How to update/Insert the excel output

Question

I am running a straight workflow from oracle to an excel file. Now I am trying to set up an update/insert strategy based on a calculated field "First Used Date". So if the product coming from Oracle is new then it should insert in the excel sheet with the field "First Used Date" as run date, if the Product is already present in the last generated excel sheet then it should not update the field "First Used Date".

Alteryx Designer V - 2019.3.6.20285

AbhilashR · Accepted Answer

Hi @ankurrjit, attached is a solution that I think might address your ask. The tool Oracle Source in my case is a static list, but it'll be the Oracle Input connection in your case. Basically the workflow brings in Oracle connection data + existing excel file and uses the Join tool to reconcile the two datasets. Anything that is new (i.e. not available in excel) comes out of the L output of the Join tool, to which we add a formula to introduce datetimetoday(), and it is written back to the file you read. Given the approach reads and writes back to the same excel file, you will need to use the Block Until Done tool to ensure I/O operations on the excel are not concurrently happening.

I built my solution using v2020.1 but it should work on your version too.

AbhilashR · Accepted Answer

Hi @ankurrjit, follow the steps mentioned in this Community page to adjust the Alteryx file for different versions: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Knowledge-Base/Adjusting-Alteryx-Files-for-Different-Versions/ta-p/26237