KB483767: After upgrading to 2019 Update 2, exporting custom widgets causes them to appear as blank in a PDF

Description

After installing Strategy 2019 Update 2, exporting the following custom widgets to a PDF causes them to appear as blank:

• Bullet Chart
• Card Widget
• D3 Box Plot
• D3 Work Cloud
• Radar Chart
• Sequences Sunburst
• Google API
• Google Annotation Chart
• Google Gauge
• Google Sankey Diagram
• Google Timeline

Why is this happening?

There are external URLs defined inside these plugins. As such, they require resource loading from the Internet. However, if your new Export Engine cannot use external resources, then the plugins will export as a blank file.

Solution

There are two ways to resolve this error: by configuring your Internet settings or by downloading the external resources and mofiying the plugin's .js file.

Configure Your Internet Settings

Open your Internet Settings and configure them to allow the new Export Engine to visit external resources.

Modify the Plugin's .js File

Note: This solution does not work on map visualizations because maps require Internet connection.
To modify the plugin's .js file, you must first download the plugin. In this example, we will use the custom visualization D3 Word Cloud.

1. Download the plugin.
2. Navigate to the plugin's folder. By default, it is <Install Path>/Intelligence Server/PDFExportService/resources/plugins.
3. Locate the folder named after the plugin. In this example, locate D3WordCloud.
4. Open the folder named javascript/mojo/js/source.
5. Open the plugin's .js file. In this example, open the D3WordCloud.js file.
6. Locate the following statement:
   

   externalLibraries: [	                {url: "//d3js.org/d3.v4.min.js"},

   
   
7. Copy and paste this URL in a web browser.
8. Save the page that appears.
9. Place the file you just saved in your D3 Word Cloud folder.
10. Open the D3WordCloud.js file and replace the url in the

    externalLibraries 

    variable with the local file path to the plugin's folder.
    

    externalLibraries: [          	                {url: "../resources/plugins/D3WordCloud/"},

    
    
11. Restart the PDF Export Service.