WDC in existing Tableau workbooks no longer connecting to data | XM Community
Solved

WDC in existing Tableau workbooks no longer connecting to data

  • 15 May 2019
  • 9 replies
  • 115 views

Userlevel 1
Badge +2
Is anyone else recently started having problems refreshing their web data connections from Tableau to Qualtrics??? Last week we discovered that every one of my team's workbooks with an existing web data connector can no longer connect to the data. We're getting the error "Failed to get survey responses from Qualtrics. Unable to create extract". Nothing has changed on our end or with the surveys. We can get past the step of logging into Qualtrics when refreshing the connection, but the errors come afterwards. We have a ticket open with Tableau and Qualtrics support was no help. I was able to confirm someone else in our firm has a Tableau workbook with WDCs to Qualtrics and it works fine.
icon

Best answer by Rebecca 20 May 2019, 23:38

View original

9 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +11
We had this exact issue but found out that it was our other data connection that we were trying to join with the survey responses. Maddening beyond belief! I hope you sort it out soon.
Badge +2
Same thing happening here!! 'Maddening' is definitely the right word.

I've been trying to refresh results for a day or so. Finally dug in to make it work and am ready to pull my hair out. Sometimes I get the error you mentioned ('unable to create extract') and other times it has connected but there is zero data returned.
Userlevel 1
Badge +2
The two consistent errors we're seeing in the logs are:
The table \\"webdata-direct\\" does not exist.
Qualified Name Parse Error --- Invalid input
Tableau says it's an issue on Qualtrics' side. But when I call Qualtrics support, they said the issue is on Tableau's side. (That said, Qualtrics support is TERRIBLE now! The people answering the phone are clueless. They're probably effective for basic users, but not for developers. She didn't even understand how WDC works, which makes it difficult for her to support.) Grrrr

Any additional advice would be greatly appreciated! I really don't want to rebuild these dashboards; which initially took 60 hours.
Badge +2
Amen! I'm trying to summarize the results of the third administration of a survey. I built the workbook after the first administration (hours and hours). After the second administration, I simply refreshed the extract (a minute or two). I expected to simply refresh the extract after this third administration but I'm hitting this problem of not finding data.

I get the same errors on my existing file, but it will connect to the data if I start entirely fresh.

Based on your experience, I think I'm going to shift my efforts to making a new connection with my necessary joins and replacing the data source in my existing file.

If you don't already know about this, my advice is "Don't rebuild. Replace!" You can find a pretty good description of replacing data source at https://community.tableau.com/thread/127890, but -- I use a slightly different method that doesn't require XML editing. Let me know if you want details.

This is SO frustrating!
I think the Qualtrics WDC is maybe built on an older version of the WDC; if your security is willing to whitelist it it may help. Also if you're on the Tableau community, come along and vote this idea up: https://community.tableau.com/ideas/3893?_ga=2.56954346.1904188701.1557934950-1231966035.1553022036#comment-40008
Userlevel 1
Badge +2
@Rebecca

YES! Please share details! And thank you for the suggestion. I'm currently escalating the issue with Qualtrics and Tableau. But my business area is very frustrated that we built them an awesome dashboard that they only go to use for a month before it broke. I will definitely try your suggestion. Someone also mentioned something about using Tableau "bookmarks" to basically copy the visualizations to a new workbook. But I don't know how that works yet.

I'm anxious to see how your suggestion works!
Userlevel 7
Badge +11
Ugh, I've been having this problem with missing data as well but I thought it was just something I was doing incorrectly. @Rebecca I'm also interested in details on how to do that without XML editing!

@amber_loranger I voted that up. Wish I could vote multiple times!
Badge +2
It will be easier for me to show than describe the problem. I'll make a quickie video and post the URL as part of this thread when it's ready. (Because I've been losing a battle with other technology today, I might wait until tomorrow to allow my frustration level to settle a bit.)
Badge +2
OK. I just walked through the process with my file. I didn't spend much time planning or making it pretty, so you'll see the raw process I used. I added my email and phone number to the very end in case that's necessary.

Video is at https://www.screencast.com/t/2qzuF02pEE

Leave a Reply