize with Webhooks Events and Methods
• Step 3: Creating Webhooks
• Step 4: Verifying if Webhook is Working

Step 1: Install API Library

Navigate to the user page after logging in to your Tableau Website. Scroll down to Personal Access Tokens in the settings menu. Select the Create New Token option and give your token a name. Copy this Token Name and use it to establish an environment variable for further customizations. 

Now, install the API library in your environment. For installing API library in Python environment, you can use the following code:

Step 2: Familiarize with Webhooks Events and Methods

According to Tableau’s documentation, Webhooks support the following events:

Tableau Server’s Webhook endpoints can be easily controlled using the tableau-api-lib Webhook methods. These are some of the methods:

• create_webhook
• query_webhook
• query_webhooks
• test_webhook
• delete_webhook

You’ll need to give the Webhook a Name, offer a Valid Source API Event Name, and specify a URL where the Webhook’s payload will be delivered whenever our specified event occurs when creating a Webhook.

Step 3: Creating Webhooks

It’s time to start creating Webhooks.  You will understand the whole code for two of the Webhooks here, and you’ll have to build the others on your own. 

A) When a Data Source Refresh Begins, a Webhook is Triggered

Code:

response = conn.create_webhook(
webhook_name='webhook_datasource_refresh_started',
webhook_source_api_event_name='webhook-source-event-datasource-refresh-started',
url='https://webhook.site/<YOUR_STUFF_GOES_HERE>')

After sending the request to generate the Webhook, you will receive the following response from Tableau Server:

When anyone triggers a Data Source refresh, the Webhook will send a Payload to the URL you specified while creating it.

B) When a Data Source Refresh Succeeds, a Webhook is Triggered

Another example of a Webhook is this one, where it will be triggered when a Data Source refresh is successful. Notice how the settings for ‘webhook_source_api_event_name‘ match the event names listed in Tableau’s Webhook event documentation.

Code:

response = conn.create_webhook(
webhook_name='webhook_datasource_refresh_succeeded',
webhook_source_api_event_name='webhook-source-event-datasource-refresh-succeeded',
url='https://webhook.site/<YOUR_STUFF_GOES_HERE>')

That Webhook’s answer is pretty much the same as before:

Step 4: Verifying if Webhook is Working

You need to run a Data Source Refresh from Tableau Server setup to make sure the Webhooks are working as they should. You can visit the destination URL and validate that the Webhook is transmitting its payload after you start the Refresh:

Limitations of Setting up Tableau Webhooks Integration Manually

• Using this method requires you to make API Calls and Code Custom Workflow. Hence, it requires strong technical knowledge. Also, it is very time-consuming.  
• Updating the Existing API calls and Managing Workflow requires immense engineering bandwidth, and hence can be a pain point for many users.
• Since, all the APIs might not be provided in the API library, for unlisted events to take place, new triggers need to be made. Hence, APIs need to be made and set up for every unlisted Event. 

Method 2: Using Hevo Data to Set up Tableau Webhooks Integration

Hevo focuses on three simple steps to get you started

• Connect: Connect Hevo with Webhooks and various other data sources by simply logging in with your credentials.
• Integrate: Consolidate your data from several sources in Hevo’s Google BigQuery-powered Managed Data Warehouse and automatically transform it into an analysis-ready form.
• Visualize: Connect Hevo with your desired BI tool such as Tableau and easily visualize your unified data to gain better insights.

As can be seen, you are simply required to enter the corresponding credentials to implement this fully automated data pipeline without using any code.

Let’s look at some salient features of Hevo

• Fully Managed: It requires no management and maintenance as Hevo is a fully automated platform.
• Data Transformation: It provides a simple interface to perfect, modify, and enrich the data you want to transfer. 
• Real-Time: Hevo offers real-time data migration. So, your data is always ready for analysis.
• Schema Management: Hevo can automatically detect the schema of the incoming data and maps it to the destination schema.
• Live Monitoring: Advanced monitoring gives you a one-stop view to watch all the activities that occur within pipelines.
• Live Support: Hevo team is available round the clock to extend exceptional support to its customers through chat, email, and support calls.

What events in Tableau Server/Online can be used with webhooks?

Trigger Events

The following trigger events are supported in the tableau:

event Name	webhook-source Name
DatasourceRefreshStarted	webhook-source-event-datasource-refresh-started
DatasourceRefreshSucceeded	webhook-source-event-datasource-refresh-succeeded
DatasourceRefreshFailed	webhook-source-event-datasource-refresh-failed
DatasourceUpdated	webhook-source-event-datasource-updated
DatasourceCreated	webhook-source-event-datasource-created
DatasourceDeleted	webhook-source-event-datasource-deleted
WorkbookUpdated	webhook-source-event-workbook-updated
WorkbookCreated	webhook-source-event-workbook-created
WorkbookDeleted	webhook-source-event-workbook-deleted
WorkbookRefreshStarted	webhook-source-event-workbook-refresh-started
WorkbookRefreshSucceeded	webhook-source-event-workbook-refresh-succeeded
WorkbookRefreshFailed	webhook-source-event-workbook-refresh-failed
AdminPromoted	webhook-event-user-promoted-admin
AdminDemoted	webhook-event-user-demoted-admin

Datasource Events  

Datasource events of payloads are the same:  

{
  "resource":"DATASOURCE",

  "event_type":"DatasourceCreated",

  "resource_name":"My Datasource",

  "site_luid":"8b2a95d8-52b9-40a4-8712-cd6da771bd1b",

  "resource_luid":"99",

  "created_at":"2018-11-15T17:14:45Z"
}

Field	Description
resource	Will always be “DATASOURCE” for datasource events.
event_type	Type of event that occurred. Can be DatasourceRefreshStarted, DatasourceRefreshSucceeded, DatasourceRefreshFailed, DatasourceCreated, DatasourceDeleted, or DatasourceUpdated.
resource_name	Name of the datasource in question.
site_luid	LUID for the site that contains the datasource.
resource_luid	The datasource ID.

Workbook Events  

The payloads for the workbook events (created, deleted, updated) are the same:  

{
  "resource":"WORKBOOK",

  "event_type":"WorkbookCreated",

  "resource_name":"My Workbook",

  "site_luid":"8b2a95d8-52b9-40a4-8712-cd6da771bd1b",

  "resource_luid":"99",

  "created_at":"2018-11-15T17:14:45Z"

}

Field	Description
resource	Will always be “WORKBOOK” for workbook events.
event_type	Type of event that occurred. Can be WorkbookRefreshStarted, WorkbookRefreshSucceeded, and WorkbookRefreshFailed.
resource_name	Name of the workbook in question.
site_luid	LUID for the site that contains the workbook.
resource_luid	The workbook ID.

User Events 

The payloads for the user events (AdminPromoted and AdminDemoted) are the same:  

{
  "resource":"USER",

  "event_type":"AdminPromoted",

  "resource_name":"Test user",

  "site_luid":"8b2a95d8-52b9-40a4-8712-cd6da771bd1b",

  "resource_luid":"25",

  "created_at":"2018-11-15T17:14:45Z"

}

Field	Description
resource	Will always be “USER” for user events.
event_type	Type of event that occurred. Can be AdminPromoted or AdminDemoted.
resource_name	Name of the user.
site_luid	LUID for the site that the user has permission to.
resource_luid	The user ID.

Learn More About:

• What is Tableau Dashboard
• Complete Guide to Webhooks Testing

Conclusion

As organizations expand their businesses, managing large volumes of data becomes crucial for achieving the desired efficiency. Tableau Webhooks Integration powers stakeholders and management to collaborate their workflow and build a quality product, meeting the requirements with ease. In case you want to export data from a source of your choice such as Webhooks into your desired Database/destination then Hevo Data is the right choice for you!