14 Replies Latest reply on Apr 25, 2018 9:40 AM by philip.watkinson

ESRI to Tableau Connection

Allan Walker May 10, 2013 9:22 AM

Hi folks,

I've managed to connect to ESRI and pull the data dynamically into Tableau.

This method will work for your personal geodatabases.

In ESRI:

Go to your Catalog, right click, and add a folder (this stage is optional, but you'll probably want to create projects in folders)
Right click the folder and create personal geodatabase. Call this the name of your project
RIght click on your personal geodatabase and create a table.
You'll be using the Microsoft Jet Engine to connect to this: you may have noticed that the file extension of the personal geodatabase is .mdb

In Tableau:

Connect to data. Use Microsoft Access.
Browse to your projectname.mdb (this will probably be in C: drive -> your name -> your documents -> ArcGIS -> optional folder name
Connect to your table. You can choose to work live or extract.
Now, you can make the changes you want in ESRI. Here is a pointfile of every airport in the world, connected using this method in Tableau.

ESRI and Tableau side-by-side using Microsoft Jet Engine.

This opens up a whole new world. You can now easily create custom boundaries, geocode addresses, create lines from X/Y (rhumb, great circles)...what ever you need to do in ESRI. The only limitation is 2GB file size.

Best Regards,

Allan

1. Re: ESRI to Tableau Connection

Alex Kerin May 10, 2013 8:47 AM (in response to Allan Walker)

Nice work Allan - any idea what 2GB would get you - all addresses for US?, for a state?
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2. Re: ESRI to Tableau Connection

Allan Walker May 22, 2013 3:17 PM (in response to Alex Kerin)

Alex, I'm investigating another couple of options. One is to the use the Datadirect ODBC XML driver to connect to the file geodatabase: this would kill off that limitation. The other option is FDO from OSGEO.

To give you an idea of what's possible with this method: The OpenFlights.org data in Great Circles produced a 1.89 GB point shapefile. 13,000,000 rows. What you see above is a 60,000 row table.

Message was edited by: Allan Walker: added link to OpenFlights in Tableau TDE
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3. Re: ESRI to Tableau Connection

Allan Walker May 10, 2013 9:25 AM (in response to Alex Kerin)

Alex,

As Shawn is working on ZCTA's Zipcodes, if I have time I'll pull that and geo-code it with addresses. Kind of time-crunched again though.

Best Regards,

Allan
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4. Re: ESRI to Tableau Connection

Michael Cristiani May 10, 2013 12:46 PM (in response to Allan Walker)
Allan,

Any more detail on what happens in these steps?

RIght click on your personal geodatabase and create a table.
You'll be using the Microsoft Jet Engine to connect to this: you may have noticed that the file extension of the personal geodatabase is .mdb

You showed a point file, so I am guessing you imported a plain text file with lat/long fields or something like that? OR maybe it was the attribute file from a shp file? I am just a bit curious what goes on in these two steps.

MANY BLESSINGS!
Michael
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5. Re: ESRI to Tableau Connection

Allan Walker May 10, 2013 1:06 PM (in response to Michael Cristiani)

Hi Michael,

If you wanted to do a SHP file, you could export this to a personal geodatabase. Here's a screenshot of the Global GADM shapefile:
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6. Re: ESRI to Tableau Connection

Dustin Smith May 12, 2013 2:33 PM (in response to Allan Walker)

Oh man this is cool. Anything about this process that wouldn't work in QGIS?
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7. Re: ESRI to Tableau Connection

Allan Walker May 13, 2013 7:16 AM (in response to Dustin Smith)

Hi Dustin,

Once I "crack" the ESRI file database (it's either the API or the XML), then we can import/connect to QGIS.
QGIS can be a bit flaky though, and the code changes a lot. I might be able to crack the EVIS ODBC plug in, so there is hope.

Best Regards,

Allan
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8. Re: ESRI to Tableau Connection

Marcel Wijnberger May 22, 2013 2:36 AM (in response to Allan Walker)

Allan Walker wrote:

This opens up a whole new world. You can now easily create custom boundaries, geocode addresses, create lines from X/Y (rhumb, great circles)...what ever you need to do in ESRI. The only limitation is 2GB file size.

Allan,

i can see use for point-file use, like the example of the airports. How about the other ones (custom boundaries, create lines from X/Y etc...

could you please shown an example (or workbook) for them just like the airports example for point-files ?

regards,

Marcel
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9. Re: ESRI to Tableau Connection

Allan Walker May 22, 2013 6:34 AM (in response to Marcel Wijnberger)
Hi Marcel,

For Polygon SHP -

If not already done, add XY from geoprocessing toolbox
Export SHP (FeatureClass to FeatureClass) to single geodatabase (personal mdb, not file geodatabase)
Connect via Access to the mdb, you'll see the table names.

I'm working on the GADM.org Shapefile right now, I want to show how much we can push this method.
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10. Re: ESRI to Tableau Connection

Allan Walker May 22, 2013 3:20 PM (in response to Allan Walker)
Marcel,

Here's (part) of the GADM set, dynamically linked to ESRI.

Afghanistan & Argentina boundaries in Tableau:

Steps needed:
In ESRI, pull the SHP file over to layers.
In ESRI, use ET Wizard to do polygon to point, vertices only, save as Featureclass into your personal GDB (mdb)
In Tableau, connect to the mdb using Access, point to the new Featureclass you created table (WORKBOOK HERE)
In Tableau, make ET_X AVG and ET_Y AVG Continuous dimensions.
Use polygon mark type
Path = ET_Order
LOD = ET_ID

You can now have boundary level detail in Tableau. I'm off to strip the SHP table down, to see if the Global GADM will fit inside the 2GB limit.
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11. Re: ESRI to Tableau Connection

Allan Walker Jun 3, 2013 1:34 PM (in response to Dustin Smith)

Hi Dustin,

For QGIS, export your shapefiles to an instance of PostGIS in PostgreSQL, which I did to get the OpenStreetMap.osm shapefiles in. You could then either serve up the PostGIS tables in Geoserver, or connect to the shapes using a PostgreSQL connection inside Tableau.

Best Regards,

Allan
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12. Re: ESRI to Tableau Connection

anastasia aourik Apr 30, 2015 2:17 PM (in response to Allan Walker)

This may be old...
So I've got a full blown ESRI environment and some tableau folks want my
Company District Boundaries to be imported in tableau... POLYGON featureclass
I tried giving them Personal Geodatabase - told them to connect using access
but this does not work.

has there been any progress from tableau on this???
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13. Re: ESRI to Tableau Connection

allan.walker.0 May 13, 2015 7:55 AM (in response to anastasia aourik)

Hello Anastasia,

You need to convert your ESRI Shapefile polygon class to "Tableau ready" polygon format, i.e. give them a point order.

To enable this in ESRI, use ET Wizards "Polygon to Point" tool. It will generate more columns - "ET_Order", "ET_ID", "ET_X" and "ET_Y". X on columns, Y on rows, ET_ID on level of detail, ET_Order on path shelves. You can use the same connection method as before.

Best Regards,

Allan
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14. Re: ESRI to Tableau Connection

philip.watkinson Apr 25, 2018 9:40 AM (in response to Allan Walker)

Hi Allan,

I downloaded the shape files that I need from the U.S. Census Bureau, so that's covered. However, I need a method to plug in the Census data from one of their gdb files. How can I go about doing that in an effective manner in Tableau 10.5?
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