Error by generating thumbnails

[rumen-vasilev]

Hello community,

I am trying to generate some thumbnails, but I am getting an error and the process does not finish. I am using the standalone file (v2.1.3) on a Windows server machine. Does somebody know what the error on the screenshot mean and what I am doing wrong?

BR,
Rumen

[mountaindude]

Hey, I would suggest adding --headless false to your command line options.
That will show the underlying (normally hidden) browser that's used to connect to the Sense app and take screen shots of its sheets.
By showing that browser it's usually much easier to see where BSI gets stuck.

The error you are getting indicate that BSI (=Butler Sheet Icons) does not find the expected HTML tags/structure.

Now, this can happen in two cases:

1. You are connecting to a virtual proxy that pops up a login screen, you have a SSO login solution or similar. This won't work as BSI expects plain form based authentication.
2. In theory Qlik can change the code of the Sense client in new versions. Whenever Qlik releases a new version of Sense (client-managed or cloud) they can in theory change the html code, breaking BSI. As of this writing BSI has been tested with 2022 May version of client-managed Qlik Sense.

[rumen-vasilev]

Hello Göran,

I am using actually SSO login. It's a little bit, that I can not use tlis tool on our site. Thank you very much for the explaination.

BR,
Rumen

[mountaindude]

That explains it then. You are most likely getting some login popup. Is it possible to create a separate virtual proxy in Sense that is only used for API access from devops or admin tools? That's how many Sense admins solve this challenge. You can also lock down that virtual proxy with firewall rules etc, making it available only from select IP ranges or computers.

…

On Tue, 4 Oct 2022 at 14:15, Rumen Vasilev ***@***.***> wrote: Hello Göran, I am using actually SSO login. It's a little bit, that I can not use tlis tool on our site. Thank you very much for the explaination. BR, Rumen — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#237 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAH3JDSJXEX6CBMV5HAVOM3WBQNXFANCNFSM6AAAAAAQT2UWWQ> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: <ptarmiganlabs/butler-sheet-icons/repo-discussions/237/comments/3795533@ github.com>

[rumen-vasilev]

Yes, I will try to create a separate virtual proxy. Should I use the SAML authentification method for this purpose?

[mountaindude]

Long overdue response, sorry for that.

No, SAML would not be my first choice here.
Sure, you could use SAML but you would then have to set up all the SAML configuration - which can be a challenge.

I would go with a regular ticket based virtual proxy, but it's important that it uses Form authentication.
I.e. the username and password should be entered on a web page.
This is needed because Butler Sheet Icons pretends to be a regular user when taking the screen shots of the Sense app sheets - and also when logging into Sense. A Windows login popup won't work then.

My virtual proxy config looks like this:

Finally, using Butler Sheet Icons version 3.0 (which was released today!) I run this command (using PowerShell on Windows Server 2016 in this case). Note the final --prefix form, which tells Butler Sheet Icons to use a virtual proxy called form.

PS C:\tools\butler-sheet-icons-win\demo-dir> .\butler-sheet-icons.exe qseow create-sheet-thumbnails --host $BSI_HOST --appid $BSI_APP_ID --apiuserdir Internal --apiuserid sa_ api --loglevel info --logonuserdir $BSI_LOGON_USER_DIR --logonuserid $BSI_LOGON_USER_ID --logonpwd $BSI_LOGON_PWD --contentlibrary 'abc 123' --pagewait 5 --secure true --head less true --imagedir './img' --certfile $BSI_CERT_FILE --certkeyfile $BSI_CERT_KEY_FILE --includesheetpart 4 --sense-version $BSI_SENSE_VERSION --prefix form

[rumen-vasilev]

Hello Göran,

Thanks for your suggestion. I will try it.

BR,
Rumen