From embedded views to using tabcmd for unique exports, Tableau’s ability to filter using URL parameters is a fantastic way to programmatically drive customized vizes. Most of the use cases are covered in the KB article:
http://kb.tableau.com/articles/knowledgebase/view-filters-url
One thing that isn’t mentioned is that you can filter on both the original field name as Tableau brought it in from the original data source, or using the name you renamed it to. For example, I have renamed my “Region” field in the Super Store dataset from ‘Region’ to ‘Region – Renamed’. Both of these work when using URL filters:
…Sheet1?Region=East
and
…Sheet1?Region%20-%20Renamed=East
result in the same filtering. Just remember in both cases to delete the portion after the ‘:’ in 9 or the ‘#’ in the 8 series.