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"Include External Files" option while publishing datasource #1079
Description
In scenarios where you have Custom SQL connected to flat file through cross database join then while publishing extract through desktop Tableau gives option of "Include External Files" checkbox.
In the Datasource publish method there is no option of either including or excluding external files.It by defaults keeps this setting ON.
It will be good if we have this feature added.
Activity
[-]"Include External Files" option while publishign datasource[/-][+]"Include External Files" option while publishing datasource[/+]github-actions commentedon Aug 6, 2026
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.
github-actions commentedon Aug 21, 2026
Closing due to inactivity. If this is still relevant, please reopen or file a new issue.
jacalata commentedon Sep 29, 2026
It turns out this doesn't need any server-side change: publishing external/local files already works today via the REST API, exactly as it does for Tableau Desktop. Whether files get included is determined by the extension of the file you upload -- a .tdsx (the zipped package format, which embeds any referenced local files inside it) causes the server to include those files automatically; a thin .tds (XML pointer, no embedded bytes) has nothing to include because the referenced files never left your disk.
So the real gap is on the TSC side: publish_datasource() has no equivalent to Desktop's "Include External Files" packaging step -- it doesn't build a .tdsx bundling a .tds plus its referenced local files before uploading. Adding that packaging step to TSC (zip the .tds and referenced local files into a .tdsx) would let this work against the existing, unchanged publish endpoint.