The .twbx file.
A packaged workbook is a zip holding the data and the logic separately. Which one you have decides what can come back.
Also .twb, .hyper, which are read the same way.
What it actually is
A .twbx bundles a .twb workbook file, which is XML describing sheets, calculated fields and parameters, together with a .hyper extract holding the actual rows. That pairing is why a packaged workbook can be opened by someone with no access to the original database.
A bare .twb is the workbook without the extract. It points at a data source rather than containing one, so what can be read out is the logic: the calculated fields, the parameters, the level of detail expressions, and the shape of each sheet.
The calculated fields are the valuable part in both cases. They are the business definitions someone has already argued about and settled, and reading them is better than re-deriving them.
At a glance
- Really a
- ZIP containing a .twb and usually a .hyper extract
- .twb alone
- Logic and layout, no rows
- .hyper
- Tableau's columnar extract format, readable on its own
- Carries
- Calculated fields, parameters and level of detail expressions
- Read here as
- Extracted. Extract as data, workbook as definitions.
- Status
- Ready
- Fidelity
- Data extracted
- Largest file
- 250 MB
The packaged extract is read as data, and the workbook beside it supplies the calculated fields.
Upload one
The analysis runs before there is anything to pay for. You see what it found, and the evidence behind it, first.
No account needed to start. You only pay when you like what you see.
What goes wrong, and what is done about it
01
A live-connection workbook with nothing inside
A workbook connected live to a database packages no extract. It opens fine on a machine with database access and contains no data anywhere else.
The presence of an extract is checked and reported first, so an empty package is named as one rather than analysed into an empty result.
02
Calculated fields that reference the workbook, not the data
A field defined in terms of a parameter or a table calculation only has a value in the context of a specific sheet. Lifted out on its own it is not a column and cannot be recomputed.
Context-dependent fields are reported as definitions rather than materialised as columns, with the context they depend on named.
Questions people ask
Do I need Tableau to use this?
No. The .twbx package is unpacked and both parts are read directly: the extract holding the data, and the workbook describing how that data was shaped. Neither Tableau Desktop nor a licence is needed at any point in the process.
Can I upload just the .hyper file?
Yes, and it reads straight through table by table. What you lose is the calculated fields, which live in the workbook rather than the extract.
Will it rebuild my dashboard?
It builds its own from what the data supports, which is usually the point of bringing it here. The original definitions are used where they exist rather than invented.