If a request results in an error, the server returns an HTTP status code that indicates the general nature of the error. These can include400 (Bad Request) if Tableau Server cannot parse or interpret the message in the request,403 (Forbidden) if the request was not authorized,404 (Not Found) if a resource could not be located, and405 (Method Not Allowed) if the wrong verb was used for an operation (for example, making a GET request instead of a POST request).

For error conditions, the response body also includes an XML block that provides details about the error. For example, if the HTTP response was 404, the response body provides details about what resource in particular was not found. Imagine that you send the following PUT request in order to update information for a user:

http://your-server/api/3.27/sites/9a8b7c6d5-e4f3-a2b1-c0d9-e8f7a6b5c4d/users/9f9e9d9c8-b8a8-f8e7-d7c7-b7a6f6d6e6d

An HTTP status code of 404 for the response tells you that the operation was not successful because a resource could not be found. In that case, the response body might look like the following example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><tsResponseversion-and-namespace-settings >  <error code="404002">    <summary>Resource Not Found</summary>    <detail>User '9f9e9d9c8-b8a8-f8e7-d7c7-b7a6f6d6e6d' could not be found.</detail>  </error></tsResponse>

Notice that the code in the<error> element provides both general information and specifics. In the example, the error code is 404002. The "404" part of the code indicates a "not found" error, which matches the HTTP status code. The "002" part indicates that it was the specified user that was not found. The<detail> element within the error provides a text description of the error.

If error messages have been translated, they are returned in the language that's set in theAccept-Language header of the request. For example, if the headers includeAccept-Language: de-de, error messages are returned in German.

Note: You should not rely on specific text appearing in the<detail> element of an error response. Instead, test the value of the errorcode attribute to determine why an operation failed.

Common Errors

The following errors can occur in any API call.

Table of Error Codes

The following table lists all the codes that can appear ascode attribute of an<error> element if an error has occurred.