Refresh Data Using Saved Credentials

To keep data fresh for Salesforce, Google Analytics, Google BigQuery, OneDrive, Dropbox, Quickbooks Online, Anaplan, Oracle Eloqua, and ServiceNow ITSM, you must do the following:

  1. Embed credentials into the data connection. The steps are described in this topic

  2. If your data source or workbook contains an extract, you can add the extract to a refresh schedule. For the steps to schedule a refresh, see Schedule Refreshes on Tableau Cloud.

    If your data source or workbook contains a direct (live) connection to the data, then the data is always fresh, and you don't need to create a scheduled task to refresh it.

Embed credentials into the data connection

You can embed credentials for your connection by following these steps.

  1. Sign in to Tableau Cloud and navigate to Data Sources page.

  2. Select the data source with the connection you want to refresh, and on the Actions menu, select Edit Connection.

  3. The options in the Edit Connection dialog box will vary depending on the data source you selected. Review the options available to you and select the one that meets your needs.

    If you select Prompt user for <connector name> credentials, you will need to refresh data manually. You can do this by asking users to republish the data source from Tableau Desktop or by initiating a refresh task on Tableau Cloud.

Connector-specific credential information

Use OAuth credentials

Secure data connections are made using OAuth access tokens for data connections to Google Analytics, Google BigQuery, Google Sheets, OneDrive, Dropbox, Salesforce, and QuickBooks Online. You create access tokens by signing in to the data from Tableau Cloud and approving Tableau Cloud access to the data as long as the credentials exist (or you manually revoke access). When you add a new account, the sign-in page appears. When you sign in, you create a new access token for the credentials you submit.

Note: Dropbox uses OAuth credentials, however Tableau doesn't currently support authenticating to Dropbox using a Google account.

You can embed shared credentials, as you might do if you use a dedicated database account for a group of users. Or you can embed an individual user’s credentials. The account you use to create the access token must allow a level of access for running the refresh task.

Use other credentials

Anaplan, Oracle Eloqua, and ServiceNow ITSM each support using saved credentials (for example, user name and password) to connect to the data.

Use Salesforce security tokens

If you embed standard Salesforce credentials, Salesforce might require a security token for you to access a data. For example, if you want to access the Salesforce connection from an IP address that is not included in your organization's trusted IP list. This security token must be appended to the password used in the data connection.

The security token can expire. When Tableau is unable to refresh a Salesforce connection because the security token has expired, Tableau displays an alert to the following users:

  • Authors of the relevant workbooks and data sources.

  • Authors of workbooks that connect to the relevant data sources.

  • Site administrators.

You can renew an expired security token by editing the data connection on the server.

For more information about Salesforce authentication and security tokens see Security and the API(Link opens in a new window) in the Salesforce.com SOAP API Developer's Guide.

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