Generate PDF document of a Tableau view and send it as an email attachment

In this article I will explain how to generate PDF file/document of a Tableau view, send this document as an attachment in email and how to automate this procedure.

We can achieve this task using Tableau Server command line tool (tabcmd) and third party email sending utilities.

Generate pdf file of Tableau View

• Go to Tableau Server machine, open Command Prompt with administrative rights
• On Command Prompt, navigate to Tableau Server bin directory by typing the below command

  cd C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\<version>\bin
                   (or)
cd C:\ Program Files (x86)\Tableau\Tableau Server\<version>\bin

• Login to Tableau Server using below command

tabcmd login -s http ://<host>:<port> -u <username> -p <password>

ex: tabcmd login –s http://localhst:8000 –u <usrname> -p <pwd>

You can see some status message after running the above command.

• Now, type the below command to generate pdf file of Tableau view

     tabcmd get "<url-of-view>" -f "<filename>.pdf"

ex: tabcmd get "/views/Dashboard-SalesProfits/Dashboard2" -f "C:\tmp_Folder\dashboard22.pdf"

Sample tableau view url - http://localhost:8000/#/views/Dashboard-SalesProfits/Dashboard2

      pdf file will be generated and saved in C:\tmp_Folder (create this folder before executing the             above command).

Email the generated pdf file as an attachment

First of all, download and install “febootimail” command line email sending utility from http://www.febooti.com/ website.

• On Command Prompt, navigate to “feebootimail” installation path

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Febooti Command line email

febootimail -SMTP <your-mail-smtp> -PORT <port-number> -TO "<email-1; email-2>" -FROM <email-from-id> -SUBJECT "email subject line" -ATTACH "<path-of-generated-pdf-file>" -BODY "email message"

ex: febootimail -SMTP mail.infinysis.com -PORT 25 -TO "naga.allaboutbi@gmail.com" -FROM naga.k@infinysis.com -SUBJECT "Tableau View - PDF format " -HTML -TEXT "Hi, <br/> Please find the attached file for Tableau view in pdf format. <br /><br /> http://localhost:8000/ " -Attach "c:\tmp_Folder\dashboard22.pdf" -AUTH LOGIN -USER naga.k@infinysis.com -PASS *******

      Here is the snapshot of the email message
    

Additionally, you can put the entire script in a BATCH file and schedule it using windows task scheduler.

Find the complete script below.

Happy coding!!!