AlertsAlerter 2.0

Attached is a conversion of a notification process I created that sends an email when there is a new Alert present on the Tableau Server.  The notification goes to the Tableau Administrator and the Owner of the offending object.  Here is the original -- you can think of it as version one:  Tableau Server Alerts Alerter

Now with VizAlerts the process is easy to maintain, work with, and keeps your teeth white all day (okay, maybe not that last item)!  Here's how easy it is now:

1. Open the attached .twb
2. Change the connection info to your Tableau Server
3. Change the Email CC ~ email address to that of the Tableau Administrator
4. Publish to your Tableau Server
5. View the "AlertList_Report" and subscribe to it with a VizAlert.
6. Done!

Notes

• Do not subscribe to the "AlertList_csv".  That was originally for the old method of this report.  I left it because it doesn't have a time limit filter so you can see previous alerts.
• I recommend having a VizAlert schedule of once an hour.
• Have your Server alerts moved to their own email folder.  Here is what my folder structure is for Tableau Server:

         All AlertsAlerter emails are put into the Alerts! email folder by a rule I have set up in Outlook.

• The Email Subject * looks like this:

         'PROD Tableau Server Alert! - ' + [object_name]

        You will want to change the first bit of text to reflect what you call the Server it's running on

Updates

03Mar2016 - Inspired by Matt's very cool rendition (Example: Email users whose extracts fail to refresh ) I updated this alert workbook (version is 9.2).  Mine didn't always capture all alerts even though all the data was being properly captured.  It turns out it was the way my Row pills were set up that caused this.  By re-arranging their order, namely the Email Subject * as the first VizAlert item since it will be unique for each row, I was successful in getting the same data back as Matt's.  One difference with mine is that it filters out crashed jobs.  If you wish to see these errors then simply remove the Notes pill from the Filters pane.

I really liked how Matt set his VizAlert workbook up by using parameters, thus making it more user-friendly-adjustable than mine.  I also like how he uses the Email Consolidate ~ field so only one message is sent per owner.  However, I specifically want an individual email for each and every Server alert which is why mine is the way it is -- one email per alert even if multiple alerts are sent to the same person.

Here ya go:

Workbook Aging

This VizAlert report is meant to let Workbook Owners know that their content hasn't been viewed for a certain length of time and that they should delete it if it is no longer needed.

As usual you will need to Edit Connection when you open it so it points to your Tableau Server.

On the "Forgotten Workbook Alerts" tab is where the filter is for the number of months you want to trigger on:

I have mine set to 7 months, that way when something is over 6 months (roughly) then the workbook Owner will get an email alerting them to the fact that no one has viewed their workbook for quite a while.  Naturally this is where you would change the criteria to fit your needs.  This is also the tab that you will subscribe your VizAlert to.  I use my 6AM every day schedule so it fires off only once a day, every day.

There is another calculated field that is the number of days since the object was last viewed.  You can use that instead of the current months calculation if you want more precise alerting.

The first tab, "Workbook Aging Dashboard", is for your viewing pleasure and should not be subscribed to.  It is powered by the hidden sheet, "Forgotten Workbooks".  From there you can adjust your Color and Filters.

Notes

Be sure to change the title for each page and the Email Subject * text to fit your particular Tableau Server naming convention.

Change the Email CC ~ email address to that of the Tableau Administrator.

The sliding filter:  A value of zero means reports that have been recently viewed, within the last month.  By moving the slider to zero you will see all reports...and have an almost unreadable X-axis.

Remember to adjust the number in the "Black Wkbk Name" and "Red Wkbk Name" to your value.  The "Red Wkbk Name" simply changes the text in the Tooltip to red if the age is over the value you assign (it is independent of the filter).

Email Example

stalecleanupaging_content

1Feb2016 - Will now create workbook URL with appropriate Site as necessary.  Previous workbook didn't do this

I discovered that Tableau changed one of its field values somewhere along the software updating process because data source error alerts were not showing up in my emails even though I saw them on the Servers.  A tweak to the Custom SQL code fixed it.  Go from this:

LEFT JOIN public._datasources ds ON (proper_bj.object_id = ds.id AND proper_bj.subtitle='Data Source')  -- Include data source info. The AND is required!

to this:

LEFT JOIN public._datasources ds ON (proper_bj.object_id = ds.id AND proper_bj.subtitle='Datasource')  -- Include datasource info. The AND is required!

The workbook was updated in the original attachment location.

This is great!  Thank you, Matt, for this incredible tool and Toby for sharing this workbook and the examples.  These alerts are exactly what I've been looking to implement.

Thanks for providing this awesome workbook!  I'm running into an issue that I'm hoping you can help me with.  When I test this out by running the vizalerts.py script, it tells me that the email addresses are invalid and proceeds to remove all periods and the @ symbol.

Here is how it looks in Tableau Desktop:

And here is what the script is doing:

Any ideas?

Is the email domain whitelisted in your config file?

Yes:

Agreed, would need to see the logs.

Just to make sure, when you restart your Tableau Server do you get an email from it letting your know services are up?  Thus the Tableau Server Configuration is set up so that your Server can send email.  I'm at home, not in front of my work computer, so I can't show you a picture of the Server Configuration window so I hope you know what I'm talking about.

Found the issue!  On the server where I am testing this, we had some Tableau Sample workbooks that listed the owner as Tableau Software.  I changed the owner to myself and now it's working just fine.  Thanks!