Chapter 5: Filtering and Sorting Content

In this chapter, you will learn how to search, sort, and filter available items using the Content Toolbar. A solid understanding of how to filter and sort your content is useful when you are working on a Tableau Server site with a large amount of published content, and you want to find a specific item or piece of information.

By the end of this chapter, you will know how to utilize the options featured on your Content Toolbar:

• Understanding the Content Toolbar
• Examining the New menu
• Examining the Select All option
• Examining the Content Type menu
• Examining the Sort By menu
• Examining View Modes
• Examining Filtered Search

Understanding the Content Toolbar

The Content Toolbar is available on almost every page in Tableau Server. When it is available, the Content Toolbar options can be found directly above the first row of views displayed on your page. This toolbar gives you the ability to create a new project or workbook directly on the server, select and modify all or some content on a page, filter your page by its content type, sort by different options to organize the items on your page, switch between views best suited for visual content or reading content, and carry out comprehensive searches to find content using a combination of search terms and filters. Figure 5.1 highlights an example of all the options you have available when using the Content Toolbar:

Figure 5.1 – Tableau Server Content Toolbar

Dashboard images created by Luther Flagstad and Mark Bradbourne

Note

It's important to remember that the options on your Content Toolbar will vary depending...

Examining the New menu

The New menu is a drop-down option that, depending on your Tableau Server permissions, can give you the ability to quickly create a new project, a new workbook, or upload an existing workbook within Tableau Server. You can find the New menu button on your Home, Explore, or any content page. This menu appears on the left side of your Content Toolbar and can be identified by the square button with the word New inside of it, as shown in Figure 5.2:

Figure 5.2 – New menu location within the Content Toolbar Dashboard image created by Luther Flagstad

The next screenshot, Figure 5.3, provides an example of the menu you will see after clicking the New button:

Figure 5.3 – New menu

Let's examine each of the options in this menu.

Creating a project

The first option you will see under the New drop-down menu is Projects. This option allows users with a site role of Server Administrator or Site Administrator...

Examining the Select All option

The Select All option is a convenient way to select and make certain changes in bulk to many or all of the items on a page. You can find the Select All button on the left side of your Content Toolbar identified by the words Select All. Figure 5.7 shows the location of the Select All button on your My Content page:

Figure 5.7 – Select All option location on the My Content page

Figure 5.8 provides a screenshot of the two things that will occur after you click the Select All button. First, all the content appearing on your page will be selected. This is denoted by a filled checkbox in the top-left corner of each thumbnail item on your page when your view mode is set to Grid View. In List View, the unfilled checkboxes appearing in the first column on the left side of your page become checked. Second, you will notice that the Clear All and Actions options appeared to the right of the Select All button, along with a count of...

Examining the Content Type menu

The Content Type menu is a drop-down menu that allows you to limit the content shown in your server window by its type, such as a workbook or data source. This menu is found near the right side of your screen in the Content Toolbar, as shown in Figure 5.11:

Figure 5.11 – Content Type menu

Dashboard images created by Luther Flagstad, Mark Bradbourne, and Chimdi Nwosu

This particular Content Type menu is unique to certain locations on Tableau Server, such as the Favorites page and the My Content page. You will also see this menu appear as you browse through the projects on the server. It has a similar function as the Content Type menu on the Explore page discussed in Chapter 3, Tableau Server Navigation Pane. Clicking on the drop-down menu will provide options similar to those shown in Figure 5.12 and the number of those item types available in your current location on Tableau Server. The exact options in the drop-down...

Examining the Sort By menu

The Sort By feature is a drop-down menu that allows you to customize how items on your server page are organized. This feature is located on the content toolbar between the Content Type menu and the View Mode menu, as shown in Figure 5.15:

Figure 5.15 – Sort By menu in the Content Toolbar

Dashboard images created by Luther Flagstad, Mark Bradbourne, and Chimdi Nwosu

The options available in the Sort By menu are generally broken down into two sections, Order and Sort, as indicated in Figure 5.16. We will review examples of the available options:

Figure 5.16 – Sort By menu options with Order and Sort sections

Note

All of the Sort By options are available to you in both Grid and List View, but the details will be more noticeable in List View. These two view options will be discussed in the next section.

The Order options at the top of this menu will dynamically update based on what you...

Examining view modes

There are two view modes available on Tableau Server: Grid View and List View. The view menu can be found on the right side of your screen within the Content Toolbar, as shown in Figure 5.22:

Figure 5.22 – View Mode toggle on the Content Toolbar

This menu allows you to change your server viewing preference as often as you need. The default view for Tableau Server is Grid View, although if you change this selection to List View, the server will remember your selection as you continue browsing through content. This feature is one of the few Content Toolbar menus that is available on almost every server page or location.

Grid View

As the name suggests, Grid View displays items on the server with a preview, also referred to as a thumbnail, of the content or an icon representing the content type, arranged in rows and columns that form a grid shape. In this view, you will also see the name of the item, a description if available...

Examining Filtered Search

Filtered Search is a helpful feature that enables you to refine content on Tableau Server to suit your needs using both search and filter functions. This feature is indicated by a funnel icon located on the right side of the Content Toolbar, as indicated in Figure 5.28:

Figure 5.28 – Filtered Search in the Content Toolbar

Dashboard images created by Luther Flagstad, Mark Bradbourne, and Chimdi Nwosu

When you click the funnel icon, a search pane appears to the right of your server window. Once you have identified all of your required filters, you can collapse this pane to allow a larger view of your filtered content by clicking on the funnel icon a second time. When you have applied a search or filter from this pane, you will notice that a green dot appears on the funnel icon, as illustrated in Figure 5.29:

Figure 5.29 – Icon indicating filters have been applied

This serves as a helpful reminder...

Summary

In this chapter, we examined the Tableau Server Content Toolbar, and you learned how to take advantage of all its available options. First, we discussed how to create and upload workbooks using the New menu. Next, we reviewed how to capture some or all the items on a page and perform actions on the selected content using the Select All option. You then learned how to filter the content on your page by type using the Content Type menu. We then covered how to easily arrange the content displayed on a page by utilizing the Sort by menu. This was followed by learning how to switch between Grid View and List View and when to use each for effective server navigation and content management. Finally, we went over the Filtered Search option and discussed how it is similar to and differs from Quick Search.

Learning how to use the Content Toolbar will help the way you interact with any page by knowing how to quickly make bulk changes, rearrange content, apply detailed filters, and...