Analytic works, gallery results in zero records

[Csand]

Hi - i've written a chained analytic that follows this flow of three analytics:

1) Pull a list of applications from my database, de-duplicate, and store in a temporary Alteryx analytics database as "name" and "value" for use in a drop-down.

2) Pull the de-duplicated applications into a drop-down from the temp file (as External Source, see #1 above), pull report dates for these applications (one to many), and store these in a temporary Alteryx analytics database as "name" and "value" for use in a drop-down.

3) Pull the report dates into two drop-downs (both from the temp file as External Source, see #1 above), use the selections in two filter which should keep only the records for the selected dates, and then use a join to identify the outliers. Finally, export those records into an excel file.

#1 and #2 work in my designer and in the gallery. #3 correctly populates the dropdown in my designer and the gallery, but only produces results in the designer- no results are returned in the gallery. Anyone see anything like this before?

I've included a picture of analytic #3, since this is the only one with issues.

[patrick_digan]

Can you grab a picture of the drop down tool configuration (the one labeled Initial Report Date)? On this version, is User_ListID a string or a number? It looks like the dropdown connected directly to your filter will always pass it as a string (ie it will add " to both ends of whatever value is being passed). And when you say it works in Designer, are you running it as a workflow (green circle with white triangle) on running it as an analytic app (the wand looking thing)? 

I assume the answer is no, but is there any chance you could export this workflow and share? If you could trim your access database down to 1 record, change it to dummy data if need be, and then bring in just that 1 field into Alteryx so you can safely export that and include the access file.

[Csand]

Here's both the analytic workflow that populates the temporary database, showing the field types at that time, and the configuration of the drop-down tool. Also see attached for the workflow files and a dummy database (embedded into a word document since Access DBs and ZIPs are not allowed).

I have been running it as an analytic app locally, not as a workflow. When I use the workflow option (green circle with a white triangle), I don't see any option to test the dropdowns. So, sorry if that was confusing.

[patrick_digan · Accepted solution]

@Csand  Fascinating! You'll need to report this to support@alteryx.com to have them fix the underlying issue.

I was able to replicate what you're seeing (works on the desktop but not on the gallery). I was able to login to the server and see the values that is being passed: 

<WizardValues><Value name="Drop Down (7)">42:03:95</Value></WizardValues>

It should have sent

2018-02-06 18:42:03

The 95 part is coming from your value field. The issue is that the colon : is a special character that can be used to separate the name and value. While your desktop is correctly figuring this out, it appears that there is an error the gallery that is not processing this correctly. It finds the first colon (which is part of your date time) and thinks it should split the name and value there. 

Until the issue is fixed, you would want to replace the colon with another character (ie replace([YourDateField],":","-")). You would put this in a formula tool right after your access input. 

[patrick_digan]

@Csand FYI it looks like a couple folks over here had the same issue and didn't come up with a solution

[Csand]

Thanks so much, @patrick_digan. I thought I had dissected every component of this, but you truly went above and beyond. I think you should get triple credit for: a) identifying my issue, b) root causing a fundamental Gallery programming bug, and c) proposing a workaround. Much appreciated!

[DanC]

Hello @Csand, @patrick_digan and @Inactive User,

Thank you for your contributions to the Community. I wanted to let you all know that we are aware of this issue and it is currently in our defect backlog slated for resolution in a future release. Unfortunately, we do not have an ETA at this point. @patrick_digan is absolutely correct that the colon is the culprit in the Gallery version of the app. A colon in any part of the string of the Name field will truncate the text after the colon. So the workaround is to replace any colons in the Name field with another character.

Thank you and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused and may cause in the future.