How To: Force the Tableau Output Tool to Show the Actual REST API Calls and Responses

[JonathanAllenby]

Breaking open Alteryx's Tableau Output Tool black box

A guide on how to force the Tableau tools to provide the actual REST API calls and responses.

Sick of not knowing what the actual API calls and responses are when using the Tableau Output tool in Alteryx? Me too, so I wrote a guide here on how to force the tool to expose this information by modifying a couple of the underlying files:

• https://theinformationlab.co.uk/community/blog/tableau-output-tool-blackbox-better-api-calls-and-res...

WARNING: modifying Alteryx-made tools means they are not eligible to receive troubleshooting from Alteryx Support. Modifying the underlying files should only be done to discover underlying errors or issues and then the changes should be reverted or the tool re-downloaded from scratch. This has not been tested for all edge cases or versions of the tool/Alteryx and should be used as a proof of concept for your own investigations or tool modifications.

NOTE: This guide will not propose underlying causes nor will it address the ‘Credentials Denied’ issue that occurs in the Tableau Output UI before you even get to the point of actually configuring the tool let alone running it.

NOTE: The following was tested and confirmed using the Tableau Output tool v1.5.0 and Alteryx 2024.1.1.49. It has not been tested on other versions.

If you are a regular user of the Tableau Output tool you have probably run into various errors which may include but isn’t limited to:

• Connection to platform was not successful.

• 'Failed to Append data to <dsName>'

If so, then like me you’ve probably considered these error messages frustratingly obscure and cried out for the underlying REST API call and response to be spat into the Results Pane and workflow logs so you can actually potentially troubleshoot the connection.

Well this guide aims to show you how go from this: 

The default Tableau Output messages. The example here is investigating the 'Failed to Append' error.

To this:

The modified Tableau Output messages. We now have details about both the call and response!

[JonathanAllenby]

Just as a quick addition: the reason I spent time exploring this is we had a situation where every so often a scheduled workflow would fall over. It wouldn't happen every time and it wouldn't always happen on the same flow. This meant we couldn't simply use Fiddler to capture this REST API information since we'd have to leaving it running 24/7 with the hopes of catching an instance of the error. I'm hoping now we can update the tool on the Server and leave it like that for a day to try and capture a log file instead!