This analytic app aims to make it possible for Alteryx Designer users encountering errors when installing packages directly via R.exe due to firewall restrictions and IT policies. While this analytic app does not make the process faster, it aims to make the package installation process run without any problems.
Alteryx Predictive Tools with R and Rtools need to be installed in order to successfully execute the commands to install the source packages downloaded by the analytic app.
While this analytic app was successfully tested to be working on Alteryx Designer 2025.1, it is expected to be working on earlier versions of Alteryx, due to the analytic app not utilizing new functionality such as AMP Engine and Control Containers.
For the packages that cannot be compiled (for example it is trying to reach a GitHub source that is now a broken link), it is recommended that you download the binary version of that package (same version number is recommended), exclude the row including the problematic package from the generated R command and run the generated R command again.
Important Note: For the installation commands generated by this analytic app to function properly, it is expected that a personal R library is already created by having installed at least one package using the R installation that comes with Alteryx Predictive Tools with R. For more information regarding the personal R library, refer to this knowledge base article: Install R Packages
If you are unable to install a package using the standard command:
install.packages("package_name", repos="https://cloud.r-project.org")You will need to first download a package on your computer here: The Comprehensive R Archive Network
After having installed a package on your computer (for example qpdf), run the following command from the R executable (converting backslashes to slashes is required after pasting the path) from either the Admin directory (%PROGRAMFILES%\Alteryx\R-X.Y.Z\bin\R.exe) or the Non-Admin directory (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Alteryx\R-X.Y.Z\bin\R.exe) depending on which version of Alteryx you have installed or would like to use for R tools:
install.packages("C:/Users/SampleUser/Downloads/Downloaded_R_Package.zip",repos=NULL)If installing an R package for the first time, R will ask you if you would like to create a personal R library. Type "y" (without quotes) and press Enter.
After completing these steps, you can now utilize this analytic app to install packages and run the generated installation command.
This analytic app does not check the version numbers of the dependencies. In case you come across an error that says a package needs to be updated, you will need to either specify it in the analytic app interface at the package update text box and start the process again, or download the package yourself and install it manually.
Important Note: This analytic app might not work correctly if both the Admin and Non-Admin versions of the Alteryx Designer installation share the same Major Release number (for example, both installations are 2025.1 but on a different patch level).
Possible enhancements in the future:
- Check if the packages were successfully installed and generate a list of the packages that could not be installed
- Allow for the download of binary packages instead of source packages
