In May 2019, Tableau released version 2019.2 of their flagship Desktop and Server products. One of the core features of this release was the switch from raster maps and vector maps, powered by Mapbox rendering technology and geographic data. Vector maps are smoother, more detailed, and highly customizable, empowering authors with ultimate creativity and flexibility in their visualizations. As with all Tableau maps, these visualizations need to access mapbox.com via the open internet in order for these maps to render correctly.

There are common security and compliance scenarios (particularly in the government, financial, utilities, telecommunications, and healthcare verticals) that limit internet access to core analytics services such as Tableau. In these scenarios, Tableau Desktop users will often experience additional latency when rendering maps, or may be unable to render maps at all.

To address this challenge, Mapbox has developed Atlas, a completely offline, on-premises solution for mapping. Shown below is a demo of Tableau Desktop losing connectivity to the Internet and switching over to Atlas.

While deploying and configuring Atlas is a well-documented process, connecting this service with Tableau users has historically been a manual and error-prone process that relies on hand-written XML. To simplify this configuration process, Mapbox has created tabAtlas. This command-line interface uses a single command, generate, to create the files necessary to make Atlas the default mapping service for Tableau. Using existing Tableau features, users can use these newly-created files to make Atlas their default mapping service. Server administrators can also use this process to connect Tableau Server to Atlas or build custom installers as part of their maintenance and upgrade pathways.