topic Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse in Alteryx Server Discussions

ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

mtornga — Wed, 10 May 2023 18:28:58 GMT

As server admins, we sometimes get in a bind where we have just done a rollback on the server or a cutover and then a user comes out of the woodwork to request a workflow that got lost in the shuffle. We then face restoring the old backup to a lower environment to grab the workflow. This happened to my team recently and it made me want to take a more frequent backup of all of the workflows (we already back up our MongoDB daily), just in case. That is why this utility ServerRipper was created.

This utility builds on the excellent work of @patrick_digan about the Alteryx API and @jdunkerley79 on dynamic directory creation using the Run Command tool.

End Result

After running the workflow, a hierarchy of folders is created. Within the top-level folder - I have called mine ServerWorkflowBackup - a folder is created for each Studio/Subscription e.g. Finance, Accounting, Admins.

Within each Subscription folder, a folder is created for each User.

Finally, within each user folder is a .yxzp package of every workflow and app that the user owns on the gallery.

Install and Run

Download and open the file ServerRipper_community.yxzp attached. This was developed in Designer 2020.1.

When prompted to import packages, say yes. Ignore errors and warnings on the Import Workflow Package and Workflow Dependencies popups.

Close Designer and go back to your download location. At this location '\ServerRipper_community\yxi installer' find and install 'Alteryx API Runner.yxi'. Reopen the workflow.

Follow the rest of the instructions in the workflow.

If you find that you have errors, ensure that the Cleanse tool is set up correctly, and ensure that you are a Curator in your Gallery.

I hope that you find this simple to use and that it saves you from a headache someday. Enjoy!

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

hroderick-thr — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 19:19:52 GMT

I'm definitely going to use this.

Beyond backups I want to search the xml find connections, sql, etc.

Thanks SO much for sharing

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

mtornga — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 19:26:13 GMT

@hroderick-thr wrote:
Beyond backups I want to search the xml find connections, sql, etc.

Same! Let me know what you discover.

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

adrianp112 — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 01:15:21 GMT

@mtornga

Thank you so much for you work flow , we have it working in our environment now 🙂

One thing though, in the formula tool before the batch file creation , just added a couple quotes to encase the folder path..... we have some exotic active directory names with more than one period eg: value1.value2.lastname

thanks again!

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

shareef2 — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 01:42:56 GMT

Hi, Thanks for the solution. When i ran the job i see all YXZP files created. May i know how can i download (yxmd/yxmc/yxwz files). Because i want to open all workflows as text(XML) in designer and search for TEXT. (to see how may workflows using one table)

With YXZP i would need to extract each package one by one to read (yxmd/yxmc/yxwz files). Please help.

Thanks.

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

adrianp112 — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 01:46:04 GMT

Hi Shareef

As far as I can see in the API docs you can only download assets as a package .yxzp .... you will need another component to unpack and search for your text in the underlying XML.

Cheers

Adrian

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

shareef2 — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 01:55:51 GMT

I have got 300+ packages now. any ripper to unzip all of them in a sigle go. Please help.

TIA - Sha

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

lcrosby — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 13:13:14 GMT

If anyone is still looking at this - workflow packages (yxzp files) are actually just zip files, so if you output them from the api with a file extension of zip, then you can open them like a normal archive file with an input tool and then grab the actual workflow file within.

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

hroderick-thr — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 18:39:59 GMT

It has served me well. I built an app that people run to get a workflow into production. The ripper downloads it from a collection, does an xml inspection and xml changes. Returns an email to requestor with inspection report and a code they provide to a second app if they want to proceed to production. It does a lot of stuff specific to our operations, but being able to manage the transition from dev to prod will be common to most of us.

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

Thableaus — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 20:53:18 GMT

Cool!

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

lcrosby — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 11:40:46 GMT

Yeah I've just implemented a workflow that grabs all the workflows/apps on our gallery, downloads them to the temp folder as packages and then opens the package file to pull the XML from the workflow file. We can then audit what tools/macros are being implemented and where so if we make a change to a macro we can easily identify where it's used to check if an update causes any trouble. Saves a lot of time, hopefully.

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

BENOIT_RAFFIN — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 18:11:41 GMT

Hi Alteryx Community,

ServerRipper_Community Workflow does not work anymore with our new Alteryx Server (version 2021.3.2.54175).

List of all workflows through API works (first part of the workflow) but the second part (download data and save yxzp) does not work anymore.

No data.

Any help would be appreciated. Best regards,

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

chvizda — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 11:30:28 GMT

Really cool. I can now sleep much better.

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

pringleb — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 02:31:27 GMT

Stupid question... what should the endpoint URL be? Is it just the https://alteryx.domain.com or https://alteryx.domain.com/gallery or something else? I keep getting 404 errors with either of those (with the correct domain).

Yes, my gallery is still on 2020.1.

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

hroderick-thr — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 11:06:41 GMT

something like this

http://mygalleryserver01/gallery/api/admin/v1/collections/

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

hroderick-thr — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 11:24:17 GMT

Better late than never

We use command line 7zip to make it easier to read long full paths are in red, command code is bold black, comments are blue

rem delete unzip destination directory if it already exists

IF EXIST "\\myserver\d\THR\AlteryxApps\AlteryxJobPromotion\Lockers\20220805095211 mynetworkid\Pharmacy Antimicrobial Dashboard Alteryx Process" RMDIR /S /Q "\\myserver\d\THR\AlteryxApps\AlteryxJobPromotion\Lockers\20220805095211 mynetworkid\Pharmacy Antimicrobial Dashboard Alteryx Process"

rem unpack yxzp which come with yxmd file type
"\\myserver\d\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" x "\\myserver\d\THR\AlteryxApps\AlteryxJobPromotion\Lockers\20220805095211 mynetworkid\Pharmacy Antimicrobial Dashboard Alteryx Process.yxmd" -o"\\myserver\d\THR\AlteryxApps\AlteryxJobPromotion\Lockers\20220805095211 mynetworkid\Pharmacy Antimicrobial Dashboard Alteryx Process" -Y -aoa

rem always return code zero
TIMEOUT /T 0

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

pringleb — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 13:45:28 GMT

Thank you for the quick reply. I tried that and get an "Unauthorized" if I try with "http" and get a "307 Temporary Redirect" if I try with "https" . Our company enforces SSL on the servers. Does this not work with SSL?

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

jaxx084 — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 18:31:01 GMT

This tool is awesome. Thank you! But... I'm trying to download specific versions of the workflows. To do this, I need to add ?version=xxxx to the endpoint URL. I have this working in Postman, but I can't get Alteryx to run it successfully. Once I add this to the URL, I get an unauthorized error. Any ideas? Please :)

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

hroderick-thr — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 19:43:18 GMT

Does anyone know if this works after old API version stops working ?

Re: ServerRipper - Using the Alteryx Gallery API to download workflows en masse

londonhanson — Mon, 22 May 2023 15:16:27 GMT

@hroderick-thr There is an updated workflow based on this that downloads all workflows, and can search the XML within them. There is both an OAuth1 and OAuth2 workflow (newer APIs use OAuth2):
https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Server-Knowledge-Base/Search-Gallery-Workflows-for-Connections-Files-Queries-Tools-and/ta-p/1098230

I hope this helps!