Spotfire Analyst freezes when it tries to render tabular visualizations for restricted users

Spotfire Analyst freezes when it tries to render tabular visualizations for restricted users

When using TIBCO Spotfire Analyst (installed desktop client), it starts normally and runs until data has been loaded or an existing analysis (dxp-file) has been opened. After this point, Spotfire is frozen and will need to be killed using the Task Manager. Yet, when being logged in as a domain user with Administrator rights on Windows (with no restrictions) on the same machine, it works as expected.

Symptoms:
You experience the behaviour described in the description, when trying to load and render tabular visualizations.

Examples of tabular visualizations are:

• Text Area
• Table visualization
• Cross Table

In version 5.5 and forward, you are also able to refer to the client debug log-file to verify the cause of the behaviour:
 

2013-11-15 13:47:59,634 [Web Server Thread] DEBUG Spotfire.Dxp.Application.WebView.WebServer [(null)] - Failed to create HttpListener: url=http://localhost:8000/,
System.Net.HttpListenerException (0x80004005): Failed to listen on prefix 'http://localhost:8000/' because it conflicts with an existing registration on the machine.
   at System.Net.HttpListener.AddAllPrefixes()
   at System.Net.HttpListener.Start()
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Application.WebView.WebServer.CreateHttpListener()?

Cause:
When using tabular visualizations, Spotfire Analyst needs to start local HTTP listeners. So when a restricted domain user experiences the above described behavior, it is likely that there is a setting or policy within the environment that prevents the user to start such listeners. The ports required for this are 8000, 8001, 8002, etc., depending on how many simultaneous instances of Spotfire are being used and what ports are available.

The steps listed in the Workaround section below can work as a solution for individual users. If multiple users are facing this issue, we recommend contacting your IT department and explaining the problem to them. The issue is that there is a security policy in place that does not allow the groups having this issue to create internal HTTP listeners on the required port numbers. This is most likely set as a group policy by your IT department or perhaps a security policy in an antivirus/application control environment.

Also see the following related KB article: https://support.tibco.com/s/article/Spotfire-Analyst-displays-an-empty-page

Workaround (tested on Windows 7)
You can both verify the root cause and solve the problem for individual users by granting rights for single ports to the users experiencing this issue.

You are able to verify if there is an active restriction by granting rights for a single port to the particular user experiencing the issue. Run the following command as Administrator from a command prompt:

?netsh http add urlacl url=http://localhost:8000/ user=DOMAIN\USER listen=yes

where DOMAIN and USER should be changed to the corresponding values for the end user.

Keep in mind that the command is port specific. There is no guarantee that port 8000 is free (and maybe the user will start multiple instances of TIBCO Spotfire Professional). If it's not, Spotfire simply tries the next port (8001) and the next, etc. It is a good idea to grant rights for a few additional ports, e.g.:

netsh http add urlacl url=http://localhost:8000/ user=DOMAIN\USER listen=yes
netsh http add urlacl url=http://localhost:8001/ user=DOMAIN\USER listen=yes
netsh http add urlacl url=http://localhost:8002/ user=DOMAIN\USER listen=yes
netsh http add urlacl url=http://localhost:8003/ user=DOMAIN\USER listen=yes

Related KB article: https://support.tibco.com/s/article/Spotfire-Analyst-displays-an-empty-page
Microsoft Technology Network: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754516(v=ws.10).aspx