By: Chris Novak, Technical Consultant
Is your organization using Tableau for reporting and analysis? As you may know, you can organize Tableau dashboards and reports into different folders in Tableau Server; however, you may want to consider embedding your Tableau solutions directly into Blackbaud CRM™ using the Web Dashboard.
Doing this will allow your reporting to be directly accessible in Blackbaud CRM™ and save your users an extra click or create bookmarks to access data. Embedding reports would be incredibly convenient if you are still using some of the out-of-the-box reports from Blackbaud CRM™ or if you have other custom reports that live in Blackbaud CRM™ - why not have all of your reports in the same place?
Here's a quick guide to get you started with embedding your Tableau reports. First, ensure that your Tableau report is uploaded into Tableau Server. Once the report is live and accessible in Tableau Server - follow along in Blackbaud CRM™ with the instructions below:
Navigate to Analysis functional area and select the Web Dashboard
Add a new folder to collocate all future Tableau reports. Use the Folder options drop-down, select Add New Folder, and give it a name and description.
Once a new folder has been created, return to the Folder Options drop-down and select Add New Page.
On the Add New Page pop-up, add a Page Name (no spaces here), Page Title, and Description. Keep both Context Record Type as <None> and Default Search List blank. The layout depends on the type of content; for this example, I chose the second option, in which I will land the Tableau report in the body of that layout.
Click Save and your newly created page will display. Select Page Options in the top right corner, then Edit Shared Version of this Page from the drop-down. This is where you will embed your report.
Once in the editing section of the page, select Add Dashboard Item in the top right corner.
From the catalogs pop-up, select Embedded Web Content Parts. Update Add To to whichever section of the report's page layout will go. Given what we decided in Step 4 above, we will select Right to embed the report in the body of the page layout. After selecting Embedded Web Content Parts, the window will expand where you can choose Embedded Web Content.
After Selecting Add, the Web Content Window will appear. Open your Tableau workbook in Tableau Server, navigate to the Share Icon, copy the Embed Code, and return to the Web Content Window.
With the Embed Code copied from Tableau Server, paste the code in the HTML Content Block and select Apply. This then returns to the Dashboard editing mode. After viewing the applied changes, select Edit Exit Mode in the top right corner.
The embedded Tableau Dashboard can now be seen on the created Web Dashboard page. Now you can return to the Web Dashboard via the Analysis functional area and easily access a Tableau Report!
This same concept can be applied to Microsoft Power BI or other reporting tools. If you'd like some help, please reach out to our team.