How to control the order of components execution if I have few of input components at the start of t

I have few subworkflows starts with an input components within a module. How do I control the sequence of the execution of each subworkflow?

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MargaritaW

Greetings,

You could use macros to control your processing order, check out this post for more details:

http://alteryx.force.com/alteryxcommunity/AlteryxArticle?id=kA0E00000000VxFKAU

Ned

You can't control the order of processing in all situations, even when the technique described above. In order to optimize the porcessing of a module, Alteryx forces some inputs to run before others, even if they are included in macros. An example of this is inputs attched to the right side of a SpatialMatch or a FindReplace, even indirectly. The module runs more efficiently if those come before other inputs.

mark_frisch

I do control the process subflows by using AppendFields.

In my example, I copy a workbook from a template directory to a target directory and then update it in a subsequent flow within the same module.

1st running step outputs into the APPEND FIELDS tool (Source). All of this activity must complete before appending can happen. Make sure that you only input 1 record/ 1 field into the append field tool.

In my example use case, I have a command prompt running a copy of the workbook occuring and the output going into the append fields Source. The read of another data flow goes into the Target.

The append fields tool is configured with only the Target fields selected.

The result is that I can make certain flows happen first and hold up other processes that Merge into this flow.

Does this help?

Mark

borys_tyukin

Alteryx Runner macro created by Adam Riley might be a good solution - check this post
http://community.alteryx.com/Troubleshooting/Streaming-Modules-to-run-in-sequence
http://www.chaosreignswithin.com/2014/06/blog-macro-pack.html

ivy29gm

I agree with the 'append' tool. I just have a text tool with one dummy record in it which I connect to the source side of the append tool. After the append tool, I drop that dummy rec. This trick helps to control the flow.

Second, you could look at the Tool ID (in properties > Annotation). Tools with lower number run first, but not sure if that still happens in recent version of Alteryx. I used to copy /paste the tools into a new canvas first - so they would run first.

Third, try the block tool but I never had much luck with it. Some artisans drop 3,4,5 blocks in a row to control the flow but I always thought that was a dirty fix.

SeanAdams

Hey @dhydrated

This is a common issue, especially where you're prepping data in one flow, then need to join to it in the second.

The way we get around this is to wrap them in Batch Macros. From my understanding, Batch Macros are unique in that they isolate the flow of processing from the next step.

There are a good few ideas in the Ideas section about controlling flow (e.g. https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Product-Ideas/Control-Order-of-Execution-of-Workflow-Objects-Container/idi-p/1851) - so it's well worth giving your views and your pain points on the ideas section to provide the Alteryx team with input and feedback from the community and user base

BTW - let me know if we need to mock this up to help you?

joao

After using Alteryx for a full year I reached a couple of conclusions.

Alteryx is relatively easy to use but its orchestration capabilities leave much to desire, but again Alteryx is NOT an orchestration solution.

How can someone purchase a alteryx server and have to manage jobs in schedule table? What if you have 500 jobs with interdependencies? how are you going to manage that?.

I must say I'm a fan of DAGs, Airflow is the best solution I found https://airflow.apache.org/. I installed it, created a couple of jobs and loved it.

Alteryx should come up with a scheduling solution, separate from Alteryx product that executes jobs as a DAG, much like Airflow. Another alternative would be to enable jobs to be run by a command line in any OS, this would enable people to use Airflow and link together a series of Alteryx jobs, not perfect but it would work.

If it was today I would have probably just went with Airflow and Python.

Joao

viveel

Has anyone tried to use airflow to manage / schedule highly mixed Alteryx workflows and python scripts with success? I knew the new Alteryx version has python built in. However, instead of using Alteryx as the main tool with python scripts embedded in, I'd like to use python as the main tool and leveraging Alteryx for some heavy duty data transformation.

szade1

Hi @mark_frisch ,

I have a requirement similar to what you have stated in your comment but not sure how to achieve it.
Could you please share the sample workflow explaining how you do this?

Thanks,

CMS

Hi everyone,

We have to admit that having control of how a workflow is executed is critical.

I hope in the future Alteryx recognizes this fact and provides the functionalities to achieve this goal. Block until done, macros, etc., are not true solutions for this need.

I really like Alteryx because people who have no programming background can do a lot, making it easier to work with entry level consultants and people with no programming background. However, these limitations can result in using Alteryx only for small-scale projects.

Regards,

CMS

cyeager

This is a great question, as I need a solution to halt a circular reference; I need one path of Alteryx to get done before a second path... There use to be a node that had three outputs that did the outputs in order. I had it saved as a favorite on an older version. That would be helpful... I googled Alteryx Nodes, but I don't see them. If I new the name of the node, it might pop up for me to select. Thanks for your post, hopefully someone else knows what I'm referring to.

BrettMRP

Use the "Block until done" tool

erikasuzuki

It's 2022 now and there's still no elegant way to control the order of execution. Block until done is fine, but it only accepts one input. And if you need more than that, you need to chain a lot of it. In some scenarios where input is not applicable or if your data source are from multiple places, it can be a pain.
So why don't you make it accept multiple inputs, and then inside the configuration, let us drag and drop the order of how we want to execute it.

And for the output, let us configure which output anchor to map to. If output anchor is not mapped, then it will be set based on the positioning/order of the items in the input list.

rhipp87

Alteryx needs to continue to the subsequent flow and run if there are no input fields for the user. Or even continue after X seconds and no inputs.

ajayrentala

Simple solution is turn off AMP, it will follow flow control

SeanAdams

Have you tried the Control containers that were delivered in 2023?

Control Containers: Take Control of Your Workflow - Alteryx Community

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