In some situations it may be necessary to restrict the view for different audiences, to do this tableau server can be used to create a user filter. One thing to note is that the method shown below offers row level security, applying security at a row level will not change the permissions to a workbook.

How to create a user filter:

1. Open up the workbook that you want to use, ensure that it is connected to the data that you would like to filter.

2. Go onto a worksheet.
3. Select ‘Server’ in the top ribbon.

4. Select ‘Create User Filter’.

5. Choose the field that you intend to use to filter the view (in this example I use ‘Category’).

6. Type a name for the set of rules that you are creating. Select the user/user group that you are interested in filtering, and select the members within that field that they are allowed to see e.g. tell tableau that ‘User A’ has permissions to see furniture. You should now see a tick next to the user that you have mapped. Repeat this for each user/user group that you want to include in the filter. There is no need to create a separate filter for each user/user group that we want to map differently, we can see that after making the filter for the second user group, the mapping has remained unchanged for the first user. Each user/user group that you map will have a tick next to it. For confidentiality purposes I have replaced the names in our list of users with ‘User A,B,C..’ so if the formatting is different between what I show below and what you have on your screen, that is most likely why.

7. Once you have mapped all of the users/user groups that you want, select ‘OK’.

We can now see that a new set has been created (shown at the bottom of the data pane). 

7. Drag the new user filter set to the ‘Filters’ shelf.

The view will now have changed depending on the current user.

8. To test how this will be viewed in the published view by different users, select the arrow on the right hand side of the current user name (bottom right of the workbook). From here you can select which user you would like to preview the worksheet as.