Alternative approach to Chained Apps : Ability to Skip ( or ) Branch Application Sequence

[Maithreyan]

Vanilla Alteryx Chained Apps can only progress linearly, which means developers could not let users skip few applications ( or ) reach the last app in the chain ( or ) let the user select which specific app to trigger based on the requirement.

This can be bypassed by using a render tool with output as PCXML and HTML link of the Application you can trying to divert to, which does not affect the existing workflow in any way.

By using the below set of tools on any workflow/chained app you can either branch the flow of apps ( or ) you can skip a few apps in the chain.

1. A excel or csv file which has the links of the apps -  the reason for keeping the hyperlinks in an external file is so that we can update the link if the server link changes/updates - refer Image 1
2. A filter tool to specify which application to move to ( can be changed using a radio button/drop down to app 2/3/4/5 etc.)
3. A text tool ( This is where the magic is ) - configure it to pick the server link from the incoming data from the filter tool as hyperlink and generate a output preview, as shown below - refer Image 2
4. Use a render tool as output and write to any PCXML file ex: "File.pcxml" - refer Image 3

Image 1 - Input Configuration with the flow that can be part of any existing application

Image 2 - Text Tool Configuration

Image 3 - Render tool Configuration

POC in action

• Let assume our 3rd application is located in www.alteryx.com - if the user selects 3rd app in the radio button

• Which would generate an Output Preview like below

Now If clicked on App 1, it would divert me to www.Alteryx.com

Regards,

Maithreyan S