Access to Salesforce.com Data Through Tableau Desktop
- by dataintegration
This article will explain how to connect to any of the RSSBus OData Connectors with Tableau's business intelligence tool. While
the example uses the Salesforce Connector, the same process can be followed for any of the OData Connectors.
Step 1: Download and install both the Salesforce Connector from RSSBus and Tableau Desktop from Tableau.
Step 2: Next you will want to configure the Salesforce Connector to connect with your Salesforce.com account. If you browse to the Help
tab in the Salesforce Connector application, there is a link to the Getting Started Guide which will walk you through setting up the
Salesforce Connector.
Step 3: Once you have successfully configured the Salesforce Connector application, you will want to open Tableau and select the Connect to data option
at the top left of the window.
Step 4: Here you will click on the option labeled OData under the section labeled On a server.
Step 5: A new pop up will appear. The box under Step 1 of the pop-up must contain the OData URL of the Salesforce Connector table. You can find this
by clicking on the Settings tab of the Salesforce Connector. Once you have found the OData entry URL, you will need to append the table name that you want Tableau
to connect with to the OData entry URL. In this example, we will connect to the Account table. Thus, the URL we enter will be:
http://localhost:8181/sfconnector/data/conn/odata.rsc/Account. You will also need to add authentication options in this step. To do this, select the
Use a Username and Password option in Step 2 of the pop-up and enter the Username and Password of the user who has access to the Salesforce Connector.
When you are done, click the Connect button in Step 3 of the pop-up.
Step 6: When the connection to the Salesforce Connector is successful, give the connection a name and click the OK button.
Step 7: The table columns will be listed on the left side under the Dimensions section of the workspace.
Step 8: To view your Salesforce.com data, you can right click under the table name in the Data section at the top left of the dashboard and select the
View Data option. Your Saleforce.com data will appear in Tableau.