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It's time to take action, with actions in Tableau. Let's take action with Tableau's actions.
What is an action: An action is a change of status because of a specific event or trigger that changes the status of an object. In Tableau the object is a visualization
The job of actions in Tableau: Actions in Tableau allow for the addition of interactivity to Tableau worksheets and dashboards.
Where can I find actions in Tableau: Actions can be found under the worksheet and dashboard menu options.
Types of Interactions (Run action on): We can choose how to interact with dashboards and worksheets. We can interact by hoovering the mouse on the data, selecting the data, using the menu, or using the recently added option, single-select only. All type of interactions acts as a Trigger.
Type of Interactions
Hover Runs When you put your mouse over the marks in the view. This option works well for highlighting and filtering actions within a dashboard.
Select Runs when you click marks in the view. This option works well for all types of actions. If you want to avoid running the action when multiple marks are selected, also select Single-select only.
Menu: Runs when you right-click (Windows) or Control-click (macOS) a mark in the view, and then
click an option in the tooltip menu. This option works well for filter and URL actions.
Tableau actions happen in three steps: 1. Select the source sheet(Source)
2. Define what can Trigger action (Trigger)
3. What happens once the action is Triggered(Target)
Type of actions: There are six different types of actions available.
Types of Actions
Filter
Highlight
Go to URL
Go to Sheet
Change Parameter
Change set values
Different actions serve different purposes, and each action has a different behavior choice. The type of action often depends on the goal and what we trying to accomplish or demonstrate. Let's now see how each action works. All actions have three common fields name, source sheet, target, and run action. The different fields of each action are explained in the section of each action.
1. Filter Actions
Filter action allows you to narrow down or limit the data that shows on views and dashboards. The action on the source sheet affects the filtering in the target sheets. The options for filter action are name, source sheet, target sheet, run action on, clearing the sections, and filter to define which fields we are going to use for the filter.
Clearing Section Options:
Keep filtered values: Continue to show filtered results on the target sheets.
Show all values: Change the filter to include all values.
Exclude all values: Change the filter to exclude all values. (This option is useful when you're building dashboards that only show some sheets if a value in another sheet is selected.)
Filter: All Fields or Selected Fields. (If you chose Selected Fields, click a drop-down menu in the Source Field column, and select a field. Then select a target data source and field.)
2 . Highlight Actions
Highlighting actions allow you to highlight certain parts of worksheets or dashboards while other marks retain their colors and become emphasized. The options for Highlight actions are name, source sheets, target Sheets, run action on, and target Highlighting.
Target Highlighting:
All Fields: Marks in the target sheet are highlighted when they match the marks selected in the source sheet. (All fields are considered when determining a match.)
Dates and Times: Marks in the target sheet are highlighted when their date and time match those of the marks selected in the source sheet. (The source and target worksheets can only have one date field each, however, the date fields can have different names.)
Selected Fields: Marks in the target sheet are highlighted based on select fields. For example, highlighting using the Ship Mode field will result in an action that highlights all marks in the target sheet that have the same ship mode as the selected mark in the source sheet.
3. GO TO URL
The GO TO URL option allows us to go to a webpage through a URL or a link. The options available with URL are name, and source sheets, in URL options target sheet is replaced with URL target, actual URL, and run action on.
URL Target:
New Tab if No Web Page Object Exists: Ensures that the URL opens in a browser on sheets that lack web page objects. This is a good choice when Source Sheets is set to All or a data source.
New Browser Tab: Opens in the default browser.
4. Go to Sheet
The Go to sheet allows us to navigate from sheet to sheet or dashboard to dashboard without needing to filter or highlight.
5 .Change Parameter
Actions can change parameter values. The options are name, source sheet, target parameter(what parameter needs to be changed and new value), source field, run action on, and clearing the selection.
Clearing the selection :
Keep current value: The current parameter value will remain in the view.
Set value to parameter value will revert to the indicated value.
6. Change Set Values
Changing set values in the source sheet affects the values of the target set to make the set very dynamic and interactive.
Running the action:
Assign values to set: Replace all values in the set with the values selected.
Add values to set: Adds individually selected values to the set.
Remove values from the set: Removes individually selected values from the set.
Clearing the selection:
Keep set values: Current values in the set remain in the set.
Add all values to set: Adds all possible values to the set
Remove all values from the set: Remove previously selected values from the set.
Tableau Actions Conclusion: One of the great features of Tableau is Tableau actions. They make dashboards more interactive, modern, and dynamic and enable users to do explorations using dashboards.
Thanks for Reading!
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