How do you Collaborate with Workbooks?

Are you on a team of developers or are you the solo developer? Perhaps you completed a Makeover Monday challenge, and you want feedback. How do you collaborate with others on what you create?

What is your strategy for saving your workbook? What do you do for version control?

These are all questions you should consider as a part of the development process. But first you should address how you are saving your work.

Best Practice, When in doubt SAVE it!

Have you had a workbook open for a while? Just get in the habit of clicking CTRL + S.

TWBX file types are meant for collaboration, especially when the person receiving the file doesn't have access to your data source.

File Corrupted? Restore Previous Versions

If you are working in Windows, there is a function on the file called Restore Previous versions. Windows will periodically save back ups. Simply go to the parent file folder, right-click, (you may have to select Show more options) and then select Restore previous versions.

You can double-click on the back up file folder and move that version to your current folder. This feature has saved me countless times!

Server backups

If you published your workbook to the server, the server also has file backups of your Tableau workbooks.

I wouldn't recommend relying on this, what happens if the server is down? Perhaps its my time in HR, but for resiliency purposes I always save my workbooks as different versions to the shared drive. That way if you need to revert back to a previous version you can! Your clients can AND WILL change their minds, so you never know when that previous backup will come in handy.

Collaboration

If you have plenty of versions saved in folders, other developers on your team can open that workbook and make changes. They should save their workbook separately with their work. I would rather have too many saved files than not enough. It will save you time and re-work.