Skip to main content

Setting up the Tableau integration for analytics

Vie

Available as an add-on

 

Bring your Vista Social analytics into Tableau and build your own dashboards. Tableau pulls your data straight from Vista Social and can refresh it on a schedule, so your dashboards stay up to date.

 

What you can export

  • Posts: one row per post, with the post date, profile, network, post type and metrics such as impressions, engagement, likes, comments, shares and plays.
  • Daily profile data: one row per profile per day, with metrics such as followers, impressions, engagement, reach and the number of posts published that day.

 

Before you start

  • The Tableau integration is part of the Premium integrations add-on.
  • Your account needs API access, which is also an add-on. If you don't see Generate API key in Settings → Integrations, contact our support team to add it.
  • You need a Vista Social API key. Go to Settings → Integrations and click Generate API key if you don't have one yet. Keep the key private: anyone with it can read your account data.
  • You can use Tableau Cloud, Tableau Desktop 2023.3 or later, or Tableau Server 2026.1 or later. Tableau Cloud has the REST API connector built in. Tableau Desktop and Tableau Server need a one-time driver install (see Using Tableau Desktop or Tableau Server below).

 

Step 1: Find your profile group ID

Each export covers one profile group. To see your profile groups and their IDs:

  1. In Tableau, click New → Published Data Source, then open the Connectors tab and choose REST API.
  2. On the General tab, enter this address as the REST API URL, set Response Format to JSON and Authentication to No Authentication:
https://vistasocial.com/api/integration/tableau/groups

Tableau REST API connector, General tab with the REST API URL, Response Format and Authentication fields

  1. On the Advanced tab, type your API key into HTTP Headers in this format: x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY

Tableau REST API connector, Advanced tab with the x-api-key header in HTTP Headers

  1. Click Sign In. You'll see the Id, Name and Type of every profile group you can access. Copy the Id of the group you want to report on.

Tableau listing profile group IDs and names

 

Step 2: Connect Tableau to your data

  1. Click New → Published Data Source → Connectors → REST API again.
  2. On the General tab, fill in:
    • REST API URL: your export address (see Build your export address below)
    • Response Format: CSV, with CSV Delimiter set to ,
    • Authentication: No Authentication
  3. On the Advanced tab, enter x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY in HTTP Headers, the same as in Step 1.
  4. Click Sign In. Tableau loads your data and lists its fields.
  5. Check the field types. Date should show the calendar icon. If Published At shows Abc, click the icon and choose Date & Time.

Tableau data source fields, with the Published At field type highlighted

  1. Click Publish As, give the data source a name and publish it.

Keep your API key in HTTP Headers whenever you can, because web addresses are often saved in logs and browser history.

Note: If your Tableau version doesn't let you add headers, you can add the key to the end of the address instead: &api_key=YOUR_API_KEY.

 

Build your export address

Start with this address and replace GROUP_ID with the ID from Step 1:

https://vistasocial.com/api/integration/tableau/data?group=GROUP_ID&export_type=post&format=csv&days=90

Then adjust the options:

  • export_type: post for one row per post, or daily for one row per profile per day.
  • format: keep csv for Tableau. Without it, the data comes back as JSON.
  • days: from 1 to 360. A rolling window that ends today, so each refresh moves it forward.
  • date_from and date_to: a fixed range in YYYY-MM-DD format, up to 360 days. Use these instead of days. If you add both, days is used.

Some examples:

  • Posts from the last 30 days: &export_type=post&format=csv&days=30
  • Daily profile data from the last 90 days: &export_type=daily&format=csv&days=90
  • Daily profile data for the first half of the year: &export_type=daily&format=csv&date_from=2026-01-01&date_to=2026-06-30

To report on both posts and daily profile data, create one data source for each.

 

Step 3: Keep your data up to date

Tableau stores a copy of your data, called an extract. To refresh it automatically:

  1. Open the published data source in Tableau.
  2. Go to Extract Refreshes and create a refresh schedule, for example every day at 6:00 AM.

With days in your address, every refresh pulls the latest days of data.

 

Using Tableau Desktop or Tableau Server

The connection settings are the same as in Step 2. Install the REST API driver once first:

  1. Download the REST API (JDBC) driver from Tableau's Driver Download page.
  2. Move the .jar file to the Tableau drivers folder:
    • Windows: C:\Program Files\Tableau\Drivers
    • macOS: ~/Library/Tableau/Drivers
    • Linux: /opt/tableau/tableau_driver/jdbc
  3. Restart Tableau.
  4. In Tableau Desktop, go to Connect → To a Server → REST API and fill in the General and Advanced tabs as in Step 2.

On Tableau Server, your server admin installs the driver on the server, so published extracts can refresh on a schedule.

 

Important notes

  • Tableau sets each column's type when you first create the data source. If a metric had no values at that time, for example story metrics for a group with no stories yet, Tableau may treat it as text. Click the field's type icon and choose Number (whole) or Number (decimal).
  • Post dates and times use each post's own timezone, shown in the Timezone column.
  • Daily profile data includes some list fields, such as Hourly, Hashtags and Page Fans Country. They come through as text and are best left out of your charts.
  • An export covers up to 360 days. For a longer history, create a data source for each period.
  • Regenerating your API key turns off the old one. Edit the data source and put the new key in the x-api-key header, or refreshes will stop working.

 

Troubleshooting

  • Invalid API key: check that the x-api-key header has your current key from Settings → Integrations.
  • Not allowed to access this profile group: check the group ID from Step 1. You can only export groups you have access to.
  • date_from and date_to are required, in the format YYYY-MM-DD: add days to your address, or both dates in the YYYY-MM-DD format.
  • Please limit retrievals to 360 days at a time: shorten the date range to 360 days or less.
  • Your subscription does not offer integrations: API access isn't active on your account. Contact our support team to add it.
  • Your subscription does not include premium integrations addon: the Premium integrations add-on isn't active on your account. Contact our support team to add it.
  • Too many requests: Tableau connections have their own per-minute limit. Refresh again after a minute, and avoid refreshing many data sources at the same moment.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Which version of Tableau do I need?

A: Tableau Cloud works out of the box. Tableau Desktop 2023.3 or later and Tableau Server 2026.1 or later also work after a one-time REST API driver install.

 

Q: Can I export more than one profile group?

A: Each data source covers one profile group. Create a data source for each group you want to report on.

 

Q: Is the data the same as in Vista Social reports?

A: Yes. Tableau reads the same post and daily profile data that Vista Social uses for your reports, so you can combine and chart it your own way.

 

Need help?

Reach out to our support team, and we are happy to help.

 

Related Reading:

Setting up Looker Studio integration for analytics

Setting up the Power BI integration for analytics

Sign up now and try Vista Social for 14 days, free!

Related articles