If you have problems with the Spotfire Service for Python, review these tips.

Problems with the Dockerfile on a Linux node manager

After the service runs, you can view the Dockerfile that the Spotfire Service for Python writes. You can find the file in the root service directory (for example, /opt/tibco/tsnm/<server version_#>/nm/services/Python service Linux-<version_#_ID>/dockerfile/Dockerfile.

Try test building the Docker image in the environment before starting the Spotfire Service for Python.

Note: Building an image takes time, so it can take a few minutes for the web UI to display a possible image build failure. If a build failure occurs, the retry mechanism is triggered automatically.

Problems with the startup script

Check your script line endings.

Important: Remember that for any script you write, the line endings must be appropriate for the operating system where Spotfire Service for Python runs. Many text editors can perform end-of-line (EOL) conversion.

Empty String columns in exported SBDF causes an error

When you export an SBDF from Python (for example, as output for a data function), and your output contains an empty column, you can encounter the following error:

spotfire.sbdf.SBDFError: cannot determine type for column 'EmptyString'; all values are missing

This error occurs because the Spotfire data function environment cannot determine the proper Spotfire type to export the data as if all values in the column are missing (in other words, Python's None, NumPy's nan, or Panda's NA or NaT values).

To resolve this issue, edit your data function to use the helper function set_spotfire_types.

Example

import pandas as pd
import spotfire

df = pd.DataFrame(inp)
spotfire.set_spotfire_types(df, {'EmptyString': 'String'})