Block Until Done not working as expected when dataset is empty

Question

Hi everyone,

We have a script that receives an input and writes a Tableau hyper file and consequently publishes in Tableau using our own Tool (developed in Python).

Everything works perfectly, except when the dataset is empty (which we still need it in Tableau for Tableau to function properly).

As you can see below we are using the Block Until Done so we wait for the .hyper file to be written on disk to then publish the file in Tableau.

Note that the below part under the container is just a script to get the file path and load it in our own tool (ignoring the input dataset which will be by then written in file).

The strange situation when the dataset is empty is that the Tableau Publish fails saying that the file doesn't exist (but it does exist). If we rerun the workflow with the exact same settings (and empty dataset) it will now publish to Tableau without issue, because the file already exists (from the previous run).

It seems like somehow, because the dataset is empty the block until done doesn't wait for the file to be written.

Anyone has some insights on similar situation?

Thanks,

Bruno

JJJJC · Answer

hi @bruno_leal

This is very helpful, thank you for the explanations!

bruno_leal · Answer

Hi @JJJJC ,

Let's see if I can explain here as it depends on your knowledge about XML tool.

First let me tell you that what I noticed is that the tools are more or less executed in the order we put them in the workflow, meaning that the first tools created in the workflow run first (not sure if we can trust this assessment, but from experience it's what happens).

For that reasion what I tried to do, as I mentioned was I manually changed the ID of the tool I wanted to be exceuted first and also the container where it was inserted (I've just run a quick test and actually the container is not necessary so let's just forget about it).

Basically I opened the workflow file in notepad (Notepad++ to be easier) and I manually searched for the current tool ID and changed it to 100 (the lowest number I had was 253):

Then in the section Wiz_OpenOutputTools I've copied the respective tool to the top with the new tool ID:

With this the tool starts the execution in the begining of the workflow and because it's a simple python code to just copy empty files from one folder to another it finishes quick.

If the tool takes longer to run I don't think it's guaranteed it will finish before the rest...

It's really not ok in a tool like Alteryx not having the ability to, if we need, define the order of execution.

This issue is only in the case where we have macros that completely independent and have no inputs and outputs and so we can't define the order of execution using the workflow logic.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Bruno

JJJJC · Answer

hi @bruno_leal

I am having a similar issue here. Can you specify how you resolved it (maybe a screenshot?)?

Thanks,

Janey