workbook filter fails with special characters.

Describe the bug
If my workbook has special character in it, my filter fails. I'm currently working around this but hoping that it can be fixed.

Versions
Details of your environment, including:

Tableau online
Python version: 3.9.12
tableauserverclient==0.23.4

To Reproduce

    with server.auth.sign_in(tableau_auth):
        wbs = server.workbooks.all()
        wbs.filter(name="T(L-F,SZ&V-MY) - PC")
        next(iter(wbs_iter)) # this will fail

Results

ServerResponseError: 

	400065: Bad Request
		None

Unfortunately you can't represent some characters in a search, but you can replace them with a wildcard.
Specifically, I think it's "," and "&" that don't work. But this does:

` wb_name = "T(L-FSZV-MY) - PC"

    print("Searching for " + wb_name + "")

    for workbook in server.workbooks.filter(name=wb_name):

        print(workbook.name, workbook.id)

`

produces:
Searching for T(L-F*SZ*V-MY) - PC
T(L-F,SZ&V-MY) - PC b5d8b87f-3a3c-4787-83d4-6fd5cc2664db
T(L-F^SZ|V-MY) - PC 44ea14d9-54e8-4b9f-9ec9-150fbea57b08

https://help.tableau.com/current/api/rest_api/en-us/REST/rest_api_concepts_filtering_and_sorting.htm#filter-expression-notes

Should make sure our docs mention this limitation and workaround.

So would it make sense to add a replace_illegal_chars argument, hopefuly something pithier, to filter? I could try it if I get a hint or something. There's not a lot of doc strings in this repo.

Maybe here?

something like

def filter(self, *invalid, **kwargs):
    if invalid:
        raise RuntimeError(f"Only accepts keyword arguments.")
    # special arg to allow for filtering on fields that contain illegal characters
    replace_illegal_characters = kwargs.pop("replace_illegal_characters", False)
    
    for kwarg_key, value in kwargs.items():
        field_name, operator = self._parse_shorthand_filter(kwarg_key)
        if replace_illegal_characters:
            value = self._replace_illegal_characters(value)
        self.request_options.filter.add(Filter(field_name, operator, value))
    return self

def _replace_illegal_characters(self, value):
    """helper function to replace illegal characters in a string value for filtering"""
    if isinstance(value, str):
        return value.replace(",", "*").replace('&', '*')
    return value

Not sure if this applies here, but we've run into issues with commas in other queries. We got around them by replacing , with %5C%2C instead of just %2C. If I can figure out how to test a patch I may try it when I have some more time.

Disregard my last comment, I tried to make it work and forced a \ (%5C) before the comma still got a 400 error.

However; just wanted to also note I am getting this same problem with a job filter.

Edit: comma instead of command

We have a bunch of questions around filters, and will go through all of them to carefully document current behavior. that might turn into some work items if there are inconsistencies/gaps.

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed in 14 days if no further activity occurs. If this is still relevant, please comment to keep it open.

docs: clarify username formats, ProjectLeader-as-group, and filter sp…

Navigation Menu

Repository navigation

workbook filter fails with special characters. #1200

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

workbook filter fails with special characters. #1200

Description

Activity

jacalata commented on Mar 14, 2023

jacalata commented on Apr 12, 2023

VDFaller commented on Apr 20, 2023

mtwalkup commented on Nov 16, 2023

mtwalkup commented on Nov 17, 2023

jacalata commented on Sep 20, 2024

github-actions commented on Aug 6, 2026

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Issue actions