Export to PDF from TIBCO Spotfire Analyst or TIBCO Spotfire Web Player fails to render images due to timeout

Export to PDF from TIBCO Spotfire Analyst or TIBCO Spotfire Web Player fails to render images due to timeout

When exporting to PDF from the TIBCO Spotfire the Analyst Client (see Export to PDF - Dialog), the preview may fail to render, but when you click on the "Export" button, the PDF file will be generated successfully:

When exporting to PDF from the Web Player (see Exporting to PDF), both the preview and the PDF file may fail to render: In the Web Player's Spotfire.Dxp.Worker.Host.Debug.log the following will be seen:

ERROR;2019-06-24T13:49:51,029-07:00;2019-06-24 20:49:51,029;18a1719b-0cca-43df-b5d3-29251b841fd5;241347ddbao2uM;WorkThread 26;admin WAT 2;c038e4f5f1d870c29f5912fe90251e09;Spotfire.Dxp.Web.Export.Tools.ExportProgressTracker;"Export failed after 1 of 2 PDF pages, 0 bytes. Total duration -25198959.375 ms."
System.InvalidOperationException: Failed to initialize rendererView.
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Web.Export.Tools.PdfExportTool`1.TryExport(Document document, ExportSettings settings, Stream outputStream, Exception& exception)

There are two sets of timeouts in the export code; one controlling the maximum time for a full export, and one for the time generating an image from the finished rendered page.

1. The default for generating the page image is 10 seconds. It is a preference in Administration Manager under Web browser > Runtime > ExportRendererTimeoutMs. This affects both the Web Player, and the Analyst preview rendering. Increase this value to resolve the timeout issue.
2. The default for a full page is one hour (with the default value being -1). It can be checked in the Spotfire.Dxp.Worker.Host.exe.config file with the ExportRenderingTimeout property. See Manually editing the service configuration files for details on how to manually edit this setting in the configuration files.

• Note: It is recommended to use the default value "-1", or any positive value less than 3600 for this property.

     <!-- 
       Determines the timeout, in seconds, of an export to PDF operation.
       If a negative value is specified, this setting defaults to 3600.
       -->
     <setting name="ExportRenderingTimeout" serializeAs="String">
       <value>-1</value>
     </setting>

Doc: Export to PDF - Dialog (Analyst Client)

• https://docs.tibco.com/pub/sfire-analyst/10.3.1/doc/html/en-US/TIB_sfire-analyst_UsersGuide/export/export_to_pdf_dialog.htm

Doc: Exporting to PDF (Web Player)

• https://docs.tibco.com/pub/spotfire_server/10.3.1/doc/html/en-US/TIB_sfire_bauthor-consumer_usersguide/GUID-6F9CD481-3E5B-48C0-9DEA-2D046B5F7182.html

Doc: Spotfire.Dxp.Worker.Host.exe.config file

• https://docs.tibco.com/pub/spotfire_server/10.3.0/doc/html/TIB_sfire_server_tsas_admin_help/GUID-603D7F88-AFE4-487D-9513-BBBD64F10300.html

Doc: Manually editing the service configuration files

• https://docs.tibco.com/pub/spotfire_server/10.3.1/doc/html/TIB_sfire_server_tsas_admin_help/GUID-958A3AB5-7243-4837-9AEA-78AA274A6F7E.html