Alteryx App or Gallery to save last run values

Hello,

Is there a way to get Alteryx gallery to save the "last" run inputs after a simulation run?

e.g. I just my workflow with these 4 inputs successfully.

Alteryx App Inputs.png

Next time I run the workflow - can these 4 inputs show up (instead of the default text value I have saved in the workflow)?

Is there a way to save a workflow so the default input is "whatever ran last"?

Aside -- when running a workflow in the App - a user can save Analytic App Values to a file and load these values (*.yxwv) -- is there any way to load these app values when running a workflow from the gallery?

Thanks!

Workflow

Interface Tools

Accepted answers

BS_THE_ANALYST

Hey @terrence10.

I've attached the chained app. Can you give it a try & we'll go from there. I expect it won't be as smooth as I'd like 🤪😂.

Once unpackaged, go inside the zip and run "MainApp.yxwz". This is the parent workflow. "SupportingApp.yxwz" is the workflow used to overwrite the parent each time. Run the app from within your file explorer. Don't open the app as a workflow and run it within Designer. I found inconsistencies on my end. Follow the process I sent in my original GIF

When entering some dummy values, include letters i.e. a,b,c,d,e. Fear not, the logic would be easy to adjust if just numbers were entered.

Let me know how it goes.

MainApp.yxzp

All comments

KGT

I'll address the second question first. The quick answer is "No, but you could work around it".

I don't know of any native way, and can't think how there would be one that I don't know about, to load a yxwv file in to a gallery interface. So, that brings it back to workflow design. You could have an option to either load yxwv file, or enter values. In practice, loading the yxwv file will be an input where you parse the data and then use the values, while the values entered would just be through the interface tools. It may take a little experimentation.

As for having the last entered values, that is not available, as the premise of running an app through gallery is that many people could be accessing at once, so, it would need to be that users last value, which makes it more nuanced, and tech as you would need to deal with the different auth methods etc to define a user, and then API calls or the situation where a system user kicks off the job running as a user profile etc. So, it's not as simple as just "the last run".

That being said, you could have the same setup, where a user loads their last values or enters new values. You could technically get these from the MongoDB, or via the gallery API, but an easier solution would be to build in an operation where you save the values each run. It's creating extra data, but it's not much.

A couple of things that would come in handy for this:

Radio Buttons
- Radio Buttons allow you to essentially have 2 interfaces (as one of their uses), and the user select between them. In the Interface Designer, you can nest options underneath the radio buttons and collapse group when de-selected.
UserId
- https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Discussions/Get-username-Cloud-not-working/td-p/518481

terrence10

Thank you for the response, @KGT

That does seem like a good idea - to write inputs to a file at end of workflow, and load these inputs as a step in the beginning of workflow. Will try to test out if there's a way to toggle between the two choices (e.g. file input or user type in input)

One question I haven't been able to figure out - I use these user inputs as workflow constants (user types in value, I reference in SQL query as '%Question.Company%'.)

workflow constants.png

If I go the file input route, how do I load in the workflow constants from a file? If I load in a txt file like below - how can I get Alteryx to load these into the workflow constants?

Or would loading in an excel file like this be easier for Alteryx to load into workflow constants?

BS_THE_ANALYST

Hi guys @terrence10. Love this problem, in fact, it's giving me some vibes of https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Engine-Works/Dynamic-Hard-Coding-Chained-App-Sorcery/ba-p/764585 where @mceleavey produced an amazing idea with @TheOC as the engineer behind it all 💁‍.

Can you check the GIF below to check if this is the sort of thing you're after?

Happy to talk through the build. Rough logic is:

Parse out entered value
Output this into a chained app which also reads in the parent workflow's XML into alteryx
Identify the default value in the XML. Replace this with the user's entered value in the initial app
Recompile the XML and overwrite the parent workflow's XML.

Will supply the workflow and some notes if this get's the job done.

mceleavey

Hire people smarter than you for the win.

terrence10

Whoa cool! Yes, the steps that you illustrated in your GIF are what I'm looking for! Please share the workflow / notes @BS_THE_ANALYST if you are able to!

From what it looks like - you're saving the user's input into a file, and then importing those values?

I'll also take a look at your linked blog post as well!

Thank you!

BS_THE_ANALYST

@terrence10, I'll get something across to you after I've finished work today. I think if I just send the workflows without an explanation, it could lead to some confusion.

mceleavey

@terrence10 get @BS_THE_ANALYST to explain Project Asparagus. That should clear everything up.

terrence10

Thanks @BS_THE_ANALYST ! Looking forward to your notes. Feel free to include whatever you want about Project Asparagus too.

BS_THE_ANALYST

@terrence10 apologies for the delayed response. Life got in the way! I'll get this straight across to you after work today.

terrence10

Hi @BS_THE_ANALYST - any update to the workflow? Thanks!

KaranMahra

Thanks all for sharing such a informative replies.
Really learned from these examples.

terrence10

Hi @BS_THE_ANALYST - are you able to share the workflow?

BS_THE_ANALYST

Hey @terrence10.

I've attached the chained app. Can you give it a try & we'll go from there. I expect it won't be as smooth as I'd like 🤪😂.

When entering some dummy values, include letters i.e. a,b,c,d,e. Fear not, the logic would be easy to adjust if just numbers were entered.

Let me know how it goes.

MainApp.yxzp

terrence10

Thank you @BS_THE_ANALYST --

Quick question - where do you trigger the "SupportingApp.yxwz" app from the MainApp? I thought it would be workflow event - but don't see anything in there.

Seems like I have an older Alteryx version - so I need to re-save each of the apps

Also - would this work if a user runs the workflow from the gallery? I'm guessing a workflow wouldn't be able to "overwrite" an app if it's loaded in the gallery?

Thanks again! Very nifty solution

BS_THE_ANALYST

@terrence10
The solution is built on the principle of using Chained Apps. This is a concept where App1 runs and then triggers App 2 and so forth (the chain). To configure one app to run another, you'll need to go to View -> Interface Designer -> Properties ; then select the 'cog/wheel'. In there you can set if you want to run a sequential app.

Now here's the unfortunate news 😔 🗞️. When this app is pushed to server, it won't work like we want. I believe it's because when this app (and the subsequent app) is packed and pushed to server, it gets saved as a .yxzp. Every time the server runs the workflow, it essentially unpacks the yxzp and unfortunately this means the apps will always be restored back to their original state when the .yxzp was created and pushed to server 😂🧐.

However, this has me thinking that what we might want to do is leverage another cool thing. The Server API. Essentially, we'll create a third app to the chain which somehow creates a .yxzp of the current chain apps (saving that "new" default configuration) and publishes this version back to the server. Hopefully we could get it to just replace the latest version number so it isn't growing per run 😂🧐. It's just a theory but I think it could work.

There, of course, could be another route here! Nothing is jumping out at me currently.

terrence10

Hi @BS_THE_ANALYST

Thank you for the info! Never ran a sequential app in the interface designer before! I was able to reproduce your saving last values by running the MainApp as an application (not in designer as you mentioned)

I see the MainApp saves the run values in ParsedValuesToOverwriteXML.yxdb, then the support app manually modifies the MainApp to change these default values. Very nifty! I wish there was a way Alteryx could automatically load in these default values from a file vs. within MainApp code -- that would make running in Gallery easier.

Guess saving app run values is not the problem -- but "automatically loading these values in at runtime" is the main blocker.

Thank you again! Cool to see you can modify MainApp code

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