Inovista
    
Animator



Creating Tableau Extensions

The Inovista Animator Gallery Extension

This Tableau extension allows a user to take a data-driven animation created in the Inovista Animator and load it into Tableau. Variables in the animation can be linked directly to Tableau data values or defined as user editable properties.


How to use this extension will be explained on this and the following page.
(note that there is also a legacy option which allows the creation of a stand-alone extension and this is defined a later section)

Opening the Tableau Extension Form
Once the animation is ready, go to the 'Image Project' -> 'Export Files' section. Click on the 'Tableau Extension' button.


This will open the Tableau Extension form.

tableau form

The form has 2 tabs, one is  If the animation contains variables which will be used in the extension to map data in Tableau, then the Optional tab allows the entry of a description of each of the variables. These descriptions will be shown as tooltips in the Tableau extension editor popup.

Required Tab
Inside the required tab, there is an option for 'Stand-Alone' or 'Importable'. Use the 'Importable' option to work with the Inovista Animator Gallery Extension.


Define Data and Properties

Each variable has a 'Data' or 'Propery' 'Source Type' option. 'Data' options will be directly linked to a Tableau data item whereas 'Properties' can be set by the designer in Tableau.
pbi edit

If the 'Property' option is selected, the 'edit' button becomes available. Clicking on the 'edit' button will present a dialog box which will help to define how the property is presented in the Tableau Extension popup.
pbi edit

The initial editable options are:

The Property Type options are:


Optional Tab

If variables have been added to the animation, they can be given a description in the 'Optional Tab'. If a description has been entered, they will be used in a tooltip in the Tableau editor popup to help a user understand exactly what the variable represents. If left blank, then they are ignored in Tableau and the 'i' icon will not be shown for any variable that has no description.





Repeating Images
If there are repeating images in the animation, for example a number of images presenting the same information for different entities, repeat the variable name for each entity rather than giving it a new name for each one. If this is the case, when the extension data is mapped in Tableau, then only one item will be shown for each set. (in the example below, only one 'scalex', one 'scaley' and one 'docValue' will be shown in the popup. If the Tableau data is in rows, then the first row will populate the first variable, the second row will populate the second variable and so on.

tableau zip


Resizing Images
To ensure the images resize in Tableau, set the Image Size to a percentage value in the 'Image Project' section.
tableau zip