Recently, for the first time I had to connect to an Excel file on a SharePoint site. I was told that by opening Tableau's new data source interface and selecting Excel, I just need to add the URL to the file, such as http://server/site/library/filename.xlsx
It did work at first! We get all the data etc. Then strange thing happened. The data source won't update by refreshing data source, even when we made changes in the Excel table. By searching around and I found the following articles which are very helpful:
UNC Path Naming for files stored on SharePoint
Connecting to SharePoint-Based Excel File
Here is the solution:
Instead of using the URL link, we must use UNC link, which is very similar to the URL: just reverse the slash to be back slash (minus http:)
\\server\site\library\filename.xlsx
What is going on?
The culprit is that the http link tends to store the Excel file in a local cache. Then the file content won't get updated as quickly as we wish. UNC link is linked to the original file without any caching.
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(Refresh the page if you want to view the gif image multiple times. Or go to Tableau Public and click the button at the top-right corner.)
The key idea is to float a semi transparent worksheet on top of the dashboard, where a help text box is strategically placed on top of each chart. This way, we can explain how to view each chart and what data points are important, etc. This worksheet is collapsible by a show/hide button.
Below I would like to show how this worksheet can be constructed.
1. Sheet with a single data mark.
- Double click the empty space in Marks panel and add two single quotes. Make the null pill a text label. This creates a single null mark.
- Set the view as "Entire View"
2. Create an show/hide button
- Go to the target dashboard
- Drag a floating vertical container to the dashboard, making it cover all the area of interest.
- Drag the Single Null Mark sheet and drop it into the above container. Hide the sheet title.
- Create an open/close button for the container and place the button at the top-right corner.
3. Add annotations
- Format the sheet background opacity as 70% in the layout manager
- Select area annotations and place them anywhere of interest.
- Write help text and format it to highlight important messages.
- The text can serve as functional guide and/or insight guide.
Here is an example. Feel free to download the workbook and explore. Click the "i" button at the top-right corner to view the in-place help.
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