Tableau Community Forums

Hello,

I'm a beginner admin and recently I've inherited few instances of Tableau Server. My users are very interested in using TabPy and asked me to setup the service in our environments.

I looked into Installation Guide available on TabPy GitHub page, but I have a few questions and would appreciate if anyone could shed some light:

1) Does TabPy need to be installed on the same machine as Tableau Server, or can it be installed on separate machine? What would be the best practice here?

2) I have 3 independent machines with Tableau Server. Do I need 3 separate instances of TabPy, or maybe a single TabPy can support multiple Tableau Servers?

3) Can I install TabPy on machine that has no access to the Internet? I understand that Internet access is needed during installation to download Anaconda and Python packages, but once TabPy is installed can it work offline?

Hi Michal,

PFB my response to the queries:

1) Does TabPy need to be installed on the same machine as Tableau Server, or can it be installed on separate machine? What would be the best practice here?

No, you can install TabPy on any machine.

2) I have 3 independent machines with Tableau Server. Do I need 3 separate instances of TabPy, or maybe a single TabPy can support multiple Tableau Servers?

Yes a single Tabpy Server should fulfill the need where users can connect to installed Tabpy server from desktop and publish to any Tableau Server provided you specify port and server details in the respective server using below commands.

tabadmin set vizqlserver.extsvc.host

tabadmin set vizqlserver.extsvc.port

3) Can I install TabPy on machine that has no access to the Internet? I understand that Internet access is needed during installation to download Anaconda and Python packages, but once TabPy is installed can it work offline?

I'm not sure about if it can work offline.

Thanks,
Paramesh

Hi Pavan/Bora,

Above article and set of instructions are very useful which provides clear explanation of what each step does. I've been able to install TabPy successfully, connect from desktop, publish to server and everything works great. However, as we are aware of the fact that python functions works as long as command window is open and once the window is closed stops TabPy server.

I was trying to create a shorcut following your instructions but have been thrown with an error message which says "Expected End of Statement", attached is the error message.

Following is the flow chart which I followed.

created a shortcut with below commands:

C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe C:\Users\CUSTOM_USERS\invis.vbs "C:\Users\CUSTOM_USERS\Anaconda\envs\Tableau-Python-Server\Lib\site-packages\tabpy_server\startup.bat" %*

Created file named invis.vbs under the speicified location with following content.

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") WshShell.Run """" & WScript.Arguments(0) & """" & sargs, 0, False

I've never done VB scripting and not sure what might be causing the issue. Any assistance is really appreciated. Provided details in the following link as well.

https://community.tableau.com/docs/DOC-10856?signin=dc8ca047e40ed5ff757ee02561c59e8f#comment-29595

If offline means behind a firewall where it can't reach outside and it can't be reached from outside while it is accessible within the network, the answer is yes. TabPy itself has no external dependencies to run.

Hi Pawan,

I'm not having much luck installing the Tabpy.

The batch file and installation fails at the point that it is "Collecting cloudpickle" and "Collecting future", which it indicates that it "Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement ==0.2" and "No matching distribution found for" cloudpickle/future.

Hello - I am a newbie and having trouble installing Tabpy on my local machine. Here is the error I am getting.

Hello Pawan,

Thanks for the post. What versions of the standard packages (e.g. datetime) are used? I am asking because many times the python code in Tableau doesn't work as it normally does - e.g. when i write datetime.today() I receive AttributeError : module 'datetime' has no attribute 'today'.

What are the differences between python and python for Tableau?

Best,B Branson

Hi Boris,

Can you send an example of the code you are trying to run?

Sincerely,

Nathan

Hi Pawan,

Can multiple users connect to TabPy and work at the same time?

When multiple users can make use of the connection at the same time, does it run on Windows servers? or do we need to install TabPy on Linux machine just like R Serve?

Thanks

Shoba

Hey Shoba,

The issue with Rserve and multiple users having issues is a factor of how R is implemented in windows.

With TabPy, you should be fine running multiple users on the same TabPy instance installed on windows servers.

Sincerely,

Nathan

I am stuck at the same spot as Hiruy

Thank you Nathan.

Try right clicking and running as admin.

Very well written article.

My question is, once we did all our script in the tableau desktop and after pushing the workbook to tableau server, will it work normally like refreshing every day automatically?