Drop down from Excel

Kingazawora

Hello

I have linked drop down to Excel. Excel includes data for periods and countries, e.g.: AT January 2026 etc.

The reason for that is the fact that in the original version I have manually inserted those in dope down and I have several workflows and I did not want to update each workflow, instead, take Excel and ad periods in tabs.

After implementing that change, I have spotted that even if I add next periods, Alteryx does not see those when I run in Desktop or on Server.

I have done that in the was as per picture.

How could I improve that so that Alteryx depicts changes in Excel for drop down.

I must say that values in drop down are done once per year at maximum.

Thanks, K

Screenshot 2025-03-04 230058.png

Drop down.yxmc

KGT

I can't download the macro (still says Virus scanning) but can see the screenshot.

This is a common issue of understanding around the interface tools.

As soon as the job is initialised, all the interface is initialised before the "non-interface" tools run. When you have saved the workflow in the screenshot, the metadata has been saved from the last run to populate the dropdown, however that will never be dynamic. That is not how the interface tools work, the dropdown options will be pre-filled before the data hits your first formula.

Your options are:

• Chained app to create a yxdb of the options for the next app to use in the dropdown for a dynamic selection everytime.
• Keep a list of periods and update it as needed. (Or update it on a schedule separately).
• Create a list and use the action tool to filter that (maybe using date formulas or something, this could go several different ways)
• Build the macro with the python SDK and have the html interface do the work to create the list. (A lot of work if it's a simple item).

There may be other ways, but these are the ones off the top of my head. It comes down to that the interface will always initialise before the workflow is run.