Migrating Network Analysis Tool Node Data to Tableau

[TimW]

Hello All,

I'm not sure if what I'm asking is new ground or not.  I've recently been exploring network analysis with the network analysis R tool. I'm getting excellent results.

Then next step in the process is to try and figure out if there is a way to port the network viz's I see as part of the tool output to Tableau. In order to accomplish this I need to somehow translate the data output from the tool into 1) node coordinates and 2) # of connections.

I'm struglling with this translation. To me, it seems very possible since the tool itself is plotting the nodes in it's own viz.

Does anyone have experience with this or the underlyig R code (Note I am very weak in R coding).

Any insight or even a point in the right direction would be appreciated!

Thanks

Tim Winters

[KaneG]

Hi @TimW,

Are you looking to recreate a static network graph in Tableau or publish the interactive visualisation?

The visualisation is created using a custom R package to create a d3 visualisation, so the points aren't actually 'plotted'. It's not quite as easy as just getting points to plot as the whole visualisation is rendered together to create the interactivity. In order to publish that to Tableau, you would need to get the HTML, make sure that the dependencies are met and then publish that HTML to be picked up by Tableau. Even then, making sure that those dependencies are met, could be an issue, as there is about 20 js packages used in the viz. That being said, there MAY be a way to render that HTML to an actual HTML file and embed that file in Tableau, I couldn't get it right in my quick testing just now though.

Kane

[TimW]

Hi Kane,

Thanks for the reply.

I hadn't considered inserting HTML. Interesting approach but not ideal in my use case. Ideally I'm looking to recreate the viz in tableau.

Any idea what would have been done to to render the data coming from the R script prior to us having access to D3?

Tim

[KaneG]

Hi @TimW,

The Network Analysis tool was introduced middle of last year, in the second round of interactive outputs. I had previously built a network analysis tool using R for training courses. It used a script from R-bloggers.com

Kane

[StephenG]

Hello guys,

New to the forum so not sure if the best place to ask is by replying here.

Has it been discovered whether there is an effective way of carrying out this action without needing to embed a HTML file into Tableau?

Thanks in advance

[TimothyL]

Hi Tim & Stephen,  @Tim_dup_332 @StephenG

Got a client having a similar requirement. Please check this out:  https://gallery.alteryx.com/#!app/Plot-Network/5a0427e9effc2a0af0f4894b

It's a  good Network Plot macro for you, which they have comprehensive data output & documentation for the Tableau integration.

Documentation: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gn8tAN8Ofhf6lFiquGDH_zeJvnc_wXf3RMN-oZWpdZU/edit

Tableau Demo: https://public.tableau.com/profile/ben.moss3243#!/vizhome/NetworkAnalysisTemplateVisualisation/Netwo...

Hope it’s helpful!

Regards,

TL