13 Replies Latest reply on May 9, 2019 11:29 AM by Hari Ankem

How do switch pdf based on a filter?

Daniel Coutinho May 8, 2019 7:54 AM

Here is the challenge I am having and hoping someone can assist on it.

I have a table with multiple buildings and floors and several dimensions pertained to occupancy on those buildings/floors. I.E. how many people are assigned to work on those floors, how many workpoints there are, etc.

I want to be able to, as one filters through the buildings/floors, show the floor plan of that floor in the dashboard, these floor plans are in PDF files.

Someone already solved for it if we are talking about images (png) QT: Dynamically Switch Images Using Filter , but the method doesn't work with PDF files.

Let me know if anyone has a solution for this.

1. Re: How do switch pdf based on a filter?

Mavis Liu May 8, 2019 8:00 AM (in response to Daniel Coutinho)

Hi Daniel,

Can the PDFs be converted to images?

Thanks,

Mavis
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
2. Re: How do switch pdf based on a filter?

Daniel Coutinho May 8, 2019 8:55 AM (in response to Mavis Liu)

Hi Mavis,

I would rather not have them converted as images first (manual process) and have the pdf's with the floor plans directly displayed. Unless there was a way to use Tableau to automatically convert them to images before showing. I don't want to create a manual step in the process.
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
3. Re: How do switch pdf based on a filter?

Mavis Liu May 8, 2019 12:57 PM (in response to Daniel Coutinho)

Hi Daniel,

Then unfortunately I don't know a way of bringing PDFs in, my only method I had was converting it into an image!

Thanks,

Mavis
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
4. Re: How do switch pdf based on a filter?

Daniel Coutinho May 8, 2019 1:18 PM (in response to Mavis Liu)

Hi Mavis, can you share your method regardless? Maybe it is different from the one I mentioned above and more user friendly than having to set up each individual image
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
5. Re: How do switch pdf based on a filter?

Joe Oppelt May 8, 2019 2:38 PM (in response to Daniel Coutinho)

When you filter a floor, is your filter a single-select filter? Or can a user select 2 or 10 floors?

If single select, then I can suggest using a parameter instead, and with a parameter you can swap pdf files.

But before I get into a long discussion of how to do that, let me know how you are filtering stuff.
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
6. Re: How do switch pdf based on a filter?

Peter Fakan May 8, 2019 3:11 PM (in response to Daniel Coutinho)

Hi Daniel,

I just cheat and use MS Paint to extract the image out of the .pdf and then save it as a .png and you can import that image into your viz.

HTH

Peter
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
7. Re: How do switch pdf based on a filter?

Daniel Coutinho May 9, 2019 7:27 AM (in response to Joe Oppelt)

Hi Joe,

It is single filter so only one floor plan can show at a time. Users cannot filter 2 floors or more at the same time.
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
8. Re: How do switch pdf based on a filter?

Joe Oppelt May 9, 2019 8:05 AM (in response to Daniel Coutinho)

Do you have it set up that you are able to display one PDF on a dashboard? For instance, if you host the PDF on a web page, you can just display that as a web object.

There are plenty of links that discuss this:

Tableau Tip: Embedding a Presentation in a Dashboard

Embed a word document on tableau dashboard

Embed a Document of Notes in Tableau

If you can do that, there are multiple ways we can make tableau display the proper PDF. Are you able to get your PDFs displayed on a web page?
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
9. Re: How do switch pdf based on a filter?

Daniel Coutinho May 9, 2019 9:22 AM (in response to Joe Oppelt)

Hi Joe,

I know how to do it from a web page and to use the filters to filter the page as well. However, we do not intend to host these pdfs anywhere.

I really wanted to be able to show the pdfs directly, not convert to image nor host in a web page first.

And I haven't even found a way to display a single PDF on tableau. Not sure if there is one.
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
10. Re: How do switch pdf based on a filter?

Joe Oppelt May 9, 2019 9:43 AM (in response to Daniel Coutinho)

Daniel Coutinho wrote:

...

And I haven't even found a way to display a single PDF on tableau. Not sure if there is one.
Via web site is the only way I know.

If you decide to go that way, we can talk about how to change from one to the other. I have several things you can do.
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
11. Re: How do switch pdf based on a filter?

Hari Ankem May 9, 2019 9:58 AM (in response to Daniel Coutinho)

Here is an example of how I used images in one of the dashboards I was building. The image changes when I change my parameter value.
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
12. Re: How do switch pdf based on a filter?

Daniel Coutinho May 9, 2019 10:52 AM (in response to Hari Ankem)

Hi Hari,

Those are images (png, jpeg, etc) correct? So not pdf.

And if so, is this the method you used? QT: Dynamically Switch Images Using Filter

Because if there is another method that doesn't require setting up every image for every filter I would much like to know.
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
13. Re: How do switch pdf based on a filter?

Hari Ankem May 9, 2019 11:29 AM (in response to Daniel Coutinho)

Yes, that's the method used and I have used png images.
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions