Alteryx Connect Ideas

Deploying Connect on MS SQL Server (https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Connect-Knowledge-Base/Deploy-Alteryx-Connect-on-MS-SQL-Dat...) we would like to use integrated security option when we setup jdbc connection.

For now workaround looks like this:

1. Copy the file “sqljdbc_auth.dll” into Alteryx folder:

2. Inside SQL Server Management Studio add Active Directory user to logins folder:

3. grant him(or her) the rights to connect to database. For test purposes I`ve granted sysadmin role:

4. Edit the connect.properties file:

Here we don`t need user and password lines at all. We only need to add “integratedSecurity=true”

Because there will be used credentials of user, using which Alteryx Connect was started, not the user which was provided in these red records.

But we still need these two records, because Alteryx will give us an error if it will not see these records inside config file during startup.

That`s why these records still must exist inside connect.properties file.

5. Setup Alteryx Connect service to start Alteryx Connect with Active Directory user, for which we granted access in SQL Server:

6. Start Alteryx Connect service and check with Ms SQL Profiler the user which is performing requests to database:

It`s Active directory (windows) user.

Hello,

It would be very beneficial from an end-user experience if we could provide more information on the Tool Details portion in Connect. Below is an example:

In Connect it tells us a filter tool is used and the expression. What's missing is a title if one is supplied in Designer. This would be incredibly beneficial as this will provide more context to the end user why an expression was used. Below is what's found in the Designer:

If a Name field can also be brought over it will help provide more meaning to the Expression.  

Thanks!

Jason

Hello!
I have a potential feature enhancement for the database-based Metadata Loaders. This has been tested with the PostgresSQL loaders, however I suspect this is something that is reflected across all database loaders.

This suggestion is simply for constraints of the fields to be brought into connect, with the names of the fields. So for instance the following:

is visible in Connect as:

What would be nice is two additional columns, 'Not Null' and 'Primary Key'. Or alternatively, a 'constraints' column, that contains these constraints, so that it does not have to be documented manually following an import.


Thanks,
TheOC

Our customers face up with asset name limitation – 200 chars.

This number of chars is not enough in many cases when they describe glossary terms.

Please extend this limit at least twice (to 400 chars)

Hi Alteryx team,

It would be great if it was possible to install/upgrade and configure Alteryx Connect using scripts. This would enable us to deploy Alteryx Connect using script deployment tools such as Urbancode Deploy. This functionality was recently requested by one of our customers, who has most of their application installations/upgrades automated this way.

Thank you very much for considering this idea.

Kind regards,

Jan

Hello,

Could you make saving filter settings inside folders for each user individually?

We a have a lot of terms and other assets, and when user works with his own assets he would like to return to folder with last filter settings.

Otherwise user has to set up filters again.

Virtual folders are not convenient because if each of thousand users will create his own virtual folder(s) it will be hard to navigate inside thousands of virtual folders.

Hi Alteryx Team,

I would like to suggest an improvement in the Alteryx Connect connect_catalina log file.

Currently, the log file contains only a timestamp and in order to get to a date + time combination, it is necessary to use the name of the file itself. Would it be possible to include the date information directly into the log? The use case is for example an integration with log monitoring tools. I am working closely with a monitoring team on a project and their feedback was, that it would be much easier to implement the integration with the date directly next to the timestamp.

Thank you very much for considering this idea.

Kind regards,

Jan

Hi Alteryx Connect team,

I would like to propose a change to a currently available feature - the alternate names.

On our client deployment, we are loading a number of databases, Alteryx Galleries and reporting servers. For the business users, some of the automatic names that are assigned to these source systems do not make much sense. Would it be possible to enable the alternate names for front-end editing after automatic loading? I know that the feature is available even for these assets, but I guess it is disabled in the config files.

Thank you very much for considering this idea.

Kind regards,

Jan Laznicka

Hi Alteryx Team,

We are very glad that the custom field functionality is available in Alteryx Connect. We were wondering, if it would be possible to enhance this functionality and enable additional features like the following:

1. Location of the custom fields
   • The custom fields currently appear in the bottom right part of the asset pages. Very often, we are loading important informtion into these fields and it would be very helpful to be able to put them for example directly under the description field.
2. Text editing options in the text fields
   • It would be great to have similar editting options in the text custom fields as in the description field. This would enable us to customize the look and feel of the pages and together with being able to move the custom fields around, this would be a great benefit for our users.
3. People icons in Picker fields
   • One of the things we are using picker custom fields for are the different roles that we assign to Connect users - for example data stewards. It would be great for this "people" type of fields to have the same "icon" look as the out-of-the-box Owner and Contributor fields available in the Asset Details section.
   • Another idea would be to have the possibility to put these "people custom fields" directly under the Owner and Contributor fields.

Thank you very much for considering these ideas.

Kind regards,

Jan Laznicka

Hello Alteryx Team,

Would you consider creating a metadata loader for Databricks? I can imagine this being a part of the Analytical workflows section and be catalogued in a similar way like Alteryx workflows. On a number of clients, we are seeing Databricks jobs being used as a complement to Alteryx workflows and a possibility to have them both catalogued in Alteryx Connect would be of great benefit.

Thank you very much for considering this idea.

Regards,

Jan Laznicka

Hello Alteryx,

The Alteryx loader does an excellent job capturing the Data Connection information from workflows and visualizing the data in Connect. It would be an additional benefit if the Data Connection information could get more granular and include the columns utilized from each table in the workflow.

An example where this will provide valuable benefits:

If you have a table with 100 columns and it's utilized extensively in more than 50 workflows, how do you analyze the impact when you're notified that column ABCXYZ is going to be altered? Connect can tell me which workflows are using the table, but it can't tell me which workflow is specifically using column ABCXYZ.

This would greatly aid users who may be searching workflows for specific column usage.

Thank you,

Jason

 Please provide a configuration option to make the DB_TABLES.TABLE_COMMENT for views appear in Discovered Description like it does for tables instead of in Technical Annotation.

It would be great if the File loader could recognize the SQL file extension to read and display the SQL script in Connect. An example would be similar to how the DDL is visible when you look at views in Data Sources. This would provide a large benefit when researching overall data usage and mapping to other data sources and workflows.

When I add descriptions to tables or columns in Connect then use that asset in a workflow, I would like to see the same table and column descriptions within the metadata in Designer. To illustrate, I've shared some screenshots...

Hi Alteryx Team,

Can you please add PDF or Word Download Option for Glossary Definition Term in Alteryx Connect. 

Thanks

Sri

We are moving our measure specifications that are in a PDF format to the Connect glossary.  We would like to keep the formatting that exists in the PDF when copying the spec.  However, the format doesn't always copy over.  It would be nice to have the 'Format Painter' option similar to what is in MS Word where you can copy the format from one line to another line.

We found out that we are able to setup Nexus modes in global config settings.

We can distinguish modes by relationship types and object types. It is nice.

We would like to distinguish Nexus setting by object’s location as well (to show/hide objects in diagram by their location).

For example to show terms from one folder and to hide terms from another.

We ask you to make possibility to setup Nexus to filter out objects by their location.

The addition of the On-Premise PowerBI loader is very beneficial. The current loader grabs PBI workspaces, workbooks, dashboards, and database connections all important to the PBIX files. It would also be an huge benefit if Connect could capture Paginated Reports (RDL file extension) information. 

Thank you.

Jason Melik

Hello Alteryx team,

Can you please includeSAP Crystal Reports loader in the Connect for Future Release.

Thanks

Sri