Blank Views or Broken Calculated Fields on Published Dashboard After Overwriting Published Datasource with Alteryx .TDE

Issue

When overwriting a published datasource with an Alteryx-generated .TDE file, the view is blank.

Additionally, when clicking the Web Edit button on Tableau Server, the calculated fields show broken fields with "Red Pills".

Environment

Tableau Server
Alteryx

Resolution

Option 1

Use Tabcmd to publish the datasources to maintain the XML data.

Option 2
It may be possible to automate this process using both Tabcmd and Alteryx, however please note that such a process not supported by Tableau Technicla Support. For more information, see this posting by Interworks on automating a datasource refresh using Alteryx.

Cause

When a datasource is published to Tableau Server using Tableau Desktop, that data has an XML header that contains info such as calculated fields, color formats, connection information and other datasource-specific settings. When Alteryx creates data to be published to Tableau Server, it does not contain this XML data and that information is lost when the datasource is overwritten. When the workbook attempts to render the view without the XML data, the calculated fields do not get created and cannot be used to render the view, resulting in a blank screen and "red pills" on the dashboard.