alteryx connect Knowledge Base

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  

How To: Connect to the H2 Console   Connect has an interactive console for the H2 database that allows administrators to browse the database and execute commands. Follow the below steps to enable and connect to the console.   Prerequisites   Alteryx Connect   Procedure   Follow steps 1-6 under Enable access to the Connect database found on the Review Connect Usage Information Help page Navigate to http://localhost:8082 on the Connect Server If you have the firewall open, you can access this from another machine using the IP or the hostname in place of localhost (i.e. http://hostname:8082) Fill in the JDBC URL and the Password   For the JDBC URL, enter the value for the Master DB JDBC string found in the System Info section of the Connect Administration Console The database password is set by the Connect Administrator during installation. Your Administrator can reset the password in the Connect Console under Connect Configuration > H2 Password Click the Test Connection button You should see 'Test Successful'. If not, please double-check your connection information above Click the Connect button to enter the H2 Console A successful connection will show the console with the below schema (shows as folders on the left)   Common Issues   I don't see the STD_XFORMS database schema You have an invalid JDBC connection string - please confirm your JDBC URL found in the System Info section of the Administration Console    Additional Resources   Back Up and Restore Connect Database via Command Line

What does Support need to troubleshoot Connect?   What information does Alteryx Customer Support need to troubleshoot my Connect issue?   Connect Version - this can be found in the Administration Console under System Info   Error messages Screenshots   If a quick/straight forward solution is not available, please e-mail the below to   support@alteryx.com If the files are large, your Customer Support Engineer will set up another medium of transfer for you to use.   If additional files are requested, what files are they and where can I find them?   1. Logs-Logs-Logs! Logs are the best way for us to get to the root of the problem as we look at errors and warnings. For the Connect logs, please include the logs that reflect the time of the error/crash (the logs immediately before and after the error/crash). If the issue is ongoing, please include the most recent logs.   Logs Needed: Catalina.out localhost_access_log.*.log service_status.log   Default location - these logs are found in the Connect install folder >>> Logs folder (i.e. C:\Program Files\AlteryxConnect\Logs)   2. Server.xml *   - Configuration file for the backend tomcat process.   Default location - this file is found in the Connect install folder >>> conf folder (i.e. C:\Program Files\AlteryxConnect\conf)   3. System Info  *  - Records events logged by the operating system or its components, such as the failure of a service to start at bootup.   System Information shows details about your computer's hardware configuration, computer components, and software, including  drivers.     Click Start and in the Search Programs and Files Field, type msinfo32.exe.  Click File >> Save and save as .nfo file.        Click File >> Save and save as .nfo file.        * Optional – only if requested specifically by a Customer Support Engineer.

With version 2019.1, you can make Connect run on https protocol and make the communication between client and server much more secure. This is an enhancement from the previous version, when you had to manually change configuration files, download SSL tools and execute several of commands. Now you can do it in a user friendly way just by using the Installer.

This article is a guide on how to import a Certificate Authority (CA) signed certificate after enabling SSL with the Installer.  

While attempting to add your Gallery (Alteryx Server) to your Connect instance you may get an error about related to your SSL certificate. This article provides step-by-step instructions for troubleshooting this issue.

The 2019.1 release of Alteryx Connect brings several new features including new configuration options and loaders enhancements - see more inside.

Alteryx Connect  is great at finding data assets that exists within enterprises which helps data workers to  shorten their journey to data-driven insight. One of the steps to refresh the metadata is to schedule the Metadata loaders. In this process, the data assets can be created, changed or removed. To take a look at this change log, we can take a look the backend of Connect - the H2 database.

Please see Maintaining Data Lineage for details and requirements before your metadata harvest. After ensuring you’ve downloaded the latest Connect Metadata loaders from the live downloads page, simply proceed with the steps below to upload MySQL Database metadata to your Alteryx Connect instance!

Please see Maintaining Data Lineage for details and requirements before your metadata harvest. After ensuring you’ve downloaded the latest Connect Metadata loaders from the live downloads page, simply proceed with the steps below to upload Oracle Database metadata to your Alteryx Connect instance!

Please see Maintaining Data Lineage for details and requirements before your metadata harvest. After ensuring you’ve downloaded the latest Connect Metadata loaders from the live downloads page, simply proceed with the steps below to upload File System Metadata to your Alteryx Connect instance!

Please see Maintaining Data Lineage for details and requirements before your metadata harvest. After ensuring you’ve downloaded the latest Connect Metadata loaders from the live downloads page, simply proceed with the steps below to upload Tableau Server metadata to your Alteryx Connect instance!

All the steps to install and license your own Connect instance!

In order to schedule the Metadata loader, you will need to configure and save the .yxwv file, and configure the  ConnectScheduler workflow to run from the directory of the .yxwv file. Detailed steps listed below:   1. Open the Metadata loader in Designer, in this example the Files loader, fill in the information for the "Files to load" and "Alteryx Connect" tabs       2. Click Save button to save the .yxwv file in the default File Loader location - C:\ProgramData\Alteryx\AlteryxConnect\Files_Loader 3. Click Help > Sample Workflow > Alteryx Connect Metadata Loaders > ConnectScheduler 4. Click on the Directory input tool, select the root directory where the yxwv file(s) is saved, for example  C:\ProgramData\Alteryx\AlteryxConnect 5. For the File Specification, leave it as *.*     6. Saved locally text   Schedule the loader using Local machine    1. To Schedule using local computer, complete steps 1 - 5 from above  2. Click Option > Schedule Workflow > My computer  3. Select Run the workflow from its original location on disk       Note: When the scheduler runs, it will run every metadata loader with .yxwv file one by one. If you only need to have one of the loaders scheduled, you need to have the Metadata loader moved into a folder other than C:\ProgramData\Alteryx\AlteryxConnect   Schedule the loader using the Alteryx Gallery   Save the ConnectScheduler to Gallery for Scheduling. instructions can be found in  https://help.alteryx.com/connect/current/Administration/ScheduleLoaders.htm under Configure and test the Connect Scheduler > Step 6.   Tip: When scheduling loaders on Alteryx Gallery, we recommend to copying the metadata loader and save the .yxwv files into a share drive to avoid the situation where the Alteryx Server machine is unable to access the end user's machine. See steps below:   Steps: 1. Create a Folder called AlteryxConnect in a Share Drive 2. Copy the loader folder, for example Files_Loader from C:\ProgramData\Alteryx\AlteryxConnect to the Share Drive's AlteryxConnect 3. Complete steps 1-2 from above but save the .yxwv file into the share drive under AlteryxConnect\Files_loader 4. Open  ConnectScheduler from Help > Sample Workflow > Alteryx Connect Metadata Loaders  5. In the Directory Input tool, select the Path of AlteryxConnect in the Share Drive, make sure it is the UNC path 6. Save ConnectScheduler, and it is ready to be schedule         

There are three authentication options in Alteryx Connect that an Administrator can configure for their environment: Manual auth, Windows AD auth, and SAML auth. Please note that Manual auth is always a fallback option, even if you’re using Windows or SAML, which is a notable departure from Gallery authentication, which does not allow mixed authentication modes.