Tableau Desktop marked as 'manual download required'

[mdigrego]

Hello,

We use Patch My PC for app creation and updates for a variety of applications. One of which is Tableau Desktop. I have been deploying Tableau with PMPC for a while now but noticed today that the icon next to the app in the publishing settings mentions that the app needs a manual download. My understanding is that because apps like this are locked behind a paywall, you are supposed to manually download it and place it in the local repository for PMPC to publish it to the site. This was confusing to me because I've been deploying Tableau with PMPC for years (including the most recent version), and ... I've never manually downloaded it?

When I look at the download URL, it does indeed show the path to the local repository for the site. So, nothing is really having an issue necessarily; I suppose I am just trying to figure out how this is working if I haven't manually downloaded the installer.

[Chris@PatchMyPC]

Hello mdigrego!

Unfortunately, the vendor has altered the download process.
We've noticed a slight increase in the number of vendors requiring CAPTCHA verification. Tableau is one of them.

From our known issues page (https://patchmypc.com/known-issues-and-considerations-when-using-patch-my-pc)
Tableau is blocking downloads from scripts and automated solutions. Utilize the Local Content Repository to publish Tableau products.

Ensure you enable the following option in the Advanced tab of the Publisher: "Check the local content repository repository for content files before attempting to download content files from the Internet."

[mdigrego]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the reply. Is this a new change? I only ask because I have a version of the app that was published by PMPC (version 24.1.827) on 5/1/2024 which I did not manually download. Was that the last version before the vendor made the switch?

[Chris@PatchMyPC]

That's correct.
They made the change about a month ago. We've reached out to the vendor to see if we can work something out for our downloads, but we haven't seen any progress on that front just yet.

[mdigrego]

Aha that makes sense. Thank you for the info, and for all you do at PMPC!

[RyanGreen]

That's correct.
They made the change about a month ago. We've reached out to the vendor to see if we can work something out for our downloads, but we haven't seen any progress on that front just yet.

Any new update?

[elenagilbert]

You can check the latest Patch My PC documentation for updates and verify that your local repository path is correct and accessible. This should clarify why Tableau is now marked as `manual download required` and how to proceed.

[Chris@PatchMyPC]

Sadly no new updates on this one yet.

The error is due to Tableau blocking downloads without certain headers. We have this documented on our known issues page now at:- https://patchmypc.com/known-issues-and-considerations-when-using-patch-my-pc#topic5. We think they implemented restrictions to stop software automation solutions from downloading binaries. When you invoke the download manually from a browser, it supplies a different header type in the request.

[JoeH]

Are you guys actively working to try and find a way around these limitations?  Surely there is a way to get around this, even if it required something like installing Chrome or Edge on the PMPC Publishing Service machine and automate the download through the browser, or spoofing headers.  It's very frustrating that I'm spending more time having to manually download installers due to both an increase in the frequency of app updates, and an increase in the number of apps that PatchMyPC cannot deal with automatically.

[Andrew Jimenez (Patch My PC)]

Yes, we are actively working on this solution. It will require a new Publisher build, but we are going to inject additional headers for these specific apps. I'm hoping we'll have a fix in the next preview build of the Publisher.