Macro won't open after editing

Hi. I've been editing a macro that works to calculate certain metric scores. I've been working with this macro for a while, have edited and saved several times in the past with no issues. Today, when I made some edits to the macro, I get the below error and the macro will not open at all. Does anyone know what this error means and what likely needs to be corrected to get the macro to open again? Thanks in advance.

Error Message

Macros

Accepted answers

clmc9601

Hi @khill16,

My guess is something in the underlying XML got corrupted. If you open your .yxmc file in Notepad++ or another text editor, you'll see text that looks like this screenshot. It's written in XML. Search for "MacroInput" like I did in this screenshot to find the "Node" with your input tool. Either take a screenshot and include it here, or look to see if you can find anything that doesn't match the pattern. For example, if <GuiSettings> doesn't have a closing line (</GuiSettings>) or something is misspelled. I highlighted in purple the part that contains "MacroInput" on an example macro I built. There will be more than one instance of "MacroInput"

Screen Shot 2022-03-11 at 1.58.24 PM.png

A few other things worth trying:

- closing Alteryx and reopening it

- making a copy of your .yxmc file, removing the problematic tool node in your text editor (like the blue highlighted above. Starts with "<Node ToolID" and ends with "</Node>"), then saving the file and attempting to open in Alteryx

I hope this helps!

All comments

clmc9601

Hi @khill16,

Screen Shot 2022-03-11 at 1.58.24 PM.png

A few other things worth trying:

- closing Alteryx and reopening it

I hope this helps!

khill16

Thanks so much for your response. There are two nodes with that term - a Node ToolID="2" and a Node ToolID="165". I looked at both and didn't see any potential corruption or errors that stood out (screenshots below).

I tried removing both nodes individually and separately. When I removed Node 2, I get the same error when I try to open in Alteryx. When I remove Node 165 or both Node 2 and 165, I get a different error when trying to open in Alteryx, "Add Question Error: A question with a tool Id of 165 already exists. I'm really not sure what that means.

clmc9601

Hi @khill16,

Thanks for the screenshots! One thing that seems odd to me is that both input tools are positioned exactly on top of each other (x and y position at 54 for both tools). My guess is the second one has to do with the corruption. Each Interface tool is referenced in the Questions section of the XML document, like the screenshot below. You'll also need to remove the Question related to the input tool's tool ID (165). The Questions section populates in Interface Designer when open in Alteryx.

In the example in this screenshot, if I wanted to remove the Question related to toolID 7, I'd remove everything in this purple box. That's in addition to removing the tool Node XML farther up in the document. This example has some extra Question layers because of the Tab.

Screen Shot 2022-03-11 at 3.08.37 PM.png

clmc9601

I just noticed there's another reference to ToolId="7" in the <Wiz...> section. In order for the problem tool to be completely removed in Alteryx, it's a good idea to delete every reference to that tool. There might be some under <Connections> as well.

khill16

Thx, I'm not sure exactly what was going on but luckily I had an older copy in my downloads folder that I was able to open and edit. But I do appreciate your responses as this helps me learn more about the backend of macros.

clmc9601

I'm glad to hear it!

If you're interested in learning more about workflow XML (backend), here are two articles to get you started.

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Engine-Works/The-Alteryx-Feature-You-Wish-You-Knew-About-XML-View-of/ba-p/577064

https://www.theinformationlab.co.uk/2016/01/04/xml_parsing_with_alteryxp7172/

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