Pull Tableau Dashboard Images with Alteryx Macro

[alberto_herni]

It's a common request from Alteryx Designer users to be able to get Tableau Dashboard screenshots to include them in PDFs, PPTs or simply distribute by email to others users without access to Tableau Server.

I have created two macros that connect to Tableau Server API (version 2.5) to pull Tableau dashboard images and use them in Alteryx.

Macros are super easy to use:

1. Enter your Tableau user&pass details.
2. Fill text boxes with the required details to connect your Tableau Server and get access to the desired view.
3. Run and get the image!

Tableau IMG Downaloader macro creates API calls to get the Auth token, workbook list and view list. Then you are allowed to select the workbook and the view you want to get a screenshot.

Tableau IMG Downloader Filter macros works in the same way but allows you to pass a field with values to filter the view and get multiple filtered screenshots.

The macros will also pass the image as blob.

Kindly note that the maximum number of workbooks/views the API call can pull is 1,000. If you need to pull +1,000 you will have to add the page number in the API calls according to Paging Results-Tableau Server REST API - Tableau.

Get Tableau IMG Downaloader from the Alteryx Public Gallery: Alteryx Analytics Gallery | Tableau IMG Downloader

Get Tableau IMG Downaloader Filter from the Alteryx Public Gallery: Alteryx Analytics Gallery | Tableau IMG Downloader Filter

Please let me know your thoughts and report any bugs 😉

Alberto Hernandez

[Loperal]

HI Alberto,

First of all, this is awesome, I created in the past a workflow to get the PDF of a Tableau Story to avoid the manual step in tableau in peak hours!!!  Many people will benefit from this. 

I managed to pass the data to filter a single value, what about passing 2 or more filters, how would you approach that?   appreciatte your thoughs and well done again, thanks!!!

[alberto_herni]

Hi @Loperal,

Thanks for your message.

If you want to pass multiple values for one filter, you can add in the API call multiple values just separating them with a ,

?vf_<fieldname>=filter-value1,filter-value2,filter-value3

In order to filter by multiple fields I think you should add into the API call the second field using & as separator.

?vf_<fieldname>=filter-value1&<fieldname>=filter2-value1

I haven't tested these options yet, but you can dig a bit more into the API documentation to see how this can be done, below articles are a good starting point 😉

https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/embed_structure.htm

https://help.tableau.com/current/api/rest_api/en-us/REST/rest_api_concepts_filtering_and_sorting.htm...

Best Regards,

Alberto

[Mortonplace]

Alberto - this looks exactly like what I've been searching for!  The links you provided to the downloaders don't appear to be working.  Have these moved?

[alberto_herni]

Hi @Mortonplace,

The links were pointing to the old Alteryx Public Gallery, that's why they are not working.

I have uploaded new versions of the macros to the new Public Gallery, please find below the links.

Tableau Image Downloader - Alteryx Community

Tableau Image Downloader + Filter - Alteryx Community

New versions include error checks.

Regards,

Alberto HM

[jarrod_r]

Is it possible to use this to pull an image of an entire dashboard and not just a specific sheet? I currently use the command prompt to pull an image after refreshing the data and would love to be able to use Alteryx to do this.

[alberto_herni]

Hi @jarrod_r,

Yes, definitely you can download Tableau Dashboards using this tool, the dashboards are published as sheets, so you can download a sheet that simply contains one chart or a sheet that contains a compositions of charts (dashboard), actually we are mainly using the tool to download Tableau dashboard images.

Regards,

Alberto HM 

[jarrod_r]

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, then. I've entered the information based on the dashboard URL: (not actual URL)

Full URL: https://tableua.company.com/#/site/SITENAME/views/WORKBOOKNAME/DASHBOARDNAME

Server URL: https://tableua.company.com

Tableau Site: SITENAME

Workbook Name: WORKBOOKNAME

Sheet Name: DASHBOARDNAME

I get the error "Incorrect worksheet name, please review".

When I use the full URL and put a ".png" at the end I am able to get the image as expected.

Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong?

Server version: 2021.1.4 (20211.21.0712.0907) 64-bit Windows

I really hope I can get this to work. It would be great to not have to use the Tableau command line tool.

Thank you! 

[jarrod_r]

Never mind. I got it figured out! I have spaces in the workbook name and dashboard name, however the URL does not include the spaces. Once I included the spaces in the input boxes of your macro it worked!!

This is great and I appreciate the work you did to put this together!

[shatavisha]

This is really helpful! thank you so much. could you please tell how the filter works. I am unable to pick a value.