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[Type 2] Support range filter operators (GreaterThan, LessThan, Between) in PDFRequestOptions.vf() for view filters #1752

@vermakailash

Description

@vermakailash

Summary

Add support for range filter operators (GreaterThan, LessThan, Between) in PDF view filters using .vf() method

Request Type

Type 2: add a REST API and support it in tsc.

This is functionality that exists in Tableau dashboards (continuous range filters) but cannot be properly controlled through the PDF generation API.

Description

Current Limitation

When using PDFRequestOptions.vf() to apply view filters for PDF generation, there is no way to specify filter operators such as GreaterThan, LessThan, or Between. The current implementation only supports:

  • Single discrete values: pdf_opts.vf('Region', 'West')
  • Multiple discrete values (IN operator): pdf_opts.vf('Category', 'Furniture,Technology')
  • Ambiguous comma-separated syntax: pdf_opts.vf('Score', '10,50')

Problem

For continuous range filters configured in Tableau dashboards, the comma-separated syntax '10,50' is ambiguous and may be interpreted as:

  • IN (10, 50) - only values exactly 10 or 50
  • BETWEEN 10 AND 50 - range from 10 to 50

Currently, there is no way to explicitly specify that a filter should use BETWEEN, GreaterThan, or other range operators, even though these filters work perfectly when using the dashboard interactively.

Proposed Solution

Add operator support to .vf() similar to how RequestOptions.filter.add() works for API queries:

Current API (RequestOptions filtering):

req_option = TSC.RequestOptions()
req_option.filter.add(TSC.Filter(
    TSC.RequestOptions.Field.Score,
    TSC.RequestOptions.Operator.GreaterThanOrEqual,
    '10'
))

Proposed enhancement for PDF view filters:

pdf_opts = TSC.PDFRequestOptions()
pdf_opts.vf('SCORE', '10', operator=TSC.RequestOptions.Operator.GreaterThanOrEqual)
# OR
pdf_opts.vf('SCORE', min_value='10', max_value='50')  # For BETWEEN

Use Case & Value

  • Frequency: This is needed any time programmatic PDF generation requires filtering on continuous numeric or date fields
  • Current workaround: None - users must either accept ambiguous behavior or modify dashboard filters, which affects all users
  • Work saved: Eliminates need to create separate dashboards with hardcoded filters just for PDF generation
  • Business impact: Critical for automated reporting where PDFs need to show data for specific ranges (e.g., "Show only high-risk scores 80-100", "Show sales data > $1M")

Example Scenario

A Tableau dashboard has a continuous slider filter for SCORE (range: 0-100). When generating automated weekly PDFs:

  • Needed: Filter to show only scores BETWEEN 10 AND 50
  • Current behavior: Passing [10, 50] may show only exact values 10 and 50
  • Expected behavior: Should show all values in the range 10-50, just like moving the slider in the web UI

This feature would bring view filter capabilities in line with the existing RequestOptions.filter API and match the functionality available in the Tableau web interface.

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