Azure Data Lake Input Tool- How to find most recent file based on file name wildcard?

Question

Hi Everyone,

I've used Alteryx for years, pulling from directories.  I have a workflow that looks for subfolders, and uses a file name with a wildcard, then a sort descending based on file creation date time stamp.

I am having problems figuring out this solution using azure data lake input tool.

Has anyone developed a workflow to search subfolders for a specific file name beginning with say Product*, and pull the most recent file?

Any help is really appreciated.

Thanks,

Blase

BlaseG · Answer

So far this connector isn't nearly as good as a directory tool.  I don't think the file path can be updated with a action tool.  I manually type a new path into action tool, then run, and it still pulls the path I selected in the tool, it never updates.  I'm thinking because it has a interface to manually go in and select the path.  So far, not a good experience with this connector.

Might have to manually save files from data lake to a directory and use a workflow from there... which is not ideal because it's not automated then.

BlaseG · Answer

This is the field I'm trying to autopopulate on the azure datalake input tool, somehow making this variable for the previous days date instead of manually selecting a folder, so I can schedule this on server to pull the previous days files.

Alteryx_Previousdays_File.PNG

BlaseG · Answer

Attached is an example of what I have built for directory pulls, trying to replicate this with azure data lake file input.

Pull most recent file, of a specified wildcard file name such as Item*

Purpose is to schedule this weekly on the main folder, so it searches sub folders since each day is broken out into a separate folder, find the most recent file, and pull that specific file.

Alteryx_Example.PNG