PhoneHome details to include canvas filename and details

We've been looking into the phoneHome information that collects usage of Designer in the enterprise, and it looks like this data set (in the UsageReports collection, I believe).

Please can you add the CanvasFilename that was run to this data - we need to be able to surveil the use of Alteryx in our enterprise which is not being done within the server environment, and without the canvas name this becomes tremendously difficult.

Reference:

https://help.alteryx.com/server/11.0/admin/index.htm#Configuration/SaveDesignerUsageData.htm%3FTocPath%3DConfigure%2520Server%7C_____5

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Analytics-Blog/Alteryx-Analytics-11-0-Monitoring-and-Reporting-on-Alteryx/ba-p/48377

cc: @BenG @avinashbonu @Deeksha @BenBu @revathi

Implemented

Desktop Experience

Category Reporting

Comments

BenG

Hi @SeanAdams,

We can certainly consider this.

Would like to note two things. We are working on adding information from server runs to the usage report so you can get more information on how the server is being used. Second, you are now able to retrieve the workflow filename from within the formula tool, allowing you to log information about a particular workflow. This feature was added in response to an idea center request here: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Product-Ideas/Include-the-Wokflow-Name-as-a-default-Constant/idi-p/12524/jump-to/first-unread-message. Not sure if that helps your use case or not.

SeanAdams

Thank you @BenG,

The issue is not around how the server is used, it's actually the opposite. We want to discover which canvasses are being run on desktops rather than on the server, and so we need for the PhoneHome data sent by the designer to include more information so that we can track down users who never migrate their canvasses to the gallery so that we can bring them on.

Based on this, we cannot rely on users self-reporting the workflow filename using a formula tool in their canvas - rather we need the designer to directly report the name of the canvas (and user details and machine name if possible, not just license ID) then we can track down all the usage in the firm and migrate this onto the server environment, allowing us to use the power of central governance (e.g. Connect).

Thanks Ben

Sean

BenG

Okay, thanks for the extra information. I believe the need is understood and we can discuss adding this option to the Desktop Usage information.

Thanks,
Ben

jalvarezv

@MattB

Agree on the need for this to monitor use in enterprise roll-outs. Doesn’t have to be live, but would be helpful to understand activity outside of the server. Something like filename would really help.

potter

Current Designer 19.1 provides canvas file name and folder location in Phone Home data for every run of a work flow. It has been acknowledged as an "unintended feature" because it has replaced the ToolCounts, Connects, and FmtCounts data and associates the file name with an inaccurate "SampleModule" tag. We are developing reporting using this "unintended feature" to support the monitoring use case described by Sean above. We would like to see this feature continued in 19.3 and beyond although we understand the data record may be structured differently.

mlingama

Has this issue been fixed. I am using 19.2 and all my usage data has SampleModule tag and is getting filtered out in the usage workflow.

JanMackowiak

Agree with Sean. The usage report is the closes we get to being able to surveil and govern our developers. Having the filename as it is displayed now is tendentiously helpful in identifying workflow that should be in production on our server.

I propose, keeping the filename in the report + the tool metadata from past versions.

SeanAdams

Thanks @JanMackowiak

If you have other ideas that you would want to see to allow analytics on Alteryx usage data - it may be worth logging ideas around these with the use-case?

SeanAdams

Minor update on this request:
Please can you add all of the following to the Phone Home data:

Needed:

the canvas name;
the user name;
the machine on which this is running;
date and time of run - full ISO date format including ms and timezone;
change and/or version information (so that we can see if someone is running the same version of the canvas day over day as an operational asset; or if they are being compliant and using desktop as a development environment)
Alteryx version in which this was run
the tools used on the canvas (aggregated stats like the current phone home tool)

Desired:

the optional ability to also send back the full XML executed for every desktop run

JohnPelletier

Folks, thanks for this expressing this important need. We want to help, but have some follow-up questions. The place this code would need to be modified would be the Designer code, since Designer bundles up the telemetry info that it sends to Server.

So the question is, will this info need to be optional, settable at the Designer? If so, does that break the mandatory governance for which you are aiming? Or should we just always have it enabled in Designer as part of essential phone home internal telemetry?

SeanAdams

Hi @JohnPelletier

This may not be something that every customer would want, and in fact many customers would want to protect the name of the canvas.

So the best solution would be to make this a configurable settings (possibly in RunTimeSettings.XML) at the designer level.

NicoleJ

With Customer Managed Telemetry, released in 2021.4, you should now be able to get all of these workflow details at run time! See link to some more info on the details provided and how to configure: https://help.alteryx.com/current/en/designer/workflows/customer-managed-telemetry.html 😁