topic Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R in Dev Space

An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

michael_treadwell — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 22:58:52 GMT

For those of you R users, I have been working on an API Client for Alteryx Gallery written in R. It is mostly working the way I intend but I need to do a little bit more testing before I release it to CRAN.

You can find it here: https://github.com/mtreadwell/alterryx

Until I have it released on CRAN, you can install it using devtools::install_github("mtreadwell/alterryx")

If anyone is an R user and also set up with a private Alteryx Gallery, I would be interested in feedback.

The package, alterryx (double r), provides access to each of the Alteryx Gallery API endpoints. With alterryx users can:

Retrieve information on Alteryx Gallery resources like apps, workflows, and macros
Queue jobs for applications
Retrieve the status and output of jobs

It is pretty handy to be able to schedule jobs and retrieve the results as a data.frame directly into R.

Feedback appreciated!

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

sarav1981_wa — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 19:28:25 GMT

I am having trouble getting the API authentication to work. Receive a 401 error response, which I believe refers to "provided signature (oauth_signature) is invalid".

What is the option to provide oauth credentials using the library.

> library(alterryx)
> 
> alteryx_api_key <- "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
> alteryx_secret_key <- "yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"
> alteryx_gallery <- "http://mygalleryaddress/gallery/api"
> 
> options(alteryx_api_key = alteryx_api_key)
> options(alteryx_secret_key = alteryx_secret_key)
> options(alteryx_gallery = alteryx_gallery)
> 
> subscription <- get_app()
Error in check_status(response) : 401 Unexpected Response

Thank you!

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

michael_treadwell — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 16:40:37 GMT

Generally, if the signature is invalid, it explicitly states it in the error message.

Try this:

alteryx_gallery <- "http://mygalleryaddress/gallery"

Instead of this:

alteryx_gallery <- "http://mygalleryaddress/gallery/api"

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

sarav1981_wa — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 17:13:22 GMT

Thank you, Michael for the tweak. I did realize it after checking the API endpoints.

With the change, I explicitly receive the signature invalid error.

Is there a need to provide parameters to generate the oauth nonce, timestamp and signatures dynamically?

> library(alterryx)
> 
> alteryx_api_key <- "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
> alteryx_secret_key <- "yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"
> alteryx_gallery <- "http://mygalleryaddress/gallery/"
> 
> options(alteryx_api_key = alteryx_api_key)
> options(alteryx_secret_key = alteryx_secret_key)
> options(alteryx_gallery = alteryx_gallery)
> 
> # request_params <- list(oauth_signature_method="HMAC-SHA1",oauth_version="1.0")
> # 
> # subscription <- get_app(request_params)
> subscription <- get_app()
Error in check_status(response) : 
  401 UnauthorizedException The provided signature(oauth_signature) is invalid.

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

michael_treadwell — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 17:36:06 GMT

Sorry. There is a known issue in my package that I haven't had time to fix yet. Remove the "/" from the end of your gallery URL.

Try this:

alteryx_gallery <- "http://mygalleryaddress/gallery"

Instead of this:

alteryx_gallery <- "http://mygalleryaddress/gallery/"

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

michael_treadwell — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 17:35:23 GMT

Can't say thank you enough for using my package and finding issues. I went ahead and opened an issue on the Github page so that it will be fixed in the next release.

https://github.com/mtreadwell/alterryx/issues/6

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

sarav1981_wa — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 17:46:35 GMT

Thank you, Michael. Looking forward to your package updates.

Currently, I execute and receive job status updates on Alteryx gallery runs using a tweak on the C# API client that Alteryx provides. Would be really helpful to integrate the package to my R process, once the fixes are in.

> library(alterryx)
> 
> alteryx_api_key <- "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
> alteryx_secret_key <- "yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"
> alteryx_gallery <- "http://mygalleryaddress/gallery"
> 
> options(alteryx_api_key = alteryx_api_key)
> options(alteryx_secret_key = alteryx_secret_key)
> options(alteryx_gallery = alteryx_gallery)
> 
> # request_params <- list(oauth_signature_method="HMAC-SHA1",oauth_version="1.0")
> # subscription <- get_app(request_params)
> subscription <- get_app()
> subscription[1]
[[1]]
App Name: Test.yxmd
App ID: 5b1ffdd6529ad717d4c04b40

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

michael_treadwell — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 17:52:40 GMT

You shouldn't need to wait on the fix to have the package run properly.

When you remove the "/" at the end of your Gallery URL and run the code below, you are still getting an error?

library(alterryx)

alteryx_api_key <- "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
alteryx_secret_key <- "yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"
alteryx_gallery <- "http://mygalleryaddress/gallery"

options(alteryx_api_key = alteryx_api_key)
options(alteryx_secret_key = alteryx_secret_key)
options(alteryx_gallery = alteryx_gallery)
subscription <- get_app()

Would you mind restarting your R environment, running the code above, and if still doesn't work sending me the printout of:

sessionInfo()

Also, what version of Alteryx Server are you currently running?

Additionally, as a note, I see that in the commented-out section you are entering oauth signature method and version. None of that is necessary, it is all handled by the package.

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

sarav1981_wa — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 18:16:06 GMT

The package runs great. I pasted an error snippet by mistake.

Our Alteryx server is running on version 11.7.4.37815.

Thank you for the quick response.

> library(alterryx)
> 
> alteryx_api_key <- "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
> alteryx_secret_key <- "yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"
> alteryx_gallery <- "http://mygalleryaddress/gallery"
> 
> options(alteryx_api_key = alteryx_api_key)
> options(alteryx_secret_key = alteryx_secret_key)
> options(alteryx_gallery = alteryx_gallery)
> 
> subscription <- get_app()
> subscription[1]
[[1]]
App Name: Test.yxmd
App ID: 5b1ffdd6529ad717d4c04b40

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

sarav1981_wa — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 15:26:47 GMT

Receiving a weird error attempting to source the gallery job executions for a given app, using get_app_jobs() function.

Obtain a 'cannot convert to alteryx_job' input error.

> library(alterryx)
> 
> alteryx_api_key <- "xxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
> alteryx_secret_key <- "yyyyyyyyyyyy"
> alteryx_gallery <- "http://mygalleryaddress/gallery"
> 
> options(alteryx_api_key = alteryx_api_key)
> options(alteryx_secret_key = alteryx_secret_key)
> options(alteryx_gallery = alteryx_gallery)
> 
> # Get Gallery Alteryx Apps; Filter for the required for further analysis
> gallery_apps <- get_app()
> req_app <- gallery_apps[[9]]
> req_app
App Name: Test.yxwz
App ID: 5b50d1bb529ad72b0cd378b7 
> 
> # Obtain all gallery job runs for the filtered app
> req_app_jobs <- get_app_jobs(req_app)
Error in as.alteryx_job(content, app) : 
  Unexpected input. Cannot convert to type alteryx_job.
> req_app_jobs
Error: object 'req_app_jobs' not found
> req_app_jobs2 <- get_app_jobs(gallery_apps[[9]])
Error in as.alteryx_job(content, app) : 
  Unexpected input. Cannot convert to type alteryx_job.
> req_app_jobs2
Error: object 'req_app_jobs2' not found

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

michael_treadwell — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 16:07:33 GMT

Which version of Alteryx Server are you running?

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

sarav1981_wa — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 16:19:27 GMT

Alteryx Version: 11.7.4.37815

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

michael_treadwell — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 18:56:12 GMT

In version 2018.1, Alteryx made changes to the underlying API response from the endpoint that returns information on an Alteryx jobs. Due to these changes, I had to update my package accordingly. This had the unfortunate consequence of breaking the package for users on any Alteryx Server version prior to 2018.1.

I want you to be able to understand why this is happening, so I will offer a more in-depth explanation:

Let's say we need to hit the endpoint that returns information on a job: /v1/jobs/{jobid}/

Before Alteryx 2018.1, the endpoint would return the following:

{ "id": "", "createDate": "Date", "status": "", "disposition": "", "outputs": {}, "messages": {} }

Before converting this into an object of class "alteryx_job", my package needs to check this response to make sure it "looks" like the response for an Alteryx job. One of the checks is to look at the parameters that were returned and see if they match what is expected.

In Alteryx 2018.1, the endpoint began returning this instead:

{ "id": "", "appId": "", "createDate": "Date", "status": "", "disposition": "", "outputs": {}, "messages": {} }

Note the mysterious appearance of the "appID" parameter in the response that wasn't present before. Because of this, my package was failing. As a result, I had to add this parameter to the list of expected parameters. This broke the package for anyone not on version 2018.1 or later.

I could maintain two separate versions of this package for separate versions of Alteryx Server, but unfortunately I also have a job and that would require a significant amount of work. If you are interested in creating a custom version of the package you could easily clone my repo on github, delete a single line of code, and rebuild the package for yourself. It will work fine. I will even show you the line you need to delete.

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

sarav1981_wa — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 19:03:06 GMT

Thank you for the detailed explanation. The R package is a great addition to my toolkit, and hope to extensively use with when we upgrade our Alteryx version.

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

neeleshapatil1 — Tue, 21 May 2019 19:18:10 GMT

@michael_treadwell

I tried to install alterryx package but came across following errors. Can you please confirm what could be an issue?

Is there any specific steps to follow to install this package? Sorry but I am not familiar with R so want to know if any specific steps required.

package ‘sys’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
Error in read.dcf(file.path(pkgname, "DESCRIPTION"), c("Package", "Type")) :
cannot open the connection
In addition: Warning messages:
1: In download.file(url, destfile, method, mode = "wb", ...) :
downloaded length 16384 != reported length 64375
2: In unzip(zipname, exdir = dest) : error 1 in extracting from zip file
3: In read.dcf(file.path(pkgname, "DESCRIPTION"), c("Package", "Type")) :
cannot open compressed file 'askpass/DESCRIPTION', probable reason 'No such file or directory'

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

michael_treadwell — Tue, 21 May 2019 20:06:29 GMT

Usually these errors appear because of permissions / firewall issues.

Are you trying to install behind a corporate firewall? If so, make sure you have access to CRAN.

Do you have permissions to write and install to local drives? Try running R/R Studio as an admin.

Re: An API Client for Alteryx Gallery in R

neeleshapatil1 — Tue, 21 May 2019 21:14:55 GMT

thanks @michael_treadwell for your quick reply.

I don't have permissions running R/R Studio as an admin. Is there any way if only particular script can be used for the purpose of migration api?