How to :: troubleshoot the toucan way?¶

Do you have a config problem or a data problem ?

There are three main reasons why you might not see what you’re expecting to:

The data query that is used doesn’t return the right rows
The config options are not well set
You’re not looking a the right state of the application

What do you mean by “looking at the right state of the application” ?¶

Here are the actions that you should check:

Are you looking the right environment staging vs production. When working on the app you should always be in the staging environment.
Did you click on “release to production” to see the changes you’ve made in staging ?
You uploaded a new etl_config with changes in the DATA_SOURCES array but did you relaunch a populate on the data ?
You uploaded a new etl_config with changes in the REPORTS array or new reports templates but did you relaunch a populate on the reports ?
You uploaded a new etl_config with changes in the DAHBOARDS array or new dashboards templates but did you relaunch a populate on the dashboards ?

The Chrome Dev Tools will be use extensively to debug the app, so we recommend you to read the documentation on how to use it.

How to track a config problem ?¶

A config problem is harder to spot. You’ll use the Chrome Developper Tools too to Inspect the logs of the application or the report / dashboard / config returned by the back end.

First thing is to open the Chrome Dev Tools with: Right click -> Inspect

Here are classic config problems:

Generic problems

Did you specify an id, parent_id for my slide ?
Indentation is correct ? Use js2coffee and an online JSON editor to be sure your blocks are in the right spot
Did you respect the case when setting the columns in the label, value, groups etc. entries ? eg. Value != value.
Does your chartType is valid ?

Regarding precision, units and sentiment

If you have trouble with precisions, units or sentiment recheck the documentation you might not have set the correct column name in your config.
For precision it has to be in the data block whereas the sentiment and units are in the chartOptions
For precision refer to this documentation to check you have a correct syntax

Regarding crossfilter

If you are configuring a double charts (crossfilter), did you specify id: 0 and id:1 for the charts ?
If you crossfilter haven’t you forget the datasets:[1] entry ?
If you crossfilter on a date do you treat the date the same way on both charts ? eg. Either both or none should have a date: {selector:'', format: ''} block in the data query

Dealing with time

If you want to configure a linechart, barlinechart or stackbarchart that includes a date be sure that you included the date: {selector:'',format:''} in you data block

Inspect the current report¶

Click on the Network tab to display all the requests made by the application. If you opened the dev tools after the requests has been made You’ll have to reload your app to capture the requests so press Refresh

You’ll look for the request formatted like https://api-XXXX.toucantoco.com/SMALL_APP_ID/reports/REPORT_ID

Devtools report

The object you’ll inspect will correspond to the template report after it has been populated with the data you specified in the etl_config.

Inspect the dashboards¶

Like with the report click on the Network tab to display all the requests made by the application. If you opened the dev tools after the requests has been made You’ll have to reload your app to capture the requests so press Refresh

The request formatted like https://api-XXXX.toucantoco.com/SMALL_APP_ID/reports/REPORT_ID/dashboards

will list you all the available dashboards for the current report.

The request formatted like https://api-XXXX.toucantoco.com/SMALL_APP_ID/reports/REPORT_ID/dashboards/DASHBOARD_ID will show you the current dashboard.

Devtools dashboard

Inspect the logs¶

Click on the Console tab to display all the logs captured by the application. The application might warn you when an option is not well set, a request failed, or something looks broken.

Devtools console

How to track a data problem ?¶

A data problem is easily debuggable. You’ll use the Chrome Developper Tools to Inspect the data returned by the back end.

Here are classic data config problems:

the domain I use in my query is the one I specified in the etl_config or one that I can check in the “available domains” ?
If you use the Aggregation Framework did you treat data query as an array like query: [] and not like a normal object ? Did you add , to delimit your steps ?
If you’re using the multiple queries did you add the multiple_queries:true option ?

Inspect the data¶

In the Network Pane of the Chrome Dev Tools look for data requests.

You’ll be able to see each request and inspect all the rows returned. That way you’ll see if what you get is what you expect.

Devtools data II

To select the actual query you want to inspect among all the requests made, select the Headers subpane and inspect the Request Payload. It will display the data query supplied to the database and help you find the one you’re interested into.

Devtools data I

If your request is colored in red with a 500 error code that could either mean:

your aggregation framework query is not correct
your postprocess block is not correct

Dashboards Specifics Problems¶

Most of the problems come from the etl_config if you did not specify the correct join column with the report in the report entry.

You can also have templates errors:

If your reports has one dashboard, do they all have the default:true option ?
If your reports has multiple dashboards, did you use the default: {{ DEFAULT_COLUMN | bool}} option to determine the only one that should be the default dashboard ?

Slides Specifics Problems¶

I don’t see my slide:

Does this slide has an existing parent_id and an unique id?

No Data Available

You have a data problem. The backend does not return any data. Refer to “How to track a data problem”

If you’re using a Google Spreadsheet data provider:

Shipping variables

Is the optional google_spreadsheet connector enabled?

Regarding the spreadsheet:

Is the spreadsheet shared with: toucanserviceaccount@testproj-204816.iam.gserviceaccount.com?
Does the sheet have the correct languages / internationalization settings ? If your browser is in French select “région suisse” and numbers columns to “123 > nombre”
Is the decimal separator a point . and not a comma ,?
Are your dates in the correct format like “25/12/2015” ?

In the etl_config

Do you have a well-configured GoogleSpreadsheet provider in your DATA_PROVIDERS block?
Does you data source share the same name as this provider?
Is the data source spreadsheet_id correct?

Data Request Limit¶

In order to prevent performance issues, we’ve added a safeguard limit on the number of cells (lines x columns) that can be requested. At Toucan, we do not recommend displaying too many data entries at once, because it can reduce the readability of your data story.

Reduce your request size

The preferred way to make this message disappear and solve this issue is simply to filter out columns or rows you don’t need from your data. This is what we would recommend. It might just be that you work with big datasets that you then reduce in size before displaying them in your story. If that’s the case, the error is temporary and shouldn’t prevent you from saving your work.

However if you encounter a “Data is too large” or “you have a lot of data” kind of error too often, don’t panic. Here’s how you can configure your application to allow bigger requests:

How to edit your etl configuration to increase the limit

Go to FILES in the bottom toolbar.
Click on the 📝 edit button for the “etl_config” file
Look for the DF_MAX_CELLS parameter field. If it doesn’t exist, you can just add it.

By default, we set the limit to 200000 cells (lines x columns). In the error message you should have an indication of the size of your request and how much you might want to raise the limit. For instance if the message says: “The request returned 420000 cells, which exceeds the safeguard limit of 200000”.

You can write down:

DF_MAX_CELLS: 450000

Save and you’re set!