ACPT Tableau Extensions

ACPT - Analytica with TableauACPT Tableau Extensions

ACPT makes Tableau dynamically interactive. You create Tableau dashboards to visualize results from your Analytica model running in ACP. You can embed Analytica user inputs in a Tableau dashboard -- to specify numbers, pulldown menus, or select a point on a map. When your end users change an input, it reruns the model and updates the results on the the dashboard.

Read this page on how to add the Analytica extensions into a Tableau dashboard. If you have ACP installed on your own server and you want to run ACPT, you will need to add the extensions you want to use to your server first. See Installing ACPT Extensions on Your Server.

Overview

You can add these Tableau Dashboard extensions into a Tableau workbook to let it interact with an Analytica model via ACP. These extensions let you add user inputs into a Tableau Dashboard. When a user modifies a user input, Tableau redisplays any output tables or charts that are affected by the value of the input.

There are three types of extension:

• Settings extension: You need this in every Tableau Dashboard that uses the other extensions. It specifies the ACP credentials and the name of the Analytica model. It starts an ACP Session with that model (if it isn’t already running) and sends the user’s Tableau user name to the model.
• User Input extension: You create one of these for each user input in the model that you want ACPT users to be able to access from the Tableau dashboard. Each user input is linked to a corresponding user input node in the Analytica model. User input styles include a field to enter a number or text, a checkbox (not yet implemented), or a pulldown choice menu, corresponding with the user input style in the Analytica model.
• Map Tableau extension: You create one of these for each visual in the model that you want ACPT users to be able to select any single point and get more information from the Tableau dashboard.

Here is a brief tutorial and more information about how to configure and use these extensions:

To add an extension

To add an extension into a Tableau dashboard

1. Open your online Tableau workbook. (It doesn't yet work for Tableau desktop. More below.):

a. Go to: http://tableau-dev.analytica.com/

b. Sign in using your tableau account

c. Select your workbook

1. Insert an extension

a. In your Tableau workbook, click “Edit” on the bar near the top right

b. Open the dashboard tab you want the extension to be in

c. Drag the “Extension” button from the bottom left to where you want it to be in the Dashboard

d. Select “My Extensions” in the new window that pops up and navigate to the .trex extension you wish to open

See the sections below for how to configure each type of extension.

ACP Settings (acpSettings.trex)

1. You must use this extension in any dashboard if you want to use one of the other extensions — e.g. a User input or Map extension.

2. In order for ACP settings extension to work, you need to have a “special” worksheet present in the dashboard called userIdSheet which contains a calculated field containing the Tableau user name.

special worksheet looks like this, but doesn’t have to be visible in the dashboard, just needs to be present i.e. it can be an “invisible worksheet”.

3. When you open a dashboard containing this extension

• Checks to see if the model is open
• If not, it starts it up.
• Loads Tableau user ID into Analytica variable Tableau_UserID. (Make sure your model has this variable present.)
  • That should trigger ACP to load in user inputs from User Inputs.csv
  • Or if that user file doesn’t exist, it saves the defaults to User Inputs.csv

4. Upon selecting the .trex, you should see the following menu

5. Sign in with your ACP credentials (e.g. our group name is Lumina)

6. Hit Sign in; two new input menus should appear

7. Using the dropdown lists, select which Project this pertains to and which Analytica model it uses

8. Hit “Save settings”

9. You should now see text saying “Model is open.” to confirm the extension is running correctly

• It is important to save your model by going to File -> Save and then File -> Close to exit back to the View mode

Notes:

If other extensions give an error saying:

• Tableau extension initialized.

Checking if model is open...

• Waiting for model to open……….

• Timed out. Refresh to try again.

1. Try refreshing the page

2. If it still isn’t working, you’ll have to go to Edit mode, remove and reinsert the extension

3. If it still isn’t working, it’s likely Tableau Server acting up and you’ll probably need to contact someone that’s able to reset the server

User Input (userInput.trex)

1. Make sure you include the ACP Settings extension in the Dashboard to open the model, before you add a User Input extension.

2. Make sure the dashboard you are working with in Tableau Server has the name as the corresponding title of the module in the model you are working with. E.g. Price Projects is the module title and Price Projections is also the Dashboard Name.

3. Upon selecting the .trex, you should see the following menu which is a list of the user inputs in the module that correspond to the name of the Dashboard.

4. Click the drop-down box and select from the list which user input you’d like to make malleable

5. Click the blue “Set” button

6. Once selected, you should see a field like the one below:

7. You can now change the numbers in this box and press the Enter key to permeate your changes to the surrounding applicable graphs

• You should now save your model by going to File -> Save and then File -> Close to exit back to the View mode

Notes:

1. This will still be interactable in View mode

2. If the extension appears blank or any other error occurs, the problem is either:

• The ACP Settings extension is not present or is not working correctly / has an incorrect version of the model selected
• None of the current graphs in the dashboard support user inputs (no corresponding inputs/outputs in the Analytica module)

Map Tableau (mapTableau-dev.trex)

1. Upon selecting the .trex, you should see the following menu

2. Click the drop-down box and select from the list which user input you’d like to make malleable

3. After making a selection, a new menu will appear

4. Repeat step 2.

5. A new multiple selection menu will appear

6. Click on the desired field(s), holding the CTRL key to select multiple.

• To select all fields, simply click any of the fields and then while holding the CTRL key press the “A” key

7. When done selecting, press the Next button to submit your choices

8. (Subject to change) A new field will appear asking for the identifier. This will be based off of the node’s unique identifier from the AMPERE.ana model. Type in/select the name of your identifier and hit the blue “Set” button to submit your selections.

NOTE: Upon initial submission, you may see an empty extension box. This is normal if you haven’t selected individual points within your chosen “Map Worksheet” (in this example “Nodes” was chosen so a node on the AMPERE map needs to be selected for the appropriate table to appear.

9. Click a point on your chosen “Map Worksheet” to make a table appear where you placed the Extension box

10. You’ll likely see the following load screen:

11. Once loaded, you should see a table like the following:

• You can now safely save your model by going to File -> Save and then File -> Close to exit back to the View mode

Notes:

1. This will still be interactable in View mode

2. If the extension appears blank (for the reason not listed above) or any other error occurs, the problem is either:

• The ACP Settings extension is not working correctly / has an incorrect version of the model selected
• None of the current maps/graphs in the dashboard support additional information

See Also

• ACPT - Analytica with Tableau
• ACPT Architecture
• ACPT: Installation and Setup
• ACPT Tableau Extensions
• Installing ACPT Extensions on Your Server
• ACPT Extension File Hub

ACPT: Installation and SetupACPT Tableau ExtensionsInstalling ACPT Extensions on Your Server