Maintain Connect structure after metadata refreshes

[jensroy]

This would be a great improvement for Connect.

We spend hours on structuring the content within Alteryx Connect so that it serve all users.

We group schemas and databases into themes like "Sales", "Finance", "HR" and so on.

This makes it very easy for users to find what data we have available.

The same we do for workflows, macros and other content.

The problem is that our metadata loaders run every day to make sure our data is up-to-date.

Each run resets custom grouping. Making organizing content totally pointless.

Please vote for this idea

[VojtechT]

Hi @jensroy ,

during every load, Connect is comparing actual state of its assets with the information from the source system about how they look there. When you move an object somewhere else, the difference is recognised and fixed so Connect and the data source are in identical state. The asset can be moved in the original data source as well and if we keep the manual changes persistent, you couldn't be able to say what is correct and what is incorrect. 

However I would propose a solution to use the Tags field for such use case. In such case you can even set the workflow to be part of multiple areas, which is not possible with folder structure.

If that is actually the opposite and you want to be sure that every workflow is always part of only one "domain", I would propose to define a Custom field for that. Either Dropdown or Picker. In such case you can predefine what are the "domains" and then assign the custom field to certain asset types. Then you can set the value for every asset.

In both cases you can use the Advanced search to find the assets in particular domain.

How does that sound to you?

[jensroy]

Hello @VojtechT 

Yes I understand that this is the current state of Connect. From a technical perspective it makes sense that "Connect reflects the source", but Connect is way more important for the consumer (Business) than it is for IT (in our case). So it is important that the business users have the best user experience possible for a successful adaptio. It would add a huge value if one attribute of an object was "orinigal location" and a second attribute for "current location" within Connect.

We do want to organize PPT's, workflows, tables and reports into meaningful business areas.

We have looked into tags, custom fields and even customizing the loaders themself. But in the end they don't cover our needs perfectly.

We have also had a talk with Alteryx Support (with some Connect engineers). But I belive they also confirmed that moving objects won't be possible.

Thanks for the suggestions though 🙂