Summary

This page provides guidelines for Write-Back administration and management from a technical perspective. It is meant to be used by technical users and system administrators who will be responsible for the Tableau Extension.

How does Write-Back work?

Open

Write-Back Manager

• This tool is used to make the whole configuration process for Write-Back as well as manage the services and settings.

• It is used only by the Write-Back system administrators.

Write-Back Cloud

• Cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) Tableau extension. Users will interact with the Write-Back extension through the Tableau dashboards that can be running on the different Tableau products, i.e., Tableau Desktop, Tableau Cloud, or even Tableau Server.

Dataset Tables

• Write-Back acts as an SQL engine storing the data submitted by users on tables. Whenever a Creator makes a new configuration on Write-Back a table is provisioned on the Write-Back database. This database is provided by Write-Back on a basic configuration but can easily be switched to your database by applying the configuration on Write-Back Manager.

• Since a table is created for each dataset it is advisable to have Write-Back configured to use a separate schema or database inside your database system. This way the Write-Back environment is more contained avoiding issues and you always know for sure that every table has the same origin. You should also have a read-only database user that can be leveraged by Tableau Creators to build dashboards with data sources pointing at Write-Back data. Write-Back table structure only changes if the configuration is changed so bearing this in mind you can leverage this fact by applying ETL, store procedures, or any other mechanism on top of the Write-Back tables.

• By writing to a separate dataset and with the audit mechanism we are sure that, even though we are giving freedom for the Creators and Explorers to be creative and use Write-Back in different ways, the original data is never touched and we can always keep track of who did what. This detailed audit trace can be very important for different reasons:

  • Over time users might introduce inaccurate inputs, and you want to know what was the original submission

  • Any possible mistakes that might arise can always be fixed, no data is overlapped

  • To ensure compliance, you know who did what 

• That is why a separate dataset is the best choice since the extension is fully managing it Write-Back can ensure all the premises above despite user actions

• Dataset tables are stored on a cloud database that can be configured through the Write-Back manager

Data Warehouse

• Your existing data will reside on a separate schema or even a separate database and thus you will need to blend it with Write-Back data by leveraging different mechanisms:

  • Tableau

    • Data blending can be used to associate the Write-Back dataset entries with existing data, the fields chosen from the source sheet can be used as linking fields. For more information check the Tableau documentation. While being easy to use this can have an impact on performance as the joins are done in memory on Tableau. 

    • Relationships and Data source joins allow combining data from different tables that might even be on different databases and thus connect the dataset with existing data. For more information check the Tableau documentation. If you have all data on the same database this option is easy to apply and performance should not be affected, Tableau will push the joins to the database. 

  • Database

    • Create database views. Your existing data will reside on a separate schema or even a separate database and thus you will need to blend it with Write-Back data by leveraging different mechanisms.

• For more details check our Why Writing to a Separate Dataset? article on the Knowledge Base.

How Write-Back works

1. Creator and explorers users open Tableau Desktop and add the extension component to a dashboard that will be used to input data. This dashboard contains not only the extension but also a sheet that is used as a source to drive the data to which the user can add information. After adding the extension object, a trex file should be chosen, this is the file that tells Tableau where is the Write-Back cloud, since Write-Back runs on your environment you should always select my extensions and make sure that all Creators have the corresponding trex file in hand.

2. The user configures Write-Back by specifying the additional fields and types as well as the table where the data set is going to be persisted. When he clicks on submit, this information is sent to the Write-Back backend.

3. The Write-Back backend is responsible for managing the configurations as well as creating the new data set. This means dynamically creating the tables that will support the data set.

4. The power user publishes the dashboard to the Tableau Server ensuring that only the right users have permission to see the dashboard and consequently be able to input data.

5. Tableau Server users can now select existing data and append additional data through the extension, as for example comments or forecast deltas.

6. The backend is responsible for inserting the data submitted by the user on the data set configured.

7. The data stored can then be used as any regular data source configured on Tableau Desktop, either live or as an extract.

8. 3.1 and 6.1 happen just after the corresponding action is done and correspond to auditing all actions done by users. Audit information is kept on a separate table.