Input and Output password protected XLSX files in Alteryx

[BenMoss]

My colleague (Phil Lowe) and I have been working on developing two macro's for use by the community. These macro's are designed to allow users to input data from a password protected XLSX file and output data to a password protected XLSX file.

The input macro can be found on the gallery here: https://gallery.alteryx.com/#!app/Input-Password-Protected-XLSX/5a9d23a7826fd31b1c2826ea

The output macro can be found on the gallery here: https://gallery.alteryx.com/#!app/Output-Password-Protected-XLSX/5a9d074e0462d716682045a9

These macros are very much in beta and we are already aware of a couple of known issues but the idea of posting these here is  to gather as much feedback as possible from the community so we can improve the macros and make them more reliable.

Current known issues

In order for the macro to run successfully the workflow with which it is within must be saved else the end user will get a write error.

The macro does not run on parallels. 

A single error ' Designer x64 The Designer x64 reported: Error running Event #1: The external program ".\deleteOutput.bat" returned an error code: 1: The system could not find the environment option that was entered. ¶ (203)' will always appear. This does not appear to affect the functionality of the tool.

How the macros work

The input macro uses a visual basic script to temporarily generate an unprotected excel file. The macro then uses the dynamic input tool to read this file into alteryx before a clean up script is applied on completion of the workflow to delete this unprotected file and other generated scripts.

The output macro writes the data stream as an unprotected file before a visual basic script creates a copy of this file and protects it with the password specified by the user within the macro configuration. A clean up process then takes place to remove the unprotected copy of the file and all other scripts.

[Manik]

hi,

were you able to configure this macro? to pasword protect outputfile?

[AlexAung]

Hello all,

I am using the Output-Password-Protected-XLSX macro in my standard workflow to extract the data from Databricks and output it into password protected Excel file in a shared drive folder.

When I run my standard workflow locally, it runs fine and able to create password protected Excel output in the shared drive. No issue at all. However, when I run the workflow in the Alteryx Server it seems running forever and keeps looping. It seems to hang at the point after creating "..vNoPassword.xls" file in the shared drive. The workflow design is as per attached. And the workflow log when I cancelled it. The Alteryx server has connectivity to the shared drive and no issue running other workflows too.

Do we need to install MS office/Excel at Alteryx server so that this macro can run successfully?

Is there anyone who is able to run this macro in Alteryx Server? If so, could you please share the sample workflow which uses this macro? Really appreciate your help as we have requirement to create reports into password protected Excel. 

[gmcaleavey]

Hi, I have used the Output Macro previously and it works great for what I need, however I am trying to access it again to redownload it and the link does not seem to be working. Does anyone know if it has been removed or how I can access it! thanks in advance.

[ck2024]

@BenMossis there any chance of the macros being uploaded to the community gallery again as they seem to have disappeared? Seems like it could be a neat solution to a particular sensitive project i am working on.

Thank you

[Qiu]

@BenMoss @ck2024 
Same here. Kindly upload again

[trsali]

Attached are the workflows for Input and Output Password Protected XLSX

[NatSnook]

@AlexAung Hi

Did you ever resolve the issue on server? i'm seeing exactly the same behaviour. works fine in designer and in designer on the server but not on server through gallery :(

[jsilavong]

Hi, 

Could someone assist with explaining how to configure this macro for my use case of dropping data into a password protected excel file. 

[AlexAung]

@NatSnook Was your issue resolved? If already resolved, can you share how you managed to get it work? If not, you may try running the same workflow via Designer in Alteryx server itself. See if that works.

That's recommended by Alteryx support. At the moment my side still doing testing.

[ak003]

The Workflows are not available on above links. please someone re-upload if available