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Share a Tableau workbook

Sharing Tableau workbooks without exposing Tallyfy data

Section titled “Sharing Tableau workbooks without exposing Tallyfy data”

Disconnect your Tallyfy Analytics data sources before sharing a Tableau workbook. Recipients get all your visualizations and dashboard layouts, but they’ll connect their own credentials. Your connection details stay private.

MethodBest forData protection
Data source disconnectionOne-time sharingMedium - structure visible, data removed
Filtered data extractRecurring sharingHigh - only selected data included
Tableau Server / Tableau CloudTeam collaborationHigh - centralized permission control
PDF/PNG exportQuick, read-only sharingComplete - no data connectivity at all
  • Tableau Desktop installed
  • Working Tallyfy Analytics connection in Tableau
  • Visualizations and dashboards already built

This approach strips your data while preserving the workbook structure. Recipients reconnect with their own credentials.

Confirm your Tableau workbook contains all the visualizations and dashboards you want to share.

Tableau workbook before sharing, open on the Data Source tab with a live QA_A_Combined connection and 93 rows loaded.
  1. In the Data pane, right-click each data source
  2. Select Close to remove the connection

Alternatively, you can redirect the connection instead of closing it:

  1. Go to the Data Source tab

  2. Click the dropdown for each data source

  3. Select Edit Connection

    Data source dropdown for QA_A_Combined open in Tableau, with Edit Connection highlighted while the data is still loaded.

  4. Change the connection path to a non-existent location

    Tableau Data Source tab after the connection was pointed elsewhere, with the test_names.csv join in red and no data rows. Tableau Dashboard 1 faded behind a Dashboard Unavailable message with an Edit Connection link.

  1. Select File > Save As to preserve your original workbook
  2. Give the copy a descriptive name (e.g., “Dashboard - no data”)
  3. Share the saved .twb file with your recipients

Recipients will see connection errors when they open the workbook - that’s expected:

Tableau warning that it can't connect to the QA_A_Combined data source, with Yes, No and Show Details buttons.

They can click to see full error details:

Full error details in Tableau saying test_names.csv was not found, with Copy, Yes, No and Hide Details buttons.

To reconnect their own data:

  1. Click Yes when prompted to connect to data

    Yes button highlighted in the Tableau prompt to connect to data, with the file not found details still showing.

  2. Select Edit Connection and enter their own Tallyfy Analytics credentials

    Edit Connection highlighted in the Process Data connection menu of a shared Tableau workbook that has no data rows.

  3. If Edit Connection doesn’t work, remove the existing connection and create a new one

    Tableau connection menu with Remove highlighted, used to delete a data connection before adding a new one.

  4. Once connected, the dashboard populates with their data

After reconnecting, date fields like due_by and completed_on sometimes need their data types reset. To reset them:

  1. Open the Data Source tab

  2. Find the date fields (e.g., due_by, completed_on)

  3. Right-click the field and select Change Data Type > Date & Time

    Tableau Dashboard 1 filled with data again, showing Task Lateness, Task Lateness by Employee, Time Trend and Processes per Employee charts.

  4. Repeat for any other date fields

  5. Verify that date-based calculations and comparisons work correctly

Don’t want to share everything? Create a filtered extract with just the data you need:

  1. Create a Tableau Data Extract (.hyper file)
  2. Apply filters to limit which rows and columns are included
  3. Save and share the workbook with the embedded extract

Method 3: Publish to Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud

Section titled “Method 3: Publish to Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud”

For enterprise-grade sharing with role-based access control:

  1. Publish the workbook to Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud
  2. Set user permissions to control who sees what
  3. Recipients access dashboards through their browser
  4. Enable or disable download capabilities as needed

For a quick, read-only share with no data connectivity:

  1. Select Dashboard > Export
  2. Choose PDF or Image format
  3. Share the static file
  • Remove unnecessary sheets and dashboards before sharing
  • Document which data sources recipients need and how to connect
  • Test the reconnection process yourself before sending
  • Strip out sensitive calculations or parameters
  • Consider including sample data so recipients can verify the layout works

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