Tableau Commenting Extension

Written by

Which problem does it solve?
It solves the problem of having discussions around particular outliers in visualizations. You can basically select any mark on a dashboard, create a new comment for it and review what other people discussed about it. This particular Tableau Extension is commenting on Order IDs, but you can easily adjust it to comment on mark you want!

How does this look like?

How can I get it?

Step-by-Step

Step-by-Step Installation

Extract both Extensions into “My Tableau Repository/Extension”
Download Extensions here
Extract Xampp (Webserver + MySQL directly into your C: drive)
Download Xampp here
Start C:/xampp/xampp_start.exe as administrator
Start Tableau Desktop 2018.3.x or a higher version and open up one of the following workbook
Download Workbooks here

Video Installation

Video Installation

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

Port 8888 is already in use before starting Xampp
(Change the port)
Port 3306 is already in use before starting Xampp
(Change the port)
You’re using an older Tableau Version than 2018.3.x
- Download and install Tableau Desktop 2018.3.x or above
- Open up the workbooks from step 4
- Go to File > Export As and select the version that you want to downgrade to
- Keep in mind that the version needs to support Tableau Extensions. Therefore 2018.2 or above is required

If it’s still not working see how you can debug Tableau Extensions generally


Files from the Video:
1. Download Chromium
2. Start Tableau Desktop 2018.3 (with Extension in Debug Mode)

Comments

28 responses to “Tableau Commenting Extension”

19. December 2018

Timo Tautenhahn

If you’re already using the “Tableau Photo Booth” you don’t need to repeat step 2. Just do the following steps instead of step 2 from above and leverage your existing Xampp:

1) Start your XAMPP from the “Tableau Photo Booth” blog post

2) Navigate to phpMyAdmin within the browser (via http://localhost:8888 and the button on the top right)

3) Import the following 2 SQL statements by extracting this zip file and copy+paste the content into phpMyAdmin->Import

Reply
16. May 2019

Srinivas

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to implement Tableau Write Back functionality and followed step by step procedure mentioned in the below link. https://tableaufans.com/extension-api/tableau-commenting-extension/

But for some reason, when I click on Submit after entering the comment, the comment is not inserting into database.

Below is the version which I am using to test the functionality:

Desktop Version : 2018.3

Server protocol configuration: HTTP

Can you please help me to fix this issue.

Reply
1. 16. May 2019
  
  Timo Tautenhahn
  
  Hey Srinivas,
  did you try to open up Tableau Desktop in debugging mode as described in the troubleshooting section? What do you see in the console?
  
  Reply
2. September 2019

Santhosh Sekar

Hi,
Im getting this error when I try to start the xamp_start.exe. PLease help.

only one usage of each socket address is normally permitted.
could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:443
no listening sockets available. Shutting down.
unable to open logs

Reply
1. 3. September 2019
  
  Timo Tautenhahn
  
  Hi Santosh,
  Did you adjust some configurations as my setup is not using port 443? Does it work with the default settings?
  
  It looks like something is already running under the port 443 (which shouldn‘t be used in my default setup as this requires some more adjustments).
  
  Cheers,
  Timo
  
  Reply
2. 26. September 2019
  
  Timo Tautenhahn
  
  You can also simply use this QUICKSTART guide
  (XAMPP with DB fully set up incl 3 Write Back Extensions)
  
  Reply
24. September 2019

Dwayne Bates

Can this be used with SQL Server?

Reply
1. 26. September 2019
  
  Timo Tautenhahn
  
  Hi Dwayne,
  absolutely! Just find the following post: https://tableaufans.com/extension-api/how-to-write-back-data-to-microsoft-sql-server/
  
  Reply
18. June 2020

Abraham

Cool feature – Do you have installation instructions for the Tableau Hosted version? I assume I have to make some additional changes to write back to a db (snowflake in my case)

Reply
1. 22. June 2020
  
  Timo Tautenhahn
  
  Hey Abraham,
  thx a lot! There is no hosted version for this particular Extension, but here you can find the “Write back to Snowflake Extension”.
  
  Reply
8. July 2020

Franco

Hi Timo,

How can you keep comments in databases that are updated daily?

Regards

Reply
1. 10. July 2020
  
  Timo Tautenhahn
  
  Hi Franco,
  you simply create an additional table with at least 3 columns:
  comment_id (id of the comment)
  comment_text (comment itself)
  commented_on_id
  The last column is the one you then join to the table which contains your data. So for example you comment on transaction_id (master data table) and you join this to commented_on_id (commenting table). By just adding more columns like user, timestamp and other information you can enrich your commenting so that it becomes even more powerful and to see the full history of all comments per transaction (like you can see in above’s video).
  
  Reply
29. July 2020

Susan Fritz

Does this have to be set up on every PC that would enter and view comments? Or would it be set up by Tableau Admins for the Tableau Server? We have executive level users that need to enter comments through Tableau Server that all other users of the workbooks can see. What your video shows looks great! But before we get with our service desk to assist with downloads and changing it to write to MS SQL Server I wanted to confirm that it can be set up once for the Service Instance. Thank you!

Reply
1. 30. July 2020
  
  Timo Tautenhahn
  
  Hi Susan,
  the scenario you’re describing is absolutely possible and you don’t need to set this up on every PC! Your Tableau admin team could configure Tableau Server to support such a Tableau Extension within your browser easily. Then you simply:
  
  – provide your executives with a dashboard which includes this extension
  – provide normal users with the same dashboard without the extension
  
  Just connect your IT with a Tableau consultant and send him this blog post. They can then set it up.
  Cheers,
  Timo
  
  Reply
24. May 2021

Aamir

Hi Timo,
I am not able to select the worksheet when I add the extension to the dashboard. It just says choose one sheet from and doesn’t give me any options to chose from.

Reply
1. 21. April 2022
  
  Timo Tautenhahn
  
  It‘s possible that I hardcoded the selection for this example. The other option is that I‘m using a public JS library which prevents it from working. Simply open up the chrome debugger in order to see if you get an error like „library degraded“ (find a short tutorial within the debugger section)
  
  Reply
31. May 2021

rachel

Hi,
When I dragged the extension into the testing workbook, there was a ‘Choose 1 sheet from’ bolded text at the bottom, and when I click submit comment, nothing happens. Any idea why?

Also, how do I use this extension with the dashboard I already created? Or does it only work with the sales order id example?
Thank you!

Reply
1. 21. April 2022
  
  Timo Tautenhahn
  
  It‘s possible that I hardcoded the selection for this example. The other option is that I‘m using a public JS library which prevents it from working. Simply open up the chrome debugger in order to see if you get an error like „library degraded“ (find a short tutorial within the debugger section)
  
  Reply
1. July 2021

Andrea Valdez Hernandez

Hi, Tim! I love your extension, however i cannot login. Have you change the user or password?

Reply
1. 21. April 2022
  
  Timo Tautenhahn
  
  Nope, I don‘t think I changed the PW. It should be admin/admin for this asset. What‘s the exact error message you get?
  
  Reply
20. April 2022

Kimberly

Hello Timo,
I know this post is a while ago, but what you have shown is something my users really need. I tried to duplicate the scenario on my local laptop first. However, I am using a mac, but your download file for xampp is for windows. I tried to download it myself, but that one won’t have “yoursqldb” database. Also I am not entirely sure if I have set it up correctly. Could you assist on how this works for mac?
Many thanks!

Reply
1. 21. April 2022
  
  Timo Tautenhahn
  
  You could setup any webserver + database yourself and use this tutorial to setup the ports + database yourself like it‘s described here: https://tableaufans.com/extension-api/tableau-extension-api-write-back-updated-source-code-for-tableau-2018-2/
  
  Reply
17. May 2022

Liu Zhu

I want to change mysql to oracel, Could you give me solution

Reply
1. 13. July 2022
  
  Timo Tautenhahn
  
  Just look at the following posts which describe what you need to adjust to write data to MS SQL, SAP HANA or Snowflake and make similar adjustments to write data back to Oracle.
  
  – Snowflake
  – MS SQL
  – SAP HANA
  
  If you want to contribute your work back to the community I’m happy to let you post about it once you’ve successfully set it up.
  
  Reply
13. February 2023

Brianna

Hi again, Timo!
I was able to delete the X button and the text ‘Choose 1 Sheet from’ under it from the Basic.hmtl file. When I click ‘Submit Comment’ nothing happens. Is there something we need to update to point the extension to the localhost db?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!!

Reply
1. 17. February 2023
  
  Timo Tautenhahn
  
  Hi Brianna,
  It might be a case that one of the libraries is outdated. Can you please open up the console in Chrome to see if there is any warning/error message there?
  
  Reply
31. October 2023

Swan Glenn

Source code to use in EFOSS. Where can i get the source code url to be able to exact url to a .zip or .tar file containing the source code of the requested component version, most commonly found on github. This is what gets scanned. A good way to test this is to navigate to the link in a new tab: if you are prompted to download a file/folder, the link is correct.

Reply
1. 3. November 2023
  
  Timo Tautenhahn
  
  you can find the source code in the Xampp folder structure: xampp\htdocs\extensions-api-master\myExtensions\Tableaufans-Commenting-Extension
  
  Reply