I just downloaded the data (or what I believe it is the data) that someone posted online. The result is two twbx files. How can I convert these or export these files to something more common (xls, csv etc) without buying their software (which might have the export option) Not sure if a trial version will allow me to do that
3 Answers
You have to write code to get full access to your data...
Tableau is notorious for locking up data tighter than a pocupine's derrier, and making it about as much fun to extract as a wisdom tooth.
Tableau Workbook files (.twbx) are zip containers of nested folders and data files. They are formatted as a zip file that contain an XML file extracted from Tableau's SQL Redshift databases. The ".twbx" file is a package of folders, XML schema data, and typically) one (or more) embedded binary file(s).
I experimented with a ".twbx" file downloaded from a website, for this example called "MyData_v2022.1.twbx". I unzipped the file first using 7zip, which give a structure as follows:
> MyData_v2022.1.twbx (container file)
> - "Data" (folder)
> - "MyDatatrend.twb Files" (folder)
> - "redshift.hyper" (binary file)
> - "Image" (folder)
> - "MyData-Logo-Web-Small.png" (image file)
> - "MyData.twb" file (XML file)
This inner file "MyDatatrend.twb" is an XML file that contains the SQL Custom Query code.
"redshift.hyper" is a binary file. I opened it in Notepad++, but it is not human readable. It starts with "Hyper" and then has about 4000 bytes of mostly binary NUL characters before the next readable string.
So a binary converter or ".hyper" file reader is needed to decode Tableau's "redshift.hyper" file.
Next, a Google search returned links to Tableau's "Hyper API URL https://help.tableau.com/current/api/hyper_api/en-us/index.html
This Tableau website shows MS.NET, C++, Java, and Python programming examples on how to extract the Amazon redshift.hyper SQL files.
To crack open these obfuscated eggs requires pretty good programming skills.
This Tableau "openness" is a beginning, but the Hyper API is very new, and probably a result of complaints by customers for access to their own data stored in Tableau's cloud database (Marketing must have finally caved in).
The Tableau "Extract v2.0 API" is their latest API for using Tableau "Hyper SQL" binary files. The Hyper API toolkit is brand new ("0.0.15305" revision number as of August 19, 2022.)
https://www.tableau.com/support/releases/hyper-api/0.0.15305#esdalt
I hope this helps folks get started to crack open these (unnecessarily) proprietary Tableau files and set your data free!
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