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

[dhydrated]

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

[Fgill]

what about using the block until done icon?

[Coxta45]

@zebing,

Subjectively, I find your suggestion to be a terribly overcomplicated and convoluted solution to a problem that can honestly be solved in so many other creative ways.  Alternatively, if there remains adamancy to provide this functionality more natively, perhaps give thought to proposing that containers obtain additional features - such as being allowed to run in order (executing the tools inside of them only after upstream processing is done and vice-versa downstream).  Again, many ways to achieve the same results already - it may take all of 60 seconds to configure a batch macro out of a group of tools.  I'm usually able to achieve the desired functionality by using a simple block until done tool, and occasionally follow it with a spoofed dynamic input tool when I need to read results from an object that needed to wait for something upstream to finish.

This would make much more sense to me than individually ordering the execution priority of every single tool on the canvas.  You must remember that, while it's not the most well-liked phrase, Alteryx Designer is essentially a glorified XML editor.  Furthermore, consider how many tools in any given workflow rely on upstream processing before being able to do any processing themselves.  I'd also be willing to bet that it's often (not always) hardly a handful of tools that need execution prioritization over others downstream.  Again - so many other creative ways to handle this...

Kindest regards

[tonyppham]

Hi @Coxta45,

Would happen to have a sample workflow or can point to one where batch macros are being utilized to control "containerized" sub processes? I still find that such basic functionality should be built to reduce the amount of 'hacking' to make things work. 

[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. 

---

---

[SeanAdams]

There are a few folk (like @patrick_digan for example) who regularly trigger Alteryx Canvasses by API.   It's relatively simple to do from a python or Java piece of code - and the API is available for testing on the server.    You do have to have your canvasses running on a server to do this.

I think you go to your gallery\api-docs and you can find it there.

[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,

S.

[Duncanvp]

Container Tool ID worked for me. 
I had two containers in a workflow that were created in proper process order.  The first includes Pre SQL that updates the datastore.  When I created an additional version of the first (one to run at the 1st of the month with an overwrite output & another with an append to run the rest of the month), the new container had a higher ID & the process ran in reverse order.

All I did was copy and paste the second container and all the tools therein to get new, higher IDs.  That fixed it for me.
Duncan
Atlanta GA

[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.