A Review of Tableau URL Actions: From Theory to Practice

URL actions in Tableau allow you to define a hyperlink that can be accessed from a visualization in your Tableau dashboard or worksheet. When the hyperlink is clicked, it will open a new web page or URL in a web browser. You can use URL actions to create interactive dashboards that allow users to access additional information or resources related to the data in your Tableau visualization.

To create a URL action in Tableau, you can follow these steps:

1. Connect to your data source in Tableau and create a dashboard or worksheet.
2. Drag a field to the “Columns” shelf and a measure to the “Rows” shelf to create a visualization.
3. Right-click on the visualization and select “URL” from the “Actions” menu.
4. In the “Edit URL Action” dialog box, enter the URL that you want to open when the hyperlink is clicked.
5. Use the “Select Data” tab to specify the fields that will be used to populate the URL with data from your Tableau visualization. For example, you might want to use a field such as “Customer ID” to pass a specific customer’s ID to the URL when the hyperlink is clicked.
6. Use the “Options” tab to customize the appearance and behavior of the URL action, such as the tool tip text that will be displayed when the user hovers over the hyperlink.
7. Click “OK” to save the URL action.

To test the URL action, you can click on the visualization in your Tableau dashboard or worksheet and verify that the correct URL is opened in a web browser. You can also use the “Test Link” button in the “Edit URL Action” dialog box to test the URL action without having to click on the visualization in Tableau.