Can I use Alteryx to create an API that someone else can make an API call to?

[trevorwightman]

Hello!

To start from the beginning:

I currently know how to use Alteryx to reach out to an API, collect some information and parse it and use it within an Alteryx workflow. This being said, my knowlege about API's is extremely limited.

Looking forward:

Let's assume I have an MLB database. I would like for my friend, who does not have an Alteryx license, to be able to make an API call by submitting a players name and in return the API would send back the stats on the player.

How would I set this up? And to create an API for someone else to use, would this have to be created outside of Alteryx or can I use Alteryx to do it?

[cmcclellan]

I wouldn't use Alteryx for that, but some other people might say that you can 🙂 

Depending on the database and where you're storing the information, I would be using Python and Flask to create an API to do what you want.  BUT .... doing it that way and setting it up properly is creating an API that the entire world can use 🙂 

[apathetichell · Accepted solution]

@trevorwightman- do you have Alteryx server? You could do what you are asking in Alteryx server. Not sure why you'd want to - but you can.

[trevorwightman]

@apathetichell I only have a Designer license at the moment. Isn't a server license significantly more? The actual usecase is that we have an email dataset and if I set up this email dataset as an API our customers can submit an email to our API and it would return all of the attributes we have associated with that email and the client would pay for each submission they did.

[mceleavey · Accepted solution]

@trevorwightman ,

what @apathetichell said is right. The Alteryx Server has it's own API, which means you can front face a query and anyone can either access the query via a web portal or can pass through parameters via an API call to the Alteryx server.

Yes, it costs more because it does more.

You can't do it with the designer. All you could do with a designer is output the results and present the data into an interactive dashboard, like PowerBI/Qlik Sense etc. and your friend could then make selections in the dahsboard.

M.

[trevorwightman]

Understood, that makes sense, thank you!

[mceleavey]