Preview Tableau Dashboard with specific parameters/filters set

I use Tableau every day in my work as a BI developer. We have an automation system that we have built using Python that uses the Tableau REST API to export a (set of) views from (one or more) Tableau workbook(s) as a PDF. More often than not, we would be passing parameters/filters to these views to customise the data that is shown.

One of the challenges that we have is to try and replicate what a Dashboard/Sheet would look like when a parameter/filter is used if it was rendered by the Tableau Server, rather than viewing it in Tableau Desktop. We would often have a separate Dashboard in each Tableau workbook that we would set up specifically for changing Parameters and Filters. This can get tedious to switch back and forth between different Dashboards/Sheets. There is a little known trick that you can use to view how your Tableau Dashboard/Sheet would look like with all the parameters/filters set to specific values.

http://tableau.server/t/SiteName/views/WorkbookName/DashboardViewNameNoSpaceWithUnderscoreForSpecialCharacters?:embed=y&Parameter+Name=Value&Filter+Name=Value

• Replace SiteName with the Tableau Site. Make sure there's no space
• Replace WorkbookName with the name of the workbook with no space
• Replace DashboardViewNameNoSpaceWithUnderscoreForSpecialCharacters with the name of the Dashboard or Sheet with no spaces but use _ in place of special characters
• Add in any Parameters or Filters that you want to apply to the Dashboard/View after the ?:embed=y& in the link. Use + for spaces in the Parameter/Filter Name and Value. Note that Parameters and Filters together with their values are case sensitive! Also, don’t have a Parameter with the same name as one of your Dimensions/Measures!

In this way, to see what the Dashboard/Sheet will look like with an updated parameter/filter, you just change the corresponding value in the URL and hit Enter and you’re good to go.