In this post I will describe how to create or migrate a report to Tableau Online (cloud) and how to automatically refresh the data source in a scenario where Tableau Online does not have direct access to the source database.

1. Creating/Migrating Report
   1. Using Tableau Desktop – open an existing Tableau report or create a new report
   2. Login to Tableau Online
      
      
   3. Publish used extract to Tableau Online
      
      
      Provide required project and permissions
      
      
   4. Connect to published data source
      
      
      
      Note that because the new data source has the same name as the existing extract, Tableau will automatically show the name with _1 in the name
      
   5. If you have existing filters in your report, it is best to cache the filters in order to avoid loosing the filters in the next step.
      Open each sheet/dashboard which contains filters and wait for the page to load until the filters are properly cached.
      Repeat this step for any sheet with filters.
   6. Replace the current data source with the published version
      
      
   7. Close the unused data source
      
   8. Publish your workbook to Tableau Online
      
2. Schedule Data Source Refresh
   1. In order to automate the refreshing of the data source we will use a windows task with the command: tableau.com.
      You can automate the task from any machine that has access to both Tableau Online & the source database.
      The command used can be found in the folder of Tableau Desktop:
      C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau 8.2\bin\tableau.com
   2. In this example we will use a windows scheduled task to refresh the extracts:
      
      

      Program/script:
      "c:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau 8.2\bin\tableau.com"
      
      Add arguments:
      refreshextract --server https://online.tableau.com --username  <user@domain.com> --password <password> --site <site> --project <"Project"> --datasource "CustomSQL_Extract" –source-username <DB_User>--source-password <DB_Password>

   3. Example of execution in command line
      
   4. Please note that for proper secure connectivity to Tableau Online you need to apply the root certificate:
      Thawte Primary Root CA – G3 (SHA256)