The "Export to Tableau" action is super helpful if Tableau is your tool for data visualization.
With Tableau's Data Management add-ons Virtual Connections and Data Policies plus the approaching Composable Data Sources it will be valuable to have an additional EM action to read hyper files (file-based, but especially from Tableau Online/Server). Of course, the dset approach is the EM native compressed data set with an similar idea.
But if Tableau is the main data viz tool/platform, it is helpful to use your data policies defined on Tableau Server and make use of the superfast hyper format. If the live connection to the database is slow, or you read multiple millions of records, hyper extract can deliver next-level performance.
Would love to see the integration: "Import from Tableau"
Additional remarks:
Reading hyper files might also open analysis options for CSViewer.
Recent tests unveil that currently it is not possible to use already published hyper files on Tableau Server within virtual connections. No information, if Tableau works on that possibility and how capable the current API methods for virtual connections
As far as I'm aware, currently, Tableau doesn't provide a way to import data from a virtual connection via an API.
We're considering adding support for Hyper's SQL dialect and making it possible to query Hyper files directly on Tableau Server, but that can potentially have a number of limitations:
- It's not clear whether reading a .hyper file from another application won't create access conflicts with Tableau and disrupt its work
- This will only work with Tableau Server, but not in Tableau Cloud
- If querying a .hyper file would happen at the moment Tableau Server updates it, it may also produce errors
- The way Tableau Server stores .hyper files can make it unobvious where the necessary data resides because the actual file name may differ from the data extract name shown to the user
All in all, at this point, it looks like it's better to wait until Tableau offers native APIs for importing data from extracts and virtual connections by 3rd parties.
I understand your concerns. Regrading the virtual connections I'm currently elaborating with Tableau (partners) what is possible now and what ideas are there for the future in terms of access via 3rd party tools.
In general, as Tableau offers an Hyper API, it is up to Tableau to ensure that most of your mentioned concerns/risks are mitigated.
In our case we are more referring to what you envision for EasyMorph as a computing platform, where also the hyper files on Tableau Server are generated and updated via EasyMorph. So Tableau Server will handle data storage, data access policies (as long as there is no alternative on EM server) and is a possible entry point for self-service visualizations.