alteryx connect Knowledge Base

How To: Configuring SAML on Alteryx Connect for OneLogin   The information will assist with configuring Alteryx Connect to be function with OneLogin   Prerequisites   Alteryx Connect  ≥ 2019.1 OneLogin Account with access to perform administration tasks All users must have an email address attribute   Procedure Login to Alteryx Connect using the Administrator account, change the Base URL to match the FDQN of the machine in Administration Console > Connect Configuration > Instance setting, make sure the Base URL is NOT http://localhost:                     2. In the OneLogin Administration screen, highlight Apps in the top navigation menu and select   Add Apps       3. On the Find Applications screen, search for SAML in the box provided, and select OneLogin SAML Test (ldP)       4. Fill in the name, description and the details for Alteryx Connect, then, click Save                     5. Click the More Options button on top right and select to download the SAML Metadata file:                   6.  Click Configuration in the navigation menu, fill out details according to your Alteryx Connect's url                   SAML Consumer URL: your Connect URL with /aas/Saml/Acs appended to the end        SAML Audience: "Entity ID" provided by Alteryx Connect (Admin Console > Connect Configuration > Single Sign On)        SAML Recipient: "Single Sign On URL/Destination URL" provided by Alteryx Connect (Admin Console > Connect Configuration > Single Sign On)        SAML Single Logout URL: "Single Logout Endpoint" provided by Alteryx Connect (Admin Console > Connect Configuration > Single Sign On)         Leave ACS URL Validator blank, when finished, click Save.        7. Under the Parameters section, we will need map the Claims of email, firstName and lastName, select "Include in SAML assertion" when add these parameters. Email (NameID) is a starting Field provide by OneLogin, ignore this.  The end result of Parameters is showing as below:                   8. Select the users under User section, and click on Applications on left hand side, add the Alteryx Connect application to the user:                    9. Navigate to Alteryx Connect's Administrator Console > Connect Configuration > Single Sign on, Click + ADD to add the SAML authentication. For Name and Description, you can give any custom values.          10. Under Identity provider details, select the check box of "Upload IDP metadata", and Choose the file download at step 4, and click SAVE                     11. Log out of Alteryx Connect, and in the Log in page, you will see the OneLogin SSO option, click on there, it will navigate to the OneLogin sign in page:                        Once the user have logged in once, the OneLogin method will automatically authenticate the user into Alteryx Connect when the user clicked on the OneLogin option in Connect's login page.   Common Issues   The configuration for OneLogin works for Alteryx Connect if the Entity ID is "com.alteryx.saml.localhost" In the earlier version of Alteryx Connect, the Entity ID is "Localhost"    Additional Resources   Once the user have logged into Alteryx Connect using OneLogin SSO, the OneLogin administrator can see the sign in entry in Activity > Reports, under Application access           

Quick Guide: API Catalog in Connect  Do you use APIs for your work? Based on the information published online, in 2019 the number of APIs exceeded 22,000 entries. APIs and their endpoints are one of the very popular data sources and are used in Alteryx workflows as well. Information about used APIs is now available in Connect since version 19.4. The information is extracted from workflows’ log and cataloged.  Prerequisites Connect 19.4 Server 19.4 To use the API catalog, you must install Connect version 19.4 as well as Server version 19.4. The reason behind that is the way the APIs are harvested. They are not harvested from the workflows directly but from the log in the job log. It means they are generated from the data logged on the Server. Lineage is automatically created between a workflow and an API endpoint. Thus, it's necessary to run the workflow at least once on the server to get the APIs from it.   API sites are available in Data Sources Essential Info about API Catalog To access the list of API endpoints, go to main menu > Data Sources > API sites. API is an asset type under Data Sources. Note: API sites folder is by default visible only for Administrators group. The permissions can be easily modified by an Administrator. Navigate to see the permissions of the API sites folder by clicking the Action drop-down arrow and select Permissions. A window with a permission table pops up. You can change the permission under the Inherited permission table where you can see the list of all actions. Click in any field to add a user group or individual users to a permission level. For more information see Permissions .   The following information about an API endpoint can be viewed:   Description You can add a description for an asset, such as asset name, link to the asset page, or link to the API documentation. Note: API documentation is generated automatically.   Details Action: Message to a resource to perform a certain operation, such as GET, POST, PUT, DELETE. URIs: Uniform Resource Identifier. Address which identifies a resource. Parameter/Attribute Values: Options you can pass with the endpoint to influence the response. Attachment: You can upload more information for the specified API. Relationships All relationships, including data lineage, can be viewed using Nexus. Click to Open nexus, a navigable map that shows a web of connections between assets.   Details of an API endpoint When to Use API catalog? As a developer, you can use the API catalog to find the API you need in your workflow. The catalog provides detailed insight into how API endpoints are used in a workflow and give visibility into a workflow’s lineage. As a user, you can check where - in which workflows - the API endpoint is used. Check Relationships to see the lineage. Example of the Relationships section of an API endpoint   API catalog is also mentioned in the following articles: New in Connect 19.4 and Release Notes 19.4.

We're constantly working to improve your Connect experience. Find out what new features, improvements, and bug fixes we released with this version of Connect! Here is a summary of what has changed in 2019.4.  Notify on Mention / Dislike / Decertify A notification will go to the user that was mentioned on an asset. Thanks to this feature the users can see where they were mentioned and respond easily. Also, the actions Dislike and Decertify will now trigger a notification. OpenJDK Upgrade Connect has been upgraded to OpenJDK11 for security and performance improvements. Tableau Loader with New GraphQL API We’ve added support for new Tableau GraphQL API, so you can load column-level lineage into Connect (from Tableau worksheets columns into data source columns).     Using the Tableau GraphQL API in Connect allows us to display the data source fields of a worksheet and their details that built every single field on the list (such as servers, databases, schemas, tables, and columns). All the information can be tracked by clicking a link associated with each of the data source fields.   To view this information in Connect, go to your Tableau reports, click the desired report, and the Datasource fields section.     Uploaded File Types Restricted by Default Uploaded file types are restricted by default. These restrictions can be changed anytime by an administrator. To view and change the file types list, go to Administration > Connect Configuration > Instance Settings. QlikView Metadata Loader Faster Parsing We’ve improved the speed of parsing of QlikView files by smarter way of detection of metadata headers in QlikView files, so just metadata are read over the network resulting in faster harvesting especially for larger datasets. Connect Performance Improvements We’ve made many performance improvements regarding the speed of metadata loading, system startup, asset detail rendering, and removing inactive versions in bulk.   Asset Identity Switch In addition to other improvements, we have added Asset Identity switch for columns. Administrators can now decide if columns will be separate assets or parts of the table asset (default). This feature improves not only performance but will bring significant load and rendering improvements as well.   To access the Asset Identity switch, go to Administration > Asset Configuration > Asset Identity. Catalogued APIs We have added brand new API Catalog which allows you to automatically catalog APIs and their endpoints from your workflows. This feature is by default available for administrators only but it's up to them to share the API Sites folder with other users or groups. Go to main menu > Data Sources > API Sites. API Catalog has 2 layers. It’s listing all API sites (e.g. Tableau, Salesforce) and their endpoints (e.g. getAllDatasources). Support for Multiple Tableau and Alteryx Servers We’ve been following up on our customers’ feedback and added support to load multiple different servers for Tableau and Alteryx into Connect. Metadata Loaders We've made a number of enhancements to our Loaders with 2019.4: You can now upload metadata to Connect from Alteryx Promote. DB2 Loader was redesigned to support different DB2 platforms at once. S3 Loader was redesigned to speed up the loading and handle large volumes of files. For all database loaders we have added Column references which display all column level mappings. Fixed Issues Here is a list of some issues fixed in the latest release. To check a complete list of fixed and known issues please see the Connect 2019.4 Release Notes. Resolved: Custom Fields Lost after Reloading Asset Custom fields of an asset were lost once that asset was reloaded. Now after re-running the metadata loader, the custom fields stay as they are without being removed. Resolved: Admin API Not Enabled for the Fast Deployment in Gallery Admin API was not enabled for the fast deployment in Gallery. There was no error message when the Test connection or Harvest button was pressed. Now the error message appears on all appropriate screens when Admin API is not enabled. Resolved: Only Superadmin Is Able to See the "Download Service Provider Metadata" Button Only the superadmin was able to see the "Download Service Provider Metadata" button on the SSO configuration page. This issue was resolved by allowing this function for the members of admin role. Resolved: Only Superadmin Is Able to Perform the H2 Backup Only superadmin was able to see and do the H2 backup in Administration Console. This issue was resolved by allowing H2 backup for the members of admin role.

There are some common issues that may arise in the harvesting of metadata and it’s our hope that this guide will help you diagnose them with ease!

How To: Configure SAML on Alteryx Connect for Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)   Alteryx Connect has the ability to interface with a number of identity providers that support the SAML 2.0 standard, and recently we stood up an ADFS test server and set it up with Alteryx Connect successfully. The following information will assist with configuring Alteryx Connect to be functional with ADFS.   Please note the following information is based on third-party software and processes may be slightly different on older or newer versions of the software. The following was created against ADFS v4.0 running on Windows Server 2016 and Alteryx Connect 2019.2.   Prerequisites   Alteryx Connect >= 2018.1 Account with access to perform administration tasks AD FS Server Account with access to perform administration tasks All users that will login must have an email address attribute SSL/TLS certificate installed on Alteryx Connect (Self-Signed certificate is not recommended) How To: Configure SSL (Issued SSL Certificate) on Connect How To: Enable SSL in the Connect Installer   Procedure   Verify that your Alteryx Connect server has been configured with SSL/TLS enabled and that a proper SSL certificate is installed. Instructions are provided in the link above Login to your Alteryx Connect website as the default administrator (admin) account. Note: Other administrator accounts may not be able to see the required options in certain versions of Alteryx Connect Open the Administration Panel > Connect Configuration > Single Sign-On Click Download Metadata. This will download a XML file containing configuration information and Connect's SAML signing certificate that we will import into ADFS. You should send this resulting file to your ADFS administrator to assist with setup. Note: This button may only be visible to the "super-admin" account (admin) within Alteryx Connect. This option is not available to other administrator accounts in certain versions, so if you do not see the button, make sure you are signed into the default "admin" account created when you initially setup your Alteryx Connect instance. This and following steps will require an ADFS administrator. Open the AD FD Management utility (Start > Windows Administrative Tools > AD FS Management) Click Relying Party Trusts   from the console, then click Add Relying Party Trust... Click Import data about the relying party from a file Use the Browse button to browse to the location of the XML file gathered in Step 4, then click Next Type a  Display name  for the trust. I placed "Alteryx Connect" here, but you can use a name that best identifies the connection for you, such as a server name or other easily identifiable name. Then click  Next . Select Permit everyone from the Access Control Policy and click Next. Note: You may wish to configure this option differently depending on the environment and whom you wish to be able to authenticate with Alteryx Connect, or you may wish to setup Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Specific access permissions and these types of setup are outside the scope of this article. Click Next on the Ready to Add Trust page. Check the box next to Configure claims issuance policy for this application and click Close. Verify the  Claim rule template  is set to  Send LDAP Attributes as Claims  and click  Next . Type a desired name for the rule within the Claim rule name box. From the Attribute store drop-down, choose Active Directory. Using the following table, set the appropriate options within the Mapping of LDAP attributes to outgoing claim types box. Click Finish. Note: The following outgoing values are case sensitive and will need to be typed except for "E-Mail-Addresses". LDAP Attribute Outgoing Claim Type E-Mail-Addresses Name ID Given-Name firstName Surname lastName On the Claim Issuance Policy window, click  Apply  to apply the settings, then click  OK . In the Relying Party Trusts window, double-click the Trust that you created earlier. Click the Advanced tab. Change the Secure hash algorithm to SHA-1. Click OK. (Optional) The ADFS signing certificate and/or web access certificate (certificate used to serve metadata from ADFS and field requests) may be required to manually import if your certificates are not signed by a publicly recognized Certificate Authority (CA). These should be provided to your Alteryx Connect admin as Base64 encoded Certificate (typically .cer) files if possible. You will now need an administrator with access to the Alteryx Connect website as the default administrator (admin) account. Note: Other administrator accounts may not be able to see the required options in certain versions of Alteryx Connect Open the Administration Panel > Connect Configuration > Single Sign-On page. Click +ADD to open the new SAML dialog. In the Name field, type a name for the ADFS connection. Note: This name will appear on the Alteryx Connect login page for users of the Alteryx Connect system. Choose an Icon for the Identity Provider (IDP). Note: An icon picture must be provided to continue. You can use a placeholder image if you do not have an appropriate image available. In the Description field, type a description for the IDP. Under Identity provider details, select an appropriate connection option. For our guide, we'll be using Get IDP metadata from URL. Contact your ADFS administrator if you are not sure which option to use. Set the  IDP Metadata URL  to the location of the  Federation Metadata  xml file provided by the ADFS server. Example: Note : If you are not positive on the value for this, ask your ADFS administrator. Click SAVE. If you receive an error at this stage, please review the Log page in the Alteryx Connect Administration Console. Review the articles below, as one or both of the following knowledge articles may apply to your situation based on the error(s) you are receiving. How To: Add SAML IDP Signing Certificate to Connect Keystore How To: Add Web Connection Certificate to Alteryx Connect Keystore Click the X in the Active column next to the new ADFS IDP entry. Click OK within the dialog asking if you wish to turn on the IDP. If you receive an error at this stage, please review the Log page in the Alteryx Connect Administration Console. Review the articles in the previous step, as one or both of the above knowledge articles may apply to your situation based on the error(s) you are receiving. Once the connection is enabled, Restart the Alteryx Connect service on the machine. Validate that the IDP is now appearing on the login page of Alteryx Connect Note: If you also have Windows Authentication turned on in Connect Administration, you may need to log out to see this option or browse to the login page directly. URL: https://{ConnectBaseURL}/login Example: https://trn-con-07.cs.alteryx.com/login   Common Issues   If any issues are experienced during setup, reach out to Alteryx Support for additional assistance.    Additional Resources    

How To: Add SAML IDP Signing Certificate to Connect Keystore   This article is intended to assist with inserting a certificate to be used to validate a SAML signature from a SAML Identity Provider (IDP) when used with Alteryx Connect. This article will only be needed if your IDP is signing assertions or other traffic with a specific cert that may be self-signed or not trusted by a widely trusted Certificate Authority (CA).   An error message may be received while attempting to validate the signature from an IDP if this is not inserted. An example is below:     org.opensaml.saml2.metadata.provider.MetadataProviderException: org.opensaml.saml2.metadata.provider.MetadataProviderException: Error filtering metadata from {metadataURL}.xml ...(trimmed) Caused by: org.opensaml.saml2.metadata.provider.MetadataProviderException: Error filtering metadata from {metadataURL}.xml ...(trimmed) Caused by: org.opensaml.saml2.metadata.provider.FilterException: Signature trust establishment failed for metadata entry     Prerequisites   Alteryx Connect >= 2018.1 Remote Desktop (RDP) or other direct access to the Alteryx Connect machine Windows Administrator account on the Alteryx Connect machine Alteryx Connect account within the "Administrators" group Certificate (.cer) or other X509 certificate file available to import This certificate should be the IDP's signing certificate or part of the certificate chain If you are not sure where to obtain this certificate, reach out to an administrator or support group for the CA, or your IT team for assistance   Procedure   Verify that the certificate file is available on the Alteryx Connect machine's local file system You will also need the password for the SAML keystore (samlKeystore.jks in the ac_work directory). If you do not have this keystore password, follow the sub-steps to change the password Open Alteryx Connect in a web browser and login with an Administrator account Open the Administration panel by clicking on your account name in the upper-right corner and choosing Administration from the drop-down Click Connect Configuration from the Admin Menu Click Single Sign-On within the Connect Configuration panel Click Advanced settings near the bottom of the page Specify a new password in the Password field Click Save Open a   Command Prompt (cmd.exe) as Administrator   on the Alteryx Connect machine's desktop Change directory to the Java bin directory of your Alteryx Connect installation. Replace   {InstallDir} in the command below with the root path of your Alteryx Connect installation. Press Enter Command Line:   cd "{InstallDir}\jre\bin" Example: cd "C:\Program Files\AlteryxConnect\jre\bin"   The keytool.exe utility will need to be used in order to insert the certificate. Replace   {file} in the command below with the full path to the certificate file being used. Replace   {InstallDir} with the root path of your Alteryx Connect installation. Replace   {alias}   with a desired identifier for the certificate you are inserting. Replace {samlKeystorePassword} with the password gathered in Step 2 above. Command Line:   keytool.exe -importcert -file "{cert}" -keystore "{InstallDir}\ac_work\samlKeystore.jks" -alias "{alias}" -storepass {samlKeystorePassword} Example: keytool.exe -importcert -file "C:\Users\username\Desktop\SAMLSigningCert.cer" -keystore "C:\Program Files\AlteryxConnect\ac_work\samlKeystore.jks" -alias "ADFS_Signing" -storepass keystorePassword22   Press   Enter Executing the command above should return information about the certificate and a prompt asking to trust the certificate. Make sure the information in the return matches the expected values, then type yes   at the prompt. Press Enter       Verify you receive the return Certificate was added to keystore If you receive an error, review the error message and make any corrections necessary. Restart   the Alteryx Connect   service to apply the changes.      Additional Resources   How To: Configure SAML on Alteryx Connect for Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)

Metadata Loader Categories   In this article you'll find detailed information about the loader categories and which exact information is extracted by each of the loaders we support. Each type differs in the object hierarchy, structure of the objects, and detail of the objects.  There are five types of the metadata loaders:  Database Loaders File Loaders Visualytics (Report) Loaders Workflow Loader Other Loaders     Database Loaders Database loaders are used to harvest metadata about database objects such as database server (RDMS), catalog, schema, table/view/procedure, column. An example can be an Oracle database with all available objects, descriptions, and relationships within the objects in the database. Connect supports database metadata loader for these technologies: Teradata, Snowflake, Apache Hive, IBM DB2, Exasol, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, SAP HANA, Amazon Redshift, HP Vertica, PostgreSQL, Apache Impala.   File Loaders File loaders are used to harvest metadata about file systems such as file bucket or folder with subfolder structure, individual files, sheets (when available e.g. on xlsx file), and columns on files you can parse for the structural information (xls(x), csv, yxdb, avro …). For files with structure you can store also profiling information such as number of rows, not nulls, blanks, uniqueness, and average length. Connect supports file metadata loader for the following technologies: Amazon S3, Apache Hadoop, Microsoft Azure Data Lake, Files loader (windows shared drives).   Visualytics (Report) Loaders Visualytics are used to harvest metadata from reporting platforms such as report workbook, worksheet, datasource, and detailed columns. Connect supports visualytics metadata loader for these technologies: Tableau, Microsoft PowerBI, QlikView, Qlik Sense.   Workflow Loader Workflow loader is used to harvest metadata from the Alteryx Gallery. Connect supports only AYX Gallery Loader.   Other Loaders This category describes loaders that don't belong to any of the above-mentioned categories, such as: Alteryx Promote loader is used to harvest metadata about Promote models published on a Promote server. Microsoft Azure Data Catalog loader is used to exchange metadata from Azure Data Catalog about databases, files, and business terms. Salesforce loader (without data profiling) is used to harvest metadata from the Salesforce application.    Overview of Available Objects for Each Loader Type Loader Type Available Objects  Databases db server, catalog, schema, table / view / procedure / column Files file bucket (AmazonS3) / folder, file, sheet, column Possible data profiling (additional information about features and content of the files). Visualytics (reports) server, site, project, workbook, worksheet, datasource, column Tableau: site, project, workbook, worksheet Microsoft PowerBI: workspace, workbook Insight QlikView: folder, Qlik data files (data profiling - .qvd, .qvx); report, worksheet; Qlik Sense: stream, workbook, worksheet, report objects (names and types of charts, dimensions, measures) Workflows workflow, input, output Others Microsoft  Azure Data Catalog: glossary, databases, files (without data data profiling) Alteryx Promote loader: predictive model Salesforce loader: Salesforce tables     How to Use and Configure Loaders More information on how to use and configure the metadata loaders you can find on the following pages: The Alteryx Online Help pages Schedule Metadata Loaders and Load Metadata into Connect specify how to use the metadata loaders from Designer. Now you can run metadata loaders directly in Connect by selecting Connections in the Admin Menu. You have the possibility to start the harvest immediately or to set up a regular harvest. Go to Admin Menu > Connections to configure and run the metadata loaders. For more info see: How To: Fast Deployment of Metadata Loaders in Connect.   Overview of available loaders while using the fast deployment.    

How To: Add Web Connection Certificate to Alteryx Connect Keystore   This article is intended to instruct on the operation of adding a certificate to Alteryx Connect's Java Keystore (cacerts). This process is useful if you need to add a certificate for a direct SSL-based web connection from the Alteryx Connect service, e.g. to retrieve a metadata XML file from an internal SAML provider with a self-signed or internally signed SSL/HTTPS certificate that may not be trusted by a globally trusted CA or similar. This process is not intended to resolve SSL connection issues with Metadata Loader processes. Typically, this process would only be necessary when attempting to configure SAML-based authentication with an on-premises SAML identity provider. An error message also may be displayed that may require you insert a certificate to this store, similar to the following: org.opensaml.saml2.metadata.provider.MetadataProviderException: org.opensaml.saml2.metadata.provider.MetadataProviderException: Error retrieving metadata from {metadataURL}.xml ...(trimmed) Caused by: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target ...(trimmed) Caused by: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target ...(trimmed) Caused by: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target     Prerequisites   Alteryx Connect >= 2018.1 Remote Desktop (RDP) or other direct access to the Alteryx Connect machine Windows Administrator account on the Alteryx Connect machine Certificate (.cer) or other X509 certificate file available to import This certificate should ideally be the Certificate Authority (CA)'s root signing certificate, but can also be the certificate used for the remote machine itself If you are not sure where to obtain this certificate, reach out to an administrator or support group for the CA, or your IT team for assistance   Procedure   Verify that the certificate file is available on the Alteryx Connect machine's local file system Open a Command Prompt (cmd.exe) as Administrator on the Alteryx Connect machine's desktop Change directory to the Java bin directory of your Alteryx Connect installation. Replace {InstallDir} in the command below with the root path of your Alteryx Connect installation. Press Enter Command Line: cd "{InstallDir}\jre\bin" Example: cd "C:\Program Files\AlteryxConnect\jre\bin" The keytool.exe utility will need to be used in order to insert the certificate. Replace {file} in the command below with the full path to the certificate file being used. Replace {InstallDir} with the root path of your Alteryx Connect installation. Replace {alias} with a desired identifier for the certificate you are inserting. Command Line: keytool.exe -importcert -file "{cert}" -keystore "{InstallDir}\jre\lib\security\cacerts" -alias "{alias}" -storepass changeit Example: keytool.exe -importcert -file "C:\Users\username\Desktop\CACert.cer" -keystore "C:\Program Files\AlteryxConnect\jre\lib\security\cacerts" -alias "ADFS_Web" -storepass changeit Press Enter Executing the command above should return information about the certificate and a prompt asking to trust the certificate. Make sure the information in the return matches the expected values, then type yes at the prompt. Press Enter   Verify you receive the return Certificate was added to keystore If you receive an error, review the error message and make any corrections necessary. Restart the Alteryx Connect service to apply the changes.    Additional Resources   {Note to self - Add resources to SAML setup article once completed}

Have you ever wondered what are the limits of Connect? How many entries can you store in Connect? Great questions!  In fact, no hard limit on the number of entries is set. The number around 2M entries is the number on which the performance tuning in the 2019.1 release was done.

Issue - Unable to add user(s) to a group in Alteryx Connect   When trying to add a user to a group in Connect, the user is not found and therefore cannot be added to the group.       Environment   Alteryx Connect Version 18.4+   Cause   The user does not have an email address set.   Solution   Navigate to the user in Connect under People Click the Edit button in the top right Enter the user's email in the Email field You should now be able to add the member to a Group.   Additional Resources   Managing Users and Permissions in Connect Authentication Methods for Connect

Find out what new features, improvements, and bug fixes we released with this version of Connect!  Here is an overview of the changes in 2019.3.  

How To: Fast Deployment of Metadata Loaders in Connect   In this article, you will learn how to use and configure the metadata loaders in Connect. Until now, you probably have used the metadata loaders only from Designer, as described here.     Prerequisites   To use loaders from Designer, you have to download the loaders installers, install the loaders and then you can start using them. Unlike Designer, the loaders in Connect can be used directly as they are already part. However, for the actual execution of the loaders, a Gallery with connectivity back to Connect is needed. There must be two-way visibility between Connect and Server.   Procedure   Let’s assume that you as an administrator need to fill up the Connect with metadata. You will need only Connect and Gallery as already mentioned. To load data to Connect directly, perform the following steps:   Go to the Administration Console > Admin Menu > Connect Configuration > Alteryx Gallery.  In the Alteryx Gallery specify the Gallery name, Gallery URL, Gallery password, Connect loader username and Connect loader password. This is a mandatory step. Save and Harvest will upload loaders package onto a Gallery server and at the same moment, it will start the Gallery (Alteryx Loader). Click Test Connection to verify the username and password. If there is a checkbox on Do not obtain the API keys automatically, you need to enter them manually.  Click Save and Harvest. Once you press Save and Harvest, the workflows will start getting loaded. This will be indicated by a message visible in the left bottom corner of the page. This is the first sign that the connection between the server and Connect works. Wait until it’s done. Note: Authentication  You can choose from two Gallery authentication types. With Built-in authentication, you have to enter your Gallery username and password while adding an Alteryx Gallery. By choosing Integrated Windows authentication, you have to enter your domain username and password. You have to enable the Admin API keys in Gallery. See the screenshot below. Go to Alteryx Gallery > Settings > Keys. Enable Admin API by checking Yes. Go to Administration Console > Admin Menu > Connections. You should see the Gallery you just added and its details. Under Loaders, click Add Connection. Note: By clicking Harvest in the Gallery Connection you have the possibility to start the Harvest immediately.  Note 2: By clicking Schedule in the Gallery Connection you have the possibility to set up a regular harvest. You will get a list of loaders, and you can select the corresponding one in the first section: Technology. After selecting the Technology, you will be moved to Properties. In this section, you need to fill in the required Connection details and choose objects to load, based on the Technology you have selected. Do not forget to provide Administrator credentials under Alteryx Connect Credentials. Note: For each technology, you need to fulfill the loader requirements. More information about each loader is accessible through the link displayed in the Properties section. As an example, we selected the File system as a Technology. After filling in all the required information in Properties, click Add. After clicking Add, you can see the following screen with the available Connection. Click Harvest. A window pops up. Click Harvest. By performing the previous steps, you harvested the data into Connect without even opening Designer. To view the metadata, go to Data Sources and select a folder to view its contents.   Troubleshooting If you get an error message during the harvest, go to Gallery to see the detailed log to find the cause of the issue.

Unspecified Error when Resetting a User's Password   When clicking Reset Password, a warning regarding an unspecified error pops up.       Environment   Product - Alteryx Connect   Cause   When resetting a password, Connect needs to send an e-mail to the user.  This error indicates the administrator has not configured the SMTP server correctly.   Solution   In the Admin portal, go to the SMTP Settings tab under Connect Configuration, fill in all required fields, test the connection, and Save.      

How To: Recover the Home Page after Restoring Connect   Did you know that restoring Connect can finish with a broken home page? In this article you will find an easy way to recover the broken home page after the restoration is complete.   Let’s assume you performed a restore of the H2 database. But when you open Connect after completing it, the home page you normally see is gone.   Instead of your home page, you're seeing something like this:       To fix the broken home page, you need to perform a full reindex of Connect after Connect starts. This is also mentioned on the screen you’ll get after completing the restore.     How To: Perform a Full Reindex   To perform a full reindex of the database to complete the restoration:   Log in to Alteryx Connect. Click your icon in the top-right of the screen and select Administration. From the Admin Menu, click Reindex. Click Full Reindex. After the full reindex is completed, you should be able to see the home page.

We’ve been working hard to follow up on our customers’ feedback and make a bunch of enhancements to Connect. Here’s an overview of the changes in 2019.2.  

This tutorial contains information about Custom Fields. You will learn how to create, assign, and configure a Custom Field in the Connect data catalog.

This article provides instructions for adding a self-signed SSL certificate to the web page hosted by Alteryx Connect so that the page is served securely.   Note: This article is only intended for Self-Signed Certificates. A self-signed certificate is not recommended to be used for production purposes. This is because self-signed certificates must be installed on all of the machines you intend to use with Connect as a trusted certificate. This includes any machines that will use Connect applications like loading metadata in Alteryx Designer or using search results from Connect Designer.  

This article provides instructions for adding an issued SSL certificate to the web page hosted by Alteryx Connect so that the page is served securely.   Note: This article is intended for trusted certificates in your environment. You must have a copy of the certificate (such as .crt) and the signing key (such as .key), or a combined certificate file (such as .pfx or .p12) in order to complete this process. This certificate must be installed on all machines you intend to use with Connect as a trusted certificate if these machines are to be used in conjunction with Alteryx Connect, such as loading metadata with Alteryx Designer or search results from Alteryx Connect displayed within Alteryx Designer.

As Dr. Nick so eloquently defines...   The business glossary within Alteryx Connect is a powerful tool for maintaining a repository of formal definitions for an organization. These definitions are then linked and associated to the many terms, reports, workflows, and data elements across the enterprise, leading to that invaluable map of tribal knowledge that lets analysts get their job done faster and better than ever before. The user and admin help documentation explain that terms can be added one at a time, or in a batch. Here are the steps to bulk load.   1. Glossary page - Export to Excel     2. Glossary.xls - "Folder" tab   You may affect the folder structure of the Glossary and it’s sub folders. There should always be an entry for the Glossary Folder itself. It’s XID and Parent ID are standardized, but you can change its “entryName” if you like (for instance “Enterprise Glossary”). On this tab, you may also add subfolders. This could be useful if you wanted to group glossary terms by business unit or term category. Subfolders should have a parent ID of the Glossary, and if you’re uploading new subfolder definitions, you can leave XID blank (Connect will supply an ID on upload).   3. Glossary.xls - "Relations" tab     The second tab “relations” holds all the definitions of relationships defined on the Glossary terms to other entities within Connect. You need to know the Target ID in order to establish the relationships here.   4. Glossary.xls - "Term" tab   You can add new entries to the glossary or edit existing via the “Term” tab.   5. Administration - Choose file to Upload   When uploading, the content will be placed into the appropriate folders based on the IDs within the file. The content will Append to existing if new, modify if pre-existing by ID, but it will not remove entries if not supplied within the uploaded file.   6. Glossary - View the New Term