Fixing User Specific View Thumbnail in Tableau
In Tableau, when user filter is used to implement security and the visualization is published on the Server, it displays “User Specific View” instead of the actual thumbnail for views. In this article, we will see a workaround for fixing User Specific View thumbnail in Tableau.
Problem with User Specific View Thumbnail
When a Tableau visualization is published to a Tableau server, it displays visualization as a thumbnail on the server. Depending on the viz, this thumbnail shows a small chart or a table which gives a glimpse to the user about the viz.
When user filter is used in the report to implement low level security, the visualization on the server displays “User Specific View” instead of the actual thumbnail for views.
According to Tableau, this is by design. As per Tableau, this behavior is intentional. The generic “User Specific View” is displayed when there are user filters in place, in order to prevent the possibility of users seeing information that should be filtered out.
It is important to repair this User Specific View thumbnail as it does not provide any information to the user about the viz.
Fixing User Specific View Thumbnail
If the “User specific View” thumbnail does not look appropriate and feels like something is missing from the viz, the workaround which has worked for me consistently is the following,
When you publish the visualization from Tableau desktop, in the Publish Workbook screen, you will see an option for Generate thumbnail as user. In this edit box, search for the user who has some data in the visualization. When you publish your view in this manner, you will get a proper thumbnail. If the user you selected has no data to display, then the thumbnail will be displayed as User Specific View.
This workaround has worked for me every time.
If it works for you as well or create issues for you, please do let me know, so that we can discuss further.
About the Author
Chandraish Sinha has 20+ years of experience in Information Technology. He is an accomplished author and has published 11 books covering Business Intelligence related topics such as, Tableau,Power BI, and Qlik. Checkout his Amazon Author profile.
His latest book Excel Basics to Advanced covers all the aspects of MS Excel and provides exercises for self-learning.
Similarly, his recent book, Dashboarding with Tableau, covers all the features in Tableau and includes exercises for self-learning.
He has implemented IT solutions in different domains viz. Pharmaceutical, Healthcare, Telecom, Financial and Retail.
He blogs regularly on various IT topics. Check them out in the links given below:
Hi Chandraish,
This is a great post and your comment “This workaround has worked for me every time.” had me stumped this week due to a use case that took me a few hours to resolve.
I am a long time user of Tableau (>12 years), and my understanding of how the row-level security works, is exactly how you described it. Until I noticed when it doesn’t work every time!
In my use case, I have one data source for a workbook with many dashboards. I was using the generate thumbnail as user option with a user that could see everything. I was using a datasource filter for the row-level security only. When the workbook was published to server, SOME dashboards showed the thumbnail and some showed user-specific view. I confirmed that no additional user function filters were being used at the sheet level.
After further analysis, what I learned is that if there are any sheets on the dashboard that have no data (i.e., calculated field filters them out or sheet swap with parameter having nothing to do with RLS), the dashboard will display on server as “user specific view”. I’ve already sent this to Tableau as what I perceive as a bug as the thumbnail should show as the user sees it, not blank just because one sheet is hidden.
Naomi:
Thanks for your further insight into this issue.
Tableau has so many nuances, everyday new things to learn and explore.