Nested browse - what do you think?

[aduplessie]

Hi all,

I often feel like workflows can easily become overly cluttered with Browses, especially around Join and other multi-output tools. I need to see the output of most of the data streams, so I can't necessarily just delete the Browses and be done with them.

What do you think of a "nested browse" view or tool to solve this problem? Do you have a similar issue that this could help?

I've attached a picture to show what I mean. This would unclutter the area right after multi-output tools significantly. There could also be an option to show the data by clicking on the output arrow, instead of needing an additional tool.

[DanM · Accepted solution]

@aduplessie Alteryx has something similar to this , which we call Browse Everywhere.  Since I believe Alteryx 10.0, if you run the workflow, you will be able to see sample sizes of your data by clicking on the tool and then in the Results window selecting the anchor on the left hand side of the window of which data you would like to see.   You can adjust the Tool Results Settings to show more of the data in the User Settings and the Advanced tab. 

The reason why we do not have full data (shown unless using the Browse Tool) is due to the amount of memory used and the space needed to house that data. If we allowed users to see all of the data, your workflows would be extremely slow. That is why we added the Browse Everywhere so users didn't have to use Browse Tools at all when they are developing workflows. If you need to view all of your data after each tool, I would suggest removing Browse Tools once you have finished that section, you will see an increase in performance.

[JoeS]

I like it.

Another way to de-clutter the workflow further would be some form of check box on a tool that switches the browse anywhere option to a full browse function.

Although then this may make it slightly more difficult to make sure you don't carry any browse overheads when you are wanting to run in "production" mode

[NicoleJohnson]

Possible third option:

I personally like the wireless connections options + a Tool Container for storing things like Browses & App questions in my workflows, to keep them out of the main area of the workflow. Additionally, you could Disable the Tool Container containing the Browses, which could help with performance once you have things ready for production?

So you could add your Browses, then right click the Join Tool and choose the option for "Make Outgoing Connections Wireless" to remove the visible lines to the Browse tools. Then you could move your Browses off to a less-cluttered section of your workflow and select them all, then right click and choose "Add to New Container". Within the container, you could label each Browse to easily identify which is which, and then if you want to Disable the whole container you can do so from the Tool Container configuration window, which will collapse them & exclude from running when you run the workflow until enabled again.

So it looks like you have a few options to choose from, depending on your end requirements! :)

NJ

[aduplessie]

DanM - that is exactly what I was looking for! I didn't know that functionality was already built in, so thank you for telling me and including screenshots. I can even see the L/M/R results on a Join, so that is perfect.

[aduplessie]

NicoleJohnson - Thank you for sharing that idea! I like this for when I need to see the full results, and may have a lot of Browses.