topic Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2 in Weekly Challenges

Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

TaraM — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 14:03:20 GMT

Decorate the table with colors so bright.
Blocking tools, macros, yellow threads alright!

With the image files added to our Tool Data from Part 1, create a unique periodic table of Alteryx tools visual that Santa can replicate en masse from year to year!

Goal: Make a periodic table of Alteryx tools with the visualization or reporting suite(s) of your choice and the provided tool data with image assets. Remember, our solutions need to dynamically update from Santa's new tool data each year!

Looking for a jump start or a refresher for your reporting skills? Register for our Introduction to Reporting live training this Tuesday!

If you are just checking out #SANTALYTICS for the first time, please read our intro blog to see our team rap, learn about the badge, and maybe get a shot at some SWAG! Check out last week's solution here.

Provided: Exercise 1's Tool Data and Image Assets.yxdb

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

estherb47 — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 20:07:48 GMT

@TaraM, so looking forward to this! But where is the yxdb?

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

TaraM — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 22:21:52 GMT

It is there now, @estherb47 - Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

ggruccio — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 01:05:52 GMT

Looks great on screen, but I can only get it to render properly as html output. Even though I choose 8.5 by 11 it is huge!

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

patrick_digan — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 14:28:03 GMT

I am exhausted after that one! I was receiving all sorts of PCXML errors; however, I was finally able to produce an HTML output that looked like I wanted.

EDIT: I tried to stay as true as possible to the periodic table of Alteryx tools. I don't believe the small image backgrounds were included with the challenge so I created those.

I started with my work from last week and added on. I used a BUNCH of reporting tools - report text, overlay, layout. I also used a macro to get the small background working, so I used a custom icon

I also created a blank box to fill the holes in the periodic table, and that caused a lot of PCXML problems when I tried to combine everything. I was able to get around it by crosstabbing, summarizing vertically, and then using the layout tool. There were many simpler ways to do this but they all produced errors for me. It could have been user error :) I had the same output issue as @ggruccio that required me to use HTML instead of pdf. I was happy with how it turned out!
Final output!this week's worklast week's work

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

Ilías — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 20:35:21 GMT

Thanks for the heads up regarding the output format, had the same issue. Had no time to look for an option to add the small background image.

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

NicoleJohnson — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 07:26:19 GMT

My solution! I took a cue from @patrick_digan creativity in the last round and added a few "elements" to give it some extra spirit... :)

First, my Periodic Workflow of Alteryx Tools (so many Overlays...):
Second, my Periodic Table of Alteryx Tools! The numbers didn't print as well as they look on my screen, but they're there. And I need to go to bed, so good enough.

Cheers!

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

LordNeilLord — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 10:55:43 GMT

Thank @patrick_digan for the inspiration to leave the spacing!

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

patrick_digan — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 20:26:30 GMT

@LordNeilLord @NicoleJohnson @Ilías @ggruccio

I'm glad the rest of you figured out to use the Table tool... I completely missed that one!

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

estherb47 — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 02:24:55 GMT

My solution. Whoa, this was a doozy!!!

Wanted an approach that wasn't bringing in any more graphics, so used the table approach to add in the small background color, so that the workflow is as flexible as possible.

Lots of overlay tools, and plenty of time spent playing around with them to figure out the padding needed, where to place the elements to overlay, etc. This tool is a challenge to use, as the offsets aren't very intuitive.

To ensure spacing for the first few rows of the table, generated extra rows using Generate rows, inserted them into the data, and then sorted.

Where I'm really proud of my work is using MOD and CEIL to create the Column and Row numbers (using 17 as the divisor for both)

Crosstab, table, another title, ANOTHER overlay, and a render. Like everyone else, my workflow threw errors when trying to render to a pdf, so this creates a temp html file.

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

jdunkerley79 — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 21:36:06 GMT

Mostly for doing it in a crazy way thought it would be nice to make it a YXMD output... had to go back to get zip again but base64 encoded the images for use as comments

Layout based on Wikipedia's article on the Extended Periodic Table

This produces the table as a workflow full of comments;

Generator is challenge_98_jd.yxmd and output is report.yxmd

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

paul_houghton — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 14:34:08 GMT

I did enjoy this...mostly...still complain about the reporting tools :)

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

philipmannering — Sun, 17 Dec 2017 14:08:39 GMT

Gone a bit Ebenezer Scrooge with the number of tools I've used.

Workflow:

Workflow

Output:

Output

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

SophiaF — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 17:22:33 GMT

I freely admit I went completely against the song and threw this into Tableau (after doing all the heavy lifting in Alteryx of course). I'm sure this selfish reasoning will put me on the naughty list... coal it is for me... luckily I can now make my own periodic table!

Here's the final output I posted to my Tableau Public:

I had to add a few more tool in order to get the dynamic colors in the tool tips to match the Alteryx tool categories, as well as to modify the file names so the Shapes would assign themselves automatically. First time I really spent any time looking at the tool categories colors (which I quickly added to my custom colors)

Workflow:

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

SGolnik — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 17:25:03 GMT

Okay....my solution on this one doesn't look quite as well done as some. I was happy that I got it looking close to what it should! I'm definitely going to take some time to take a closer look at everyone else's so I can figure out how to do some of the cool things that I've seen.

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

Claje — Fri, 22 Dec 2017 21:43:03 GMT

This one took me awhile because I think I focused too much on "automated".

I was very concerned with the fact that as the number of tools grew, the toolids in each column could wind up shifting, and which columns needed blanks could change, so I built out a rather complex set of logic to accomplish this.

Overall this was a fun one and I learned a lot about the reporting tools while doing it!

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

Laurap1228 — Wed, 27 Dec 2017 23:12:57 GMT

This was tough to get the correct grid layout.

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

Laurap1228 — Wed, 27 Dec 2017 23:13:34 GMT

This was tough to get the correct grid layout.

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

SeanAdams — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 19:44:24 GMT

@patrick_digan wrote:
I am exhausted after that one! I was receiving all sorts of PCXML errors; however, I was finally able to produce an HTML output that looked like I wanted.

I'm with you on this @patrick_digan - several errors were thrown which seem to be defects that this kind of exercise has unearthed. For example - doing a formula to check for null, and then replacing with an image of a solid block breaks the reporting elements. I'll log these as defects with worked examples

Went the same route as @patrick_digan - didn't get the blank spaces to work (because of the PCXML errors and images / reporting elements suddenly forgetting that they are images) - but did use cross-tab and table to make this work.

Re: Challenge #98: SANTALYTICS 2017 - Part 2

samN — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 21:46:42 GMT

Way different than all of the other challenges. Much more time on the creative aspect