Alteryx Connect Knowledge Base

The 2021.1 release brings the following features: Health Checks and the possibility to enable users to be automatically redirected to SAML IdP.

The 2020.4 release brings several features such as Notification Queue, new Custom Field type, the Alteryx Designer Tool Details section for analytic workflows, many improvements for metadata loaders, and more.

Defining a Lucene query is required for adding items to a new Connect Virtual Folder. Reference the Lucene documents for the items you want to add to find the correct parameters.

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

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

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

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}

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)

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

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.  

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.

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.    

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.

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.  

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.