When opening an analysis file in the TIBCO Spotfire installed client that is access a flat file, the opening of the file may fail with the following error:

Error message: Could not open data source.

TargetInvocationException at Spotfire.Dxp.Framework:
Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. (HRESULT: 80131604)

Stack Trace:
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Framework.ApplicationModel.ProgressService.ExecuteWithProgressCancelable(String title, String description, ProgressOperation operation, Boolean showCancelButton)
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Forms.Application.FormsApplicationThread.ExecutePromptingOperation(String title, String description, PromptingApplicationInvocation promptingApplicationInvocation)
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Application.RichAnalysisApplication.Open(String filePath, DocumentOpenSettings documentOpenSettings)
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Main.Program.<>c__DisplayClass4_0.<OpenFile>b__0(LoadCallbackParameters parameters)
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Forms.Framework.Utilities.LoadFileHelper.LoadFile(LoadCallback callback, LoadCallbackParameters parameters, Form owningForm)

ImportException at Spotfire.Dxp.Data:
Failed to open data source. (HRESULT: 80131500)

Stack Trace:
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Data.DataSource.ConnectWithoutPrompting(IServiceProvider serviceProvider, DataSourcePromptMode promptMode, Boolean updateInternalState, DataLoadSettings loadSettings)
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Data.DataSource.Connect(IServiceProvider serviceProvider, DataSourcePromptMode promptMode, Boolean updateInternalState, DataLoadSettings loadSettings)
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Data.DataSource.Connect(IServiceProvider serviceProvider, DataSourcePromptMode promptMode)
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Application.AnalysisApplication.<OpenDocumentFile>d__98.MoveNext()
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Forms.Application.FormsApplicationThread.<>c__DisplayClass16_0.<ExecutePromptingOperation>b__0()
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Forms.Application.FormsProgressService.ProgressThread.DoOperationLoop()

Win32Exception at System:
This program is blocked by group policy. For more information, contact your system administrator (HRESULT: 80004005)

Stack Trace:
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartWithCreateProcess(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Framework.ApplicationModel.SubprocessService.TestSubprocess()
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Framework.ApplicationModel.SubprocessService.Setup()
   at Spotfire.Dxp.Data.DataSource.ConnectWithoutPrompting(IServiceProvider serviceProvider, DataSourcePromptMode promptMode, Boolean updateInternalState, DataLoadSettings loadSettings)

 

When the TIBCO Spotfire sub-process that is spawned when trying to access a file is blocked, opening the file in Spotfire fails with error. The sub-processes are launched from local machine temp folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp\TIBCO\Spotfire\)

When the TIBCO Spotfire installed client is accessing an external data source like a file (.csv, .xlsx, etc), a temporary sub-process will be spawned so that the data access is not handled my the main application process (this has a few benefits including increased stability). If that spawned process is blocked when Spotfire is trying to access it, the above error will be seen.

The sub-processes launched by Spotfire for data access are named like "Spotfire.XXXX.exe" and are created in the temp folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp\TIBCO\Spotfire\) on the Spotfire installed client machine. To resolve this issue, those processes must be allowed to execute from that location by the group policy. To view the sub-processes and their paths, open Task Manager to see the Spotfire related processes that are triggered when you open the analysis for the first time.