Anyone Else Ever "Lose" a Workflow?

[cbridges]

Surely I and the creator of this idea are not the only ones who create a yxdb and then can't find the workflow used to create it.

There are an awful lot of ACES in this forum, who are probably dealing with dozens or hundreds of times the number of workflows I am.

So how do you keep track of them all, and what feeds into or feeds off of other workflows?

P.S. if you're in the same club as we are, kindly go star this idea to incorporate metadata in the yxdb to TELL YOU where it comes from!

http://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Product-Ideas/Add-metadata-to-YXDB/idc-p/16459#M2154

[MarqueeCrew · Accepted solution]

I have overcome this with the use of the mainframe.  When I'm creating a production process, I like to name modules and datasets as though I were on the mainframe.  I've modified the technique, but in short here is the way I know where a file came from:

100 CREATE [PROCESS_NAME] Data

110 UPDATE Customer File Data 

etcetera.....

The output files might look like:

\100_Email_Hygiene.yxdb

\110_Cust_File_Update.yxdb

By using a # in the workflow name that matches to the # in the data, I can readily find the workflow.

OLD SCHOOL,

Mark

[cbridges]

That's a great idea for me going forward. I've actually used this method to some degree when I chain runner macros. I always rename the underlying workflows in numerical order of operations, and then name the runner tools similarly (001_Run ABC, 002_Run DEF, etc) which reallly helps when something under the hood goes wonky for some reason.

Wish I had been that smart to begin with...optimizing these best practices could be a pain.

But you did give me a couple of great ideas... I've been adding a datestamp in all my workflows that really doesn't do anything or connect to anything except ensure that my most frequently used workflows are also my most recent. But if I take on the project of thoughtfully renaming everything, then that would go a long way in making sure my greatest hits workflows are not only the most recent but are also more logically named.

I know what my first step will be... good old dos directory tree dump LOL. Talk about old school.

[anthony]

Because Friday... (this forum tool would be much better/easier if I could cut and paste images vs saving and uploading)

Yes I lose all kinds of stuff... alteryx to the rescue... again.

I modified the example workflow that count tools TO search all my XML for the query string "inventory" .... whether YXDB/MD/tool name etc.

The way this works - ListOfWorkflowFiles.bat builds a list of all *.yxm* files in specific directory's and then feeds each workflow/macro into batch macro that parses looking for the search term.

Batch file looks like this - probably not most efficient but im not in the business of writing batch files. it calls the DIR *.yxm* business and appends files to the CSV file from each directory.

Macro search box looks like this - i searched for inventory in ALL altreyx xml in the csv.

Which results in this.

This is the modify sample macro I used. The tumor looking parameter text box on the left of the filters is where the magic happens. It updates the Contains([Field_1],"soapenv") field so that it finds the search term entered in macro. As you can see this all started with me trying to find some soap modules I built.

This is not really a prime time level tool so I am not ready to share but if someone wants to take this to the next level, I applaud you.

[TaraM]

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@anthony wrote:

Because Friday... (this forum tool would be much better/easier if I could cut and paste images vs saving and uploading)

Yes! This has been requested (http://community.alteryx.com/t5/Suggestions-For-Our-Community/Paste-images-directly-into-discussions... and the feature is dependent on a partner. But feel free to vote on it!

A similar batch macro that is in the samples is the File Finder Batch Macro which will search for a datafile in a workflow. You can find it from the Help > Sample Workflows > Analytic Apps > File Finder. The macro looks like a pair of binoculars

It may require a little fiddling to do exactly what you want, as that is the purpose of the samples, but I find Alteryx is very powerful in tracking down its own files or any other lost files for that matter!

Not to say your idea @cbridges isn't a good idea - I think it's great! 

[cbridges]

Thanks @TaraM, I confess I don't have the latest and greatest version of Alteryx installed, so maybe that's why, but I get errors when I try to run the macro.

Also, the macro asks for the directory where you want to search, which was part of my problem. If I were positive what directory I needed to search, then it would be a matter of opening the yxmd's in that directory to see which one is creating the output I'm concerned with. My problem was that I didn't know where the yxmd was. Unless there's a way to search an entire directory tree with subfolders, this wouldn't have worked for my purposes.

[cbridges]

Thanks @anthony! I'm not sure whether I can pull this off (I'm not that macro savvy), but it looks like it would work!

[anthony]

cbridges - add this to a text file and put in your paths you want to crawl to find all your yxm* files and save as .bat then run it

that > and >> write out the paths of each yxm file to the csv.

echo off
cd "C:\Users\Anthony\Google Drive\"
call :run > "C:\Users\Anthony\Google Drive\YXMDlistOfPathReport.csv"
cd "C:\Users\Anthony\Dropbox\Files\Downloads\"
call :run >> "C:\Users\Anthony\Google Drive\YXMDlistOfPathReport.csv"
:run
@Echo field1
dir *.yxm* /s /b

[anthony]

I got around to making a packaged workbook for the community.

It can be found here with details how to use.

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Data-Preparation-Blending/FINDER-workflow-to-search-all-your-workfl...