What do you think of this feature? If security is an issue regarding the username and passwords in plain text, you can hash your usernames and passwords if you use PowerShell instead of the Command line. Colleague Jonathan MacDonald at The Information Lab pointed me to this thread (community.tableau.com/s/question/0D54T00000C5hYdSAJ/password-encryption-with-tabcmd) on the Tableau forums that shows how you would do this. Great tip!
@@mehulsolanki9573 yes besure to check if your version of prep is compatible. Thats the only reason it wouldn't work. help.tableau.com/current/prep/en-us/prep_run_commandline.htm#:~:text=If%20connecting%20to%20databases%20and%20publishing%20output%20files%20to%20a%20server%20or%20a%20database%20(version%202020.3.1%20and%20later)%20%2D%20create%20a%20credentials%20.json%20file%20that%20includes%20all%20required%20credentials.
This method looks great, but I have a situation where my company uses a SAML connection with Tableau Cloud. My input is a Tableau Hyper file on the cloud, and the output needs to be saved back to Tableau Cloud. Does this method still work?
Hi Tim, that was just great. Right in point, thank you. All that you showed has just work for me. Apart form one thing: call me dumb, but I cannot make it work when the input source is located on Tableau Online. My flow needs to pick a source from Tableau Online, play around with a bit in Prep joining with some other Inputs (like a local file, etc.) and publish back to the Tableau Online as a an updated) output. The output is publishing nicely to the same Tableau online if I use a local file ( works great), but cannot make Tableau properly read the credentials to pick a source table on the Tableau Online as an Input. The credentials are exactly the same for Output (working) as for the Input ( Prep script keeps claiming they are missing). I keep playing around with the credential in .json with no success. Obviously, I am running the flow "manually" in Prep and it works smoothly. The flow is actually "begging"me to leave him alone, leave the Prep and just let it go on schedule with the Prep script ;-) Stupid as it may seem, but..., have you ever tried/managed to get the command line script working with an Input located on Tableau Online ?
@@TableauTim Great you reacted so quickly! Thank you. What I am using now is the 2021.3 Prep but tried on 2021.2 too with the same lack of success. I tried both, the v1 and v2 "versions" of the .json format.
@@TableauTim Hey, I have got it! And a small hint to others: What was NOT working for me was ... the slash at the end of the server Url in the .json file. Was sure that was correct since you showed it in our credential file, It did not work for me, however. I have deleted the slash and the credentials in my .json are being read correctly since then. The flow works from a command line as it should do. Thanks again for your time.
Great video. I reckon we can't run these flows via cmd to publish on Tableau Online if we have SSO enabled in our organisation? Or have they added this feature lately?
Hey Tim, I want to run the same prep flow for multiple databases within MS SQL Server. Is there a way to maybe loop through them using command line? Great video!
Hi Rob, see video and found very usefull , i have a query , my source is salesforce and target is SQL database , but i m not able to connect to salesforce by using json file as you suggected here , can you pls make a video for this , this will be help a lot , thanks in advance
Hey, Can you help me with the below query ? I want to run the Tableau flow from command line for which data source (Input) is excel file. So can I set the Input file path dynamically from connection file or through command line arg. ? Thanks so much for your support with this!
Hi Tableau Tim! Awesome video - this was super helpful! I am looking at case #3 and trying to automate my flow with two different SharePoint List URLs. How would I incorporate both SharePoint Lists in the onlinecreds.json? Additionally, our Tableau Server has two-factor authentication. Will I still be able to leverage these methods?
That's a tough use case. I haven't worked with share points lists but if I'm correct, thats essentially a data source right? Two factor is another one I assume this is tableau online or you using 2 factor with SSO for server? My gut instinct is theres a lot of moving parts here so might be better to find an alternative route.
Hi @@TableauTim, we have two factor with SSO for our Tableau Server. Yes, SharePoint Lists is a kind of data source. I am using four different data sources (all SharePoint Lists), so I was wondering how to properly include them in the onlinecreds.json file since your video showed how to include one database connection. Are additional parameters needed for more than one connection? Thank you!
@@TableauTim We have reviewed a few different options. We are very constricted due to the nature of the data sources (several different SharePoint Lists links). This is really the only quality path forward. I would appreciate any insight you might have :)
Issue: due to company policy, I can not publish my extract to the tableau server using Tableau Prep. I can only export to a CSV File. FYI: 1. I was able to locate the tableau prep script file. 2. I saved a copy of the flow on my desktop. Question: Do I follow the same procedures outlined in this video? Thanks for the video and any help.
Not using this method as the batch script can only instruct one flow at a time so its alwaus sequential. Also no need to run them all at the same time. If you need to be able to orchestrate a specific order, just write you commands int hat order or get prep conductor where you get more advanced automation and shceduling capabilities.
@@TableauTim I’m not not able to use conductor sadly. Is there a way to get thru the oAuth with this command line method ? Stuck on this , otherwise looking into different solutions
@@Aks1304 oAuth for tableau or for another application? It sounds like Tableau prep isn't the right automation tool for you here. Sounds like you need something more robust. Prep is more about data prep at the moment than it is ETL solution
