Control container does not disable body of workflow

Question

I have a flow that I only want to run on the 6th working day of the month.

To do this I have a small container that determines whether or not its the 6th working day of the month.

If so then the last tool (a filter tool) has data and is connected to a control container which holds the remainder of the workflow.

When the filter feeds the control container data the workflow works as intended.

When its not the 6th and the filter has 0 records the control container should not be activated.

I do get an error however from a join tool within the control container that says its missing one of the fields which the tool uses for the join.

Apparently the input does not output (meta)data but the join after that input tool errors because of this nonetheless.

I do not want to get this error, because the control container should not run at all.

How can I solve this?

leonhekkert · Answer

Hi @Gumsmenezes,

thanks for the response. I already thought this was the case (even though I find it annoying that this happens).

Have tried something like this already, but only with the fields the join tool expected. Then another tool further downstream starts to error. So will now create a text input with all columns.
Any suggestions how I could filter out the values only in case real data exists?

Still seems stupid that I still have to create such workarounds while using the control container. :(

Will let you know if I succeeded.

Gumsmenezes · Answer

Hi @leonhekkert! This happens because Alteryx still validates the schema of the tools inside the control container, even if they don’t run. Use a Dummy Row Generator before the filter tool to ensure that metadata is always present, even when there are no records.

* Add a Text Input Tool before your filtering logic with a single row containing the necessary fields but with null or placeholder values.
* Use a Union Tool to combine this dummy row with the actual data.
* Proceed with your filter that checks if it's the 6th working day.
* In the control container, add a filter to remove the dummy row if the real data exists.

Let me know if this works :)