8 Replies Latest reply on Jan 15, 2014 7:50 AM by Toby Erkson

What is underlying database structure of the Tableau engine?

John McGraw Jan 14, 2014 1:59 PM

I want to track user hits on Tableau views from month-to-month. How can I access the data that Tableau keeps on this in its underlying database? What is that structure? What are descriptions/definitions for the tables & fields involved?

1. Re: What is underlying database structure of the Tableau engine?

Michelle Eich Jan 14, 2014 2:28 PM (in response to John McGraw)

Hi John,

It's PostgreSQL. I just followed the directions in this link to assign a password to access the Tableau server database just the other day.

http://onlinehelp.tableausoftware.com/v8.0/server/en-us/adminview_postgres_access.htm

However I haven't had any time to play with the tables yet. I would also benefit greatly from learning more about the structure of these tables.
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2. Re: What is underlying database structure of the Tableau engine?

Toby Erkson Jan 14, 2014 2:32 PM (in response to John McGraw)

Unless you work at Tableau you won't get most of those answered. You want to look at the Admin. manual here to access the views within the db that Tableau is allowing us to see. To really get into the guts of the db use DAAP but you're on your own at that point.
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3. Re: What is underlying database structure of the Tableau engine?

John McGraw Jan 15, 2014 4:10 AM (in response to John McGraw)

My thanks to both Michelle & Toby. There answers pointed me in good directions. However something else that I would appreciate is a field dictionary of some sort. For example, the _views_stats has a field named nviews. Does this represent the number of times a workbook has been viewed? I can likely figure most of them out eventually, but it would be much more efficient for me to have a dictionary of tables & fields with their descriptions/definitions. Does such a thing exist?
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4. Re: What is underlying database structure of the Tableau engine?

Michelle Eich Jan 15, 2014 5:56 AM (in response to John McGraw)

Hi John,

In my search of the forums I’ve never found a dictionary….

Perhaps you already know this but it might help to decipher what fields each table has… Tableau Server does include already created views on the Admin - Maintenance side under the Analysis section such as Server Activity, User Activity, View Performance History, etc.
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5. Re: What is underlying database structure of the Tableau engine?

kettan Jan 15, 2014 6:05 AM (in response to John McGraw)

You might like to vote up Easy access to metadata on Tableau Server and thus influence Tableau Corp. to make it easier to access user hits in a future version.

Until then you might find a way by studying following:

Obtaining all admin data from workgroups database
Better late than never: #Tableau 7 data dictionary | Tableau Love
Creating Custom Administrative Views | Tableau Software
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6. Re: What is underlying database structure of the Tableau engine?

John McGraw Jan 15, 2014 6:16 AM (in response to kettan)

Many thanks to you all. Ketan's link to "Better late than never . . . " is exactly what I was looking for. Only hitch is that the actual diagram did not download, but the other views contain descriptions for each table & associated fields. Thanks again to all!
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7. Re: What is underlying database structure of the Tableau engine?

kettan Jan 15, 2014 6:31 AM (in response to John McGraw)

You are welcome!

Russell Christopher has also written about History Tables (new in version 8 I think) which probably should be included in your studies of Tableau Server metadata:

Tableau Server v8 History Tables, Part 3: The Kitchen Sink | Tableau Love
Tableau Server v8 History Tables, Part 2: Events | Tableau Love
#Tableau Server v8 History Tables | Tableau Love
Better late than never: #Tableau 7 data dictionary | Tableau Love
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8. Re: What is underlying database structure of the Tableau engine?

Toby Erkson Jan 15, 2014 7:50 AM (in response to John McGraw)

John, email me or allow your email to be viewable by Registered Users or Connections (and make me a Connection).
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