Following a connection, aka untangling the pasta

Good morning - I inherited a large workflow from a colleague and would like to 'untangle' it, similar to a cleaning up a bunch of cables all spaghetti'ed together. Is there a way to follow a connection? Is there a way to hide all the upstream tools from this connection? This would make following the workflow much simpler.

Thx,

AKB

Workflow

Tips and Tricks

Connectors

Accepted answers

Dazzerman

I hate tangled workflows too!

The connections to any tool are highlighted when that tool is selected, as you probably know. That is often useful to visually see where the connected tools are.

Sometimes when you insert a tool (like a Select) in the earlier stages of a workflow, this then tabulates the downstream tools to default distances. This can help, but sometimes it then makes connections to parallel flows look messy. So use in appropriate circumstances.

Once you get a group of tools nicely spaced, you can click and drag your mouse to highlight the whole group, then move them around together.

In terms of hiding groups of tools, you could add them into a Container, then minimise the container when you don't want to see them. Then drag single or groups of tools out of the container as you're ready to place them as you want them.

One final tip might be to turn certain connections to wireless. Don't over use these, because then it is hard to see at a glance where the connection goes to, but this method certainly has its place when trying to tidy up a messy workflow.

I hope these tips help.

Dazzerman

Actually, you can.

If you select a tool, or group of tools, you can right click on it, hover over Zoom, then select "Selected Tools", and your selection is zoomed in on and centre of the screen.

Also, to ease the tedium of zooming, pressing ctrl-+, or ctrl-'-', you can very quickly zoom in or out as required.

Dazzerman

In terms of avoiding using the mouse or touchpad, here are a couple of links you may enjoy!

https://help.alteryx.com/current/designer/get-started/shortcuts-alteryx-designer

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Knowledge-Base/Keyboard-Shortcuts-in-Alteryx/ta-p/1188

Dazzerman

Not that I'm aware of.

You could suggest it as a desired feature here though if you like :

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Ideas/idb-p/product-ideas

AKB

Thank you for the link - yes, I will do that.

AKB

Sebenius

Might have cut the picture a bit much.

But for example I currently have the macro input selected, from the menu in the far left the third option the circle with an arrow in.

From there I can then dubble click the tool I want to look at

and then I would end up at the next tool in the list in this case the formula tool:

All comments

Dazzerman

I hate tangled workflows too!

The connections to any tool are highlighted when that tool is selected, as you probably know. That is often useful to visually see where the connected tools are.

Once you get a group of tools nicely spaced, you can click and drag your mouse to highlight the whole group, then move them around together.

I hope these tips help.

AKB

Thx - these are helpful. Is there a way to - I should have been clearer - jump to the next downstream tool once a connection is highlighted, without having to zoom out to see where the connection goes, and then zoom in again to see exactly what this next tool is? All this scrolling about and zooming in/out is tedious. Ideally I'd be looking at a tool, click on a connection from it, and then hit a keyboard shortcut - I am not a fan of mice - to get to the downstream tool this connection goes to, at the same zoom level, with this next tool now centered on screen. That way, one could easily walk through and untangle a workflow.

AKB

Sebenius

In the config window you have Connected tools menu where you can double click to jump between connected tools:

AKB

Hmm, this sounds possibly what I am looking for. Could you please describe in more detail - poking at it just now has not revealed how to do this. Thx -

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Dazzerman

Nice!

Good to know!

Always something new and useful to learn about this great product!

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