Embedded analytics in Tableau - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a business intelligence analyst at an e-commerce company.

📋 Request: Your manager wants you to create an interactive sales dashboard that can be embedded into the company's internal website. The dashboard should show monthly sales trends, top product categories, and regional sales performance.

📊 Data: You have sales data including Order Date, Sales Amount, Product Category, and Region for the past year.

🎯 Deliverable: An embedded Tableau dashboard with interactive filters for month, category, and region, ready to be integrated into the internal website.

Sample Data

Order Date	Sales Amount	Product Category	Region
2023-01-15	250	Electronics	North
2023-01-20	150	Clothing	East
2023-02-05	300	Electronics	South
2023-02-18	200	Home	West
2023-03-10	400	Clothing	North
2023-03-15	350	Electronics	East
2023-04-01	500	Home	South
2023-04-12	450	Clothing	West
2023-05-05	600	Electronics	North
2023-05-20	550	Home	East
2023-06-15	700	Clothing	South
2023-06-25	650	Electronics	West

1

Step 1: Connect Tableau to the sales data source containing Order Date, Sales Amount, Product Category, and Region.

Use Tableau's 'Connect' feature to import the data table.

Expected Result

Data is loaded and visible in Tableau's data pane.

2

Step 2: Create a calculated field 'Order Month' to extract the month and year from Order Date for monthly trend analysis.

STR(YEAR([Order Date])) + "-" + RIGHT("0" + STR(MONTH([Order Date])), 2)

Expected Result

A new field 'Order Month' showing values like '2023-01', '2023-02', etc.

3

Step 3: Build a line chart showing total Sales Amount by Order Month to visualize monthly sales trends.

Rows: SUM([Sales Amount]), Columns: [Order Month], Mark type: Line

Expected Result

Line chart displays sales trend over months.

4

Step 4: Create a bar chart showing total Sales Amount by Product Category to identify top categories.

Rows: SUM([Sales Amount]), Columns: [Product Category], Mark type: Bar

Expected Result

Bar chart shows sales amounts per product category.

5

Step 5: Create a map or filled map showing total Sales Amount by Region to analyze regional performance.

Use [Region] as geographic role, SUM([Sales Amount]) as size/color

Expected Result

Map visualizes sales distribution across regions.

6

Step 6: Add interactive filters for Order Month, Product Category, and Region to the dashboard.

Add filter controls for [Order Month], [Product Category], and [Region] with multi-select enabled.

Expected Result

Users can filter dashboard views by month, category, and region.

7

Step 7: Arrange the line chart, bar chart, and map on a single dashboard with clear titles and legends.

Use Tableau dashboard layout to place charts side by side or stacked with descriptive titles.

Expected Result

Dashboard is visually clear and easy to navigate.

8

Step 8: Publish the dashboard to Tableau Server or Tableau Online and generate the embed code snippet.

Use 'Share' > 'Embed Code' option to get iframe code for embedding.

Expected Result

Embed code is ready to be inserted into the internal website.

9

Step 9: Test the embedded dashboard on the internal website to ensure interactivity and responsiveness.

Insert iframe embed code into a test webpage and verify filters and visuals work.

Expected Result

Dashboard loads correctly with full interactivity inside the website.

Final Result

North

↓

East

↓

South

↓

West

✓Sales generally increase from January to June with some fluctuations.

✓Electronics and Clothing are the top product categories by sales.

✓Sales are fairly balanced across all regions with South slightly leading.

Bonus Challenge

Add a dynamic tooltip that shows the percentage contribution of each product category to total sales when hovering over the bar chart.

Show Hint

Create a calculated field for percentage: SUM([Sales Amount]) / TOTAL(SUM([Sales Amount])) and add it to the tooltip.