My last blog shared our Tableau enterprise server 9.2 upgrade experiences. Now we are focusing on training & learning  9.2 new features.

I am excited for Tableau 9.2 release, which features powerful upgrades to our Enterprise Tableau Self-Service environment. These include automated data preparation features, powerful Web Editing, enhanced enterprise data security, native iPhone support, unlimited map customization, and improved performance to help users using their data easier, smarter and faster.

Data Preparation Enhancements

New data preparation features in 9.2 mean people will spend less time preparing and searching for data and more time analyzing it. The data interpreter now not only cleans Excel spreadsheets, but also automatically detects sub-tables and converts them to tables that can be analyzed in Tableau. Data grid improvements make it easier to craft the ideal data source and quickly move on to analysis and the enhancements to the Data pane help people take fewer steps to find and update metadata.

Greater Web-Editing Flexibility

Web Editing (or Web Authoring) is a feature that enables Tableau Server users to edit and create visualizations on the fly without a license for Desktop. New features added in 9.2 include:
· Data: Edit the data within your projects with new in-browser capabilities:
o Create new fields from all or part of a formula.
o Change your field’s data type, default aggregation, and geographic role.
o Manage data blends
o Toggle fields between continuous and discrete.
o View icons that indicate which fields are linking data sources when working in workbooks with blended data.
· Dashboards: Directly access worksheets within a dashboard, and easily export an image or PDF of the dashboard.

Enhanced enterprise data security

Use the new permission controls to set default permissions for projects as well as the associated workbooks and data sources. With one click, administrators and project leaders can now lock a project’s permissions. When locked, all workbooks and data sources within a project are set to the project’s permissions and cannot be edited by individual publishers. This increases security for critical and the most sensitive data.

Native iPhone Support

People could always use their iPhones with their Tableau dashboards and visualizations, but the Tableau Mobile app is now available for the iPhone, making it easier for people to interact and access their data on the go. Tableau also introduced geolocation, which makes it possible to orient your map around your current location with a simple tap on a Tableau map in a mobile browser or on the Tableau iPad and iPhone app.

Unlimited Map Customization

Tableau 9.2 introduces more options for controlling map behavior and unlimited potential for map customization. Mapbox integration in Tableau Desktop means people can easily customize, brand, enhance and add context to maps delivering an unprecedented flexibility to create beautiful and contextually rich maps. Additionally, Tableau is expanding the support for international postal codes with the addition of Japanese postal codes and other data updates such as U.S. congressional districts.

Improved Performance

Who doesn’t want their visualizations and dashboards to render faster? Published workbooks take advantage of browser capabilities to display shape marks more quickly. Workbook legends are a little smarter to only redraw when visible changes are made. In addition, Tableau can cache more queries using its external query cache compression leading to leveraging our server memory better.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!