Subscription creation without pre-existing schedule item fails (user error?)

[CodingOnWindowsOS]

Describe the bug
I am attempting to create a subscription to a workbook using a schedule that doesn't exist at creation time. To perform the same action using Tableau Cloud/Server front-end, the user would configure the subscription by specifying the target type (view or entire workbook), format, subject, and schedule.

Versions
Tableau Cloud
Python 3.12.3
TSC library version 3.24

To Reproduce

 # Sign-in to server.
  with server.auth.sign_in(tableau_auth):
      # Ensure the most recent Tableau REST API version is used.
      server.use_highest_version()
      # Retrieve the user requiring the new subscription.
      user = server.users.filter(name='cmp160130@gmail.com')
      # Retreive the subscription's content (e.g., workbook, view)
      target = server.workbooks.filter(name='North America Sales')

      new_subscription = tsc.SubscriptionItem(
          subject='North America Sales (demo)',
          schedule_id=tsc.ScheduleItem(
              name=None,
              priority=None,
              schedule_type=None,
              execution_order=None,
              interval_item=tsc.DailyInterval(time(0),
                  24.0, 'Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday'
              )
          ),
          user_id=user[0].id,
          target=tsc.Target(target[0].id, target_type='Workbook')
      )

      # Subscribe the user to the target content.
      server.subscriptions.create(subscription_item=new_subscription)

Results
What are the results or error messages received?
TypeError: cannot serialize <Schedule#None "None" <DailyInterval start=00:00:00 interval=(24.0, 'Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday')>> { _created_at: None, _end_schedule_at: None, _id: None, _next_run_at: None, _state: None, _updated_at: None, interval_item: <DailyInterval start=00:00:00 interval=(24.0, 'Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday')>, _execution_order: None, _name: None, _priority: None, _schedule_type: None} (type ScheduleItem)

If I swap out the subscription item configuration above for the following that uses a pre-existing schedule, then it works fine.

new_subscription = tsc.SubscriptionItem(
    subject='North America Sales (demo)',
    schedule_id='f3dcaf7a-9668-4eb2-8c20-2f7c21e82744',
    user_id=user[0].id,
    target=tsc.Target(target[0].id, target_type='Workbook')
)

[jacalata]

I believe this is indeed a requirement, but we could return a better error from the server, and tsc should give a hint too.

[CodingOnWindowsOS]

Thank you for the support!

The odd part is that I can manually create a subscription to the workbook using the front-end features, subsequently query that subscription using TSC, and observe the schedule ID, name, priority, etc. are None for that subscription. The date and time the subscription is configured to fire off is populated, but no schedule ID. That's the behavior I am trying to replicate when creating them using TSC and am at a loss as to why it doesn't work.

I also tried copying the schedule item from a preexisting subscription that I manually configured. It also fails. I'll provide a snippet of the subscription object returned where the schedule ID is not populated and corresponds to the subscription mentioned above tomorrow.

Thanks again!

[CodingOnWindowsOS]

Manual creation of subscription to workbook.

Below is the subscription retrieved after creating it manually using the front-end. The manual creation process is shown within the two images.
<Subscription#0f1ab430-5b67-45fa-93f9-e2ee9e465601 subject(Daily Sales (testing)) schedule_id(None) user_id(9390ecd3-2278-467c-a636-5486afd3dec1) target(<Target#5faf8999-1ad8-4f0d-b337-b72a3882a418, Workbook>)

Using subscription.dict:
{'_id': '0f1ab430-5b67-45fa-93f9-e2ee9e465601', '_attach_image': False, '_attach_pdf': True, 'message': 'Testing', 'page_orientation': 'PORTRAIT', 'page_size_option': 'LETTER', 'schedule_id': None, '_send_if_view_empty': True, 'subject': 'Daily Sales (testing)', '_suspended': False, 'target': <Target#5faf8999-1ad8-4f0d-b337-b72a3882a418, Workbook>, 'user_id': '9390ecd3-2278-467c-a636-5486afd3dec1', 'schedule': [<Schedule#None "None" <DailyInterval start=00:00:00 interval=(24.0, 'Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday')>> { _created_at: None, _end_schedule_at: None, _id: None, _next_run_at: None, _state: None, _updated_at: None, interval_item: <DailyInterval start=00:00:00 interval=(24.0, 'Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday')>, _execution_order: None, _name: None, _priority: None, _schedule_type: None}]}

Accessing the schedule attribute of the subscription:
[<Schedule#None "None" <DailyInterval start=00:00:00 interval=(24.0, 'Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday')>> { _created_at: None, _end_schedule_at: None, _id: None, _next_run_at: None, _state: None, _updated_at: None, interval_item: <DailyInterval start=00:00:00 interval=(24.0, 'Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday')>, _execution_order: None, _name: None, _priority: None, _schedule_type: None}]

Notice the schedule ID is none as are the vast majority of attributes related to the schedule aside from those necessary for the subscription. I am hoping to achieve the same functionality using TSC. I hope that makes sense! Am I just doing it wrong in my original code example or is something else amiss? @jacalata

[jacalata]

OK, looks like I didn't read your first code closely enough. You have this line, where you assign an entire schedule object to the attribute schedule_id , which is only expecting a luid like 0f1ab430-5b67-45fa-93f9-e2ee9e465601:

 schedule_id=tsc.ScheduleItem(
              name=None,
              priority=None,
              schedule_type=None,
              execution_order=None,
              interval_item=tsc.DailyInterval(time(0),
                  24.0, 'Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday'
              )

You want to create the SubscriptionItem without setting a schedule_id, and then do
new_subscription.schedule = tsc.ScheduleItem(....

[GwenVCX]

I am having the same issue

[hahu66]

I am still getting an error trying to create a subscription on Tableau Cloud v2025.1.0

Versions
Tableau Cloud (dub01.online.tableau.com) 2025.1.0 build 20251.25.0305.2339
Python 3.12.8
REST API 3.25
TSC library version 0.36

Code:

target = tsc.Target('09c7862b.....-d59fbbd2983a','View')
interval_item = tsc.WeeklyInterval(time(12,0), tsc.IntervalItem.Day.Wednesday)
sch = tsc.ScheduleItem(name=None,priority=None,schedule_type=None,execution_order=None,interval_item=interval_item)
#schedule_id = '153eeedd-.....-ffc39ae91373'
schedule_id = ''
user_id='427385fb-.....-8d1f29c1345b'
subject = 'Waiting for approval'
new_sub = tsc.SubscriptionItem(subject=subject, user_id=user_id, target=target, schedule_id=None)
#new_sub = tsc.SubscriptionItem(subject=subject, user_id=user_id, target=target, schedule_id=schedule_id)
new_sub.schedule = sch
new_sub.message = 'manual test'
new_sub.attach_image = False
new_sub.attach_pdf = True
new_sub.page_orientation = 'PORTRAIT'
new_sub.page_size_option = 'A4'
new_sub.send_if_view_empty = True
new_sub.suspended = False
new_sub = server.subscriptions.create(subscription_item=new_sub)

So creating with 'schedule_id=None' fails with the error below.
Also fails with 'schedule_id='' or when leaving schedule_id out of the SubscriptionItem.

I am able to create it with an existing schedule_id . But them you can not change the frequency anymore on TblCloud.
Just to verify all other parameters and settings in the Subscription Item are correct.
(All specified IDs used are real and existing, only masked in this post)

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "c:\Programs\Python312\Lib\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 1027, in _escape_attrib
    if "&" in text:
       ^^^^^^^^^^^
TypeError: argument of type 'NoneType' is not iterable

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "D:\MyPyProjects\Mig_SDK_Fixes\env\Lib\site-packages\tableauserverclient\server\endpoint\endpoint.py", line 274, in wrapper
    return func(self, *args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "D:\MyPyProjects\Mig_SDK_Fixes\env\Lib\site-packages\tableauserverclient\server\endpoint\subscriptions_endpoint.py", line 48, in create
    create_req = RequestFactory.Subscription.create_req(subscription_item)
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "D:\MyPyProjects\Mig_SDK_Fixes\env\Lib\site-packages\tableauserverclient\server\request_factory.py", line 37, in wrapper
    func(self, xml_request, *args, **kwargs)
  File "D:\MyPyProjects\Mig_SDK_Fixes\env\Lib\site-packages\tableauserverclient\server\request_factory.py", line 1226, in create_req
    return ET.tostring(xml_request)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "c:\Programs\Python312\Lib\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 1084, in tostring
    ElementTree(element).write(stream, encoding,
  File "c:\Programs\Python312\Lib\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 729, in write
    serialize(write, self._root, qnames, namespaces,
  File "c:\Programs\Python312\Lib\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 892, in _serialize_xml
    _serialize_xml(write, e, qnames, None,
  File "c:\Programs\Python312\Lib\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 892, in _serialize_xml
    _serialize_xml(write, e, qnames, None,
  File "c:\Programs\Python312\Lib\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 885, in _serialize_xml
    v = _escape_attrib(v)
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "c:\Programs\Python312\Lib\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 1050, in _escape_attrib
    _raise_serialization_error(text)
  File "c:\Programs\Python312\Lib\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 1004, in _raise_serialization_error
    raise TypeError(
TypeError: cannot serialize None (type NoneType)

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed in 14 days if no further activity occurs. If this is still relevant, please comment to keep it open.

[jacalata]

Digging back into this, the TypeError: cannot serialize None (type NoneType) that @hahu66 hit is a real TSC bug. SubscriptionRequest.create_req unconditionally writes id=None into <schedule> when schedule_id is None (no guard, unlike the sibling update_req), and it does not serialize the .schedule object at all. Tableau Cloud's POST /subscriptions endpoint accepts an inline <schedule frequency="..."><frequencyDetails>...</frequencyDetails></schedule> payload (no schedule ID required), which is what the UI produces when you create an "on-schedule" subscription without a pre-existing schedule LUID. TSC only knows how to emit the on-prem-Server payload shape.

That gap is the same one tracked in #1373 (Cloud-specific subscription requests) and, from the read side, #1627. Rather than have three copies of the same conversation, I'm closing this one and pointing at #1373 for the fix. If you want to follow along or add repro details, subscribe there.

Thanks for the detailed writeups — they were what let me nail down the exact code path (see request_factory.py:1345-1347 on development).