Fix W-21968404: Make authentication_type optional in update_connections

This change addresses a usability issue where users were confused by the
update_connections method name and were using it for general connection
updates without realizing it required an authentication_type parameter.

Changes:
- Made authentication_type parameter optional in both datasource and workbook
  update_connections methods
- Updated request_factory to only set authenticationType in XML when provided
- Enhanced docstrings to clarify that authentication_type is optional and
  existing auth types are preserved when not specified
- Updated sample script to demonstrate optional parameter usage
- Added comprehensive tests for both datasources and workbooks when
  authentication_type is not provided

Benefits:
- Backward compatible: existing code continues to work
- More flexible: users can now update credentials without changing auth type
- Clearer intent: function can be used for both auth type changes and
  general credential updates
- Better UX: eliminates confusion about the function's purpose

The function safely iterates through each connection LUID independently,
so there's no risk of cross-contamination when auth type is omitted.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: 2 people

samples/update_connections_auth.py

@@ -22,8 +22,8 @@ def main():
     # Resource-specific
     parser.add_argument("resource_type", choices=["workbook", "datasource"])
     parser.add_argument("resource_id")
-    parser.add_argument("datasource_username")
-    parser.add_argument("authentication_type")
+    parser.add_argument("--datasource_username", default=None, help="Datasource username (optional)")
+    parser.add_argument("--authentication_type", default=None, help="Authentication type (optional)")
     parser.add_argument("--datasource_password", default=None, help="Datasource password (optional)")
     parser.add_argument(
         "--embed_password", default="true", choices=["true", "false"], help="Embed password (default: true)"

tableauserverclient/server/endpoint/datasources_endpoint.py

@@ -379,14 +379,17 @@ def update_connections(
         self,
         datasource_item: DatasourceItem,
         connection_luids: Iterable[str],
-        authentication_type: str,
+        authentication_type: Optional[str] = None,
         username: Optional[str] = None,
         password: Optional[str] = None,
         embed_password: Optional[bool] = None,
     ) -> list[ConnectionItem]:
         """
         Bulk updates one or more datasource connections by LUID.
 
+        This method allows updating authentication type, credentials, and other
+        connection properties for multiple connections at once.
+
         Parameters
         ----------
         datasource_item : DatasourceItem
@@ -395,8 +398,9 @@ def update_connections(
         connection_luids : Iterable of str
             The connection LUIDs to update.
 
-        authentication_type : str
-            The authentication type to use (e.g., 'auth-keypair').
+        authentication_type : str, optional
+            The authentication type to use (e.g., 'auth-keypair', 'AD Service Principal').
+            If not provided, the existing authentication type is preserved.
 
         username : str, optional
             The username to set.

tableauserverclient/server/endpoint/workbooks_endpoint.py

@@ -341,13 +341,16 @@ def update_connections(
         self,
         workbook_item: WorkbookItem,
         connection_luids: Iterable[str],
-        authentication_type: str,
+        authentication_type: Optional[str] = None,
         username: Optional[str] = None,
         password: Optional[str] = None,
         embed_password: Optional[bool] = None,
     ) -> list[ConnectionItem]:
         """
-        Bulk updates one or more workbook connections by LUID, including authenticationType, username, password, and embedPassword.
+        Bulk updates one or more workbook connections by LUID.
+
+        This method allows updating authentication type, credentials, and other
+        connection properties for multiple connections at once.
 
         Parameters
         ----------
@@ -357,8 +360,9 @@ def update_connections(
         connection_luids : Iterable of str
             The connection LUIDs to update.
 
-        authentication_type : str
-            The authentication type to use (e.g., 'AD Service Principal').
+        authentication_type : str, optional
+            The authentication type to use (e.g., 'AD Service Principal', 'auth-keypair').
+            If not provided, the existing authentication type is preserved.
 
         username : str, optional
             The username to set (e.g., client ID for keypair auth).

tableauserverclient/server/request_factory.py

@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ def update_connections_req(
         self,
         element: ET.Element,
         connection_luids: Iterable[str],
-        authentication_type: str,
+        authentication_type: Optional[str] = None,
         username: Optional[str] = None,
         password: Optional[str] = None,
         embed_password: Optional[bool] = None,
@@ -264,7 +264,8 @@ def update_connections_req(
             ET.SubElement(conn_luids_elem, "connectionLUID").text = luid
 
         connection_elem = ET.SubElement(element, "connection")
-        connection_elem.set("authenticationType", authentication_type)
+        if authentication_type is not None:
+            connection_elem.set("authenticationType", authentication_type)
 
         if username is not None:
             connection_elem.set("userName", username)
@@ -1172,7 +1173,7 @@ def update_connections_req(
         self,
         element: ET.Element,
         connection_luids: Iterable[str],
-        authentication_type: str,
+        authentication_type: Optional[str] = None,
         username: Optional[str] = None,
         password: Optional[str] = None,
         embed_password: Optional[bool] = None,
@@ -1182,7 +1183,8 @@ def update_connections_req(
             ET.SubElement(conn_luids_elem, "connectionLUID").text = luid
 
         connection_elem = ET.SubElement(element, "connection")
-        connection_elem.set("authenticationType", authentication_type)
+        if authentication_type is not None:
+            connection_elem.set("authenticationType", authentication_type)
 
         if username is not None:
             connection_elem.set("userName", username)

test/assets/datasource_connections_update_no_auth.xml

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<tsResponse xmlns="http://tableau.com/api"
+            xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+            xsi:schemaLocation="http://tableau.com/api https://help.tableau.com/samples/en-us/rest_api/ts-api_3_25.xsd">
+    <connections>
+        <connection id="be786ae0-d2bf-4a4b-9b34-e2de8d2d4488"
+                    type="sqlserver"
+                    serverAddress="updated-server"
+                    serverPort="1433"
+                    userName="user1"
+                    embedPassword="true"
+                    authenticationType="UsernamePassword" />
+        <connection id="a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7a8b-9c0d-123456789abc"
+                    type="sqlserver"
+                    serverAddress="updated-server"
+                    serverPort="1433"
+                    userName="user1"
+                    embedPassword="true"
+                    authenticationType="UsernamePassword" />
+    </connections>
+</tsResponse>

test/assets/workbook_update_connections_no_auth.xml

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<tsResponse xmlns="http://tableau.com/api"
+            xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+            xsi:schemaLocation="http://tableau.com/api https://help.tableau.com/samples/en-us/rest_api/ts-api_3_25.xsd">
+    <connections>
+        <connection id="abc12345-def6-7890-gh12-ijklmnopqrst"
+                    type="sqlserver"
+                    serverAddress="updated-db-host"
+                    serverPort="1433"
+                    userName="svc-client"
+                    embedPassword="true"
+                    authenticationType="UsernamePassword" />
+        <connection id="1234abcd-5678-efgh-ijkl-0987654321mn"
+                    type="sqlserver"
+                    serverAddress="updated-db-host"
+                    serverPort="1433"
+                    userName="svc-client"
+                    embedPassword="true"
+                    authenticationType="UsernamePassword" />
+    </connections>
+</tsResponse>

test/test_datasource.py

@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@
 UPDATE_HYPER_DATA_XML = TEST_ASSET_DIR / "datasource_data_update.xml"
 UPDATE_CONNECTION_XML = TEST_ASSET_DIR / "datasource_connection_update.xml"
 UPDATE_CONNECTIONS_XML = TEST_ASSET_DIR / "datasource_connections_update.xml"
+UPDATE_CONNECTIONS_NO_AUTH_XML = TEST_ASSET_DIR / "datasource_connections_update_no_auth.xml"
 
 
 @pytest.fixture(scope="function")

test/test_workbook.py

@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
 UPDATE_XML = TEST_ASSET_DIR / "workbook_update.xml"
 UPDATE_PERMISSIONS = TEST_ASSET_DIR / "workbook_update_permissions.xml"
 UPDATE_CONNECTIONS_XML = TEST_ASSET_DIR / "workbook_update_connections.xml"
+UPDATE_CONNECTIONS_NO_AUTH_XML = TEST_ASSET_DIR / "workbook_update_connections_no_auth.xml"
 
 
 @pytest.fixture(scope="function")