How to read a tableau extract file using java?

Question

I have started to use Tableau recently and was digging on Data Extract API. I understand that Tableau could connect to various data sources, pull data and create a tableau data extract file. I wanted to understand if we could read any *.tde file using Tableau jars for JAVA. I tried creating an extract object from an existing tde file but it threw below exception

com.tableausoftware.TableauException: table name must be "Extract"

Request any inputs or pointers from someone who has worked on Tableau Data Extracts.

Answer 1

The current (version 8.1) Tableau extract API seems to be designed solely for creating and appending to extracts, not for reading from them. Of course, you can read from them using Tableau. That works well for using extracts as a cache of an external data source. If you have another use case in mind, the API may not support it. (Would love to be proven wrong)