Excel sheet append - Create new sheet is not working for Output tool

[tanvir_khan]

Hi all:

I've created a workflow long back and it was working fine till yesterday. I've three different sheets in my output excel - Data, SMS & Voice. 

For Data - I use Overwrite File (Remove) option to create a new file everytime.

For SMS - I use Create New Sheet which appends a sheet with existing file.

For Voice - I follow the same approach as SMS.

It was working fine till yesterday as I mentioned before. Data usage was always there earlier but since yesterday the usage has waned as a result no record was appearing in Data sheet which caused error in SMS sheet. The reason is - Data record was 0, the workflow was not creating new file and SMS sheet was already there. So, when it tries to create another SMS sheet in the same file, it throws exception. This is absolutely fine and I resolved it. I've created a dummy record when Data record count is 0. So, a new file is always created whether records are available or not for Data.

Now the problem is - when I run it the SMS sheet never got created even if there is records. No clue what's going on here. Can anyone tell me what can be the reason behind it?

Block Until Done is used as below to create Data then SMS and Voice sheets.

Thanks

[DavidSkaife]

Hi @tanvir_khan 

Are you able to share the workflow, even with dummy data so we can see the functionality?

[tanvir_khan]

Hi @DavidSkaife, thanks mate for looking into this. I've no clue why it was not creating SMS sheet yesterday. Today I ran the workflow again and it's working fine. Very strange, I wasted 2 hrs of my life. 😑

Thanks again.

[KGT]

Unsure what the issue may have been without seeing the error. However, there is a bit going on after the Block Until Done and so thought I would comment to make sure that you understand how that works and how it could create an issue.

In Alteryx, tools tend to know what happened upstream, but have no idea what is happening downstream of themselves. That thinking makes it easier to understand the BUD, which is a great tool, but has cautions.

The BUD tool will hold all data until it gets the last record. Once it is holding all the data, it will start feeding the data through Output1. Once all the data has left Output1, the BUD starts letting data through Output2, and once all that has been released, it starts Output3. Importantly, it will not wait until all the tools after Output1 has finished processing, as soon as it's fed the last data through Output1, as far as BUD is concerned, that's done. If the processing after Output1 takes longer than the processing after Output2, then you will most likely get an error. 

Tools that I look for to ascertain whether there could be an issue are "blocking" tools, whereby they need all the information to continue. In yours, the Count Records is the main one, however it's really quick to process, the Data Cleansing would be the one I would be most concerned about and try to move before the BUD. You can check this table for which tools are blocking tools . Beware, that table is based on the old single threaded engine and so not entirely accurate since AMP, but anything with a red/orange border is most likely still a blocking tool.