Preformatted Excel Output

Question

I have a workflow that runs daily and exports it's output into a preformatted Excel sheet. The sheet is located on Box and is synced with my Box cloud. I provide a link to my coworkers in my Tableau dashboard to this Box file for them to download as a monthly report.

In the past few months, I keep encountering issues periodically where it appears that the file becomes corrupted somehow and does not display any content.

If I click yes, I then receive this message.

When I view the file at this point, it's blank. I have recreated the report from scratch and added it back to the workflow. It seems to work okay for a while, but eventually I start encountering this error again.

I have another report in the same workflow that is generated alongside this one, but I do not receive the same error with it. They both have headers, so the data starts on lines 2 or 3, and both have preformatted data, number and text columns. The one that I have issues with also has an image and floating text - that's the only difference I know of.

I'm not sure where the problem lies. I have created a brand new template from scratch for the workflow to feed into, and it still, eventually, has this problem. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I may be doing wrong or perhaps a better way to create and deliver this report?

taran42 · Answer

I will give that a try, but I am writing to two different files - only one seems to have the issue. I have completely recreated the file from scratch, but still have the issue, which makes me think it's the type of formatting within the file (the fact that it contains an image and text block). That's the only differences between the files other than the content (text) written into them.

MattBSlalom · Answer

I'm wondering if it's related to the Box syncing activity causing some corruption.  Can you create the Excel locally, then copy into the Box folder (through a Run Command tool potentially) after the initial write completes?

taran42 · Answer

Thanks for the suggestion. That was originally had I had the data, but the client wants it delivered with a specific header and format in Excel. I can make the dashboard look like that, but once it's downloaded into Excel from Tableau, then it loses that formatting (Tableau only allows for CSV, text-only style download with no formatting). Hence why I Alteryx create the file and just add a link in Tableau.

While I do have a defined list of users currently, it can expand or contract at any time and I do want to automate this. And currently it is being delivered on a monthly cadence, the data is actually "live" and can be downloaded with updated data at any time (it's just typically only done once a month).