Input list of dates in app without creating chained app

[adhillon]

Hi, 

I'm creating an app that takes data from two API inputs and outputs to an Excel that has several tabs. I'm using control containers to orchestrate the output. The issue that I am running into is that you cannot self-feed a list of dates from the input into the interface tools. Initially I took a subset of the data, pivoted it, reformatted the date in the column headers to mimic the same structure as the core data and when testing the run, 0 records were returned after the filter.

Typically I would create a chained app but I'd like to avoid this where possible. 

Is there any way to have the option to select a date, feed in a list of dates without creating a chained app? 

[OllieClarke]

Hello @adhillon 

Unless you have another way of creating a file with the dates from the API which you can base your interface tool off, then sadly you need a chained app for it to be dynamic. Sorry

[Warcry]

Let's break it down:

1. Why and what is the purpose of writing to excel first?

2. For what purpose: The issue that I am running into is that you cannot self-feed a list of dates from the input into the interface tools.

3. What is the purpose: Is there any way to have the option to select a date, feed in a list of dates

I ask these question to understand the actual use case versus the explanation to see if I can help.

[rfoster7]

are the dates consecutive? If so you can interface in the start and end dates and then use a generate rows tool to generate the dates in a row-based format, then turn them in to column header if you need to. 

[OllieClarke]

@rfoster7 sadly the interface tools are populated before the app/workflow is run, so the dates will need to be created before the interface tool. The cross-tab approach works if you run the workflow before you run the app, but it's not a dynamic solution

[rfoster7]

oh, I see now. Yeah, if you want to generate a list of dates to fill the interface tool, the only option I know of is the chained app solution. I didn't understand that's what you were doing. If you find another solution, I'll be listening. 

[patrick_digan · Accepted solution]

@adhillon @OllieClarke @rfoster7 If you haven't already, I have an idea from a few years ago you should thumbs up/comment on. The idea is that the dropdown/listbox should have an ability to pull data at run time/referesh when using the connected tool option like you are. https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Ideas/List-Box-DropDown-pull-dynamic-data-...

There is a possible "workaround" that I've used before, but it's far from perfect. Instead of using the connected data option, you switch your dropdown to reference an external file.

The file would have 2 colums, Name and Value. You would tweak your app to create this file as part of the process, so your drop down would essentially always be 1 run behind. For example, when you run this for the 10th time, it would use the list that was created on the prior run (run 9). I'm assuming your data doesn't change that often from the prespective of the list of dates you're interested in. It won't work in every case, but it has its place.   

[adhillon]

Seeing as I typically only ever run a quarter behind, this could potentially work and is not something that I would have thought to try. Thank you! 

I actually settled on using the Date interface tool for now though because we are in the process of changing drives and I'd like one less output dependency.