Output back to dynamic input file used for workflow

Question

Hi and thank you for any help.

My team uses workflows on server where they can select their own input file, but get a new excel file as an output.

All of our workflows are saved with relative path dependencies. We store the workflow apps on the server but users can select any of their own input files (formatted to work with our apps of course) but then get a new output file.

Is it possible to build a workflow used on server where users input files would be read/written back to? I see how I can do this in designer but not sure if I will get issues once it's saved to server and ran relatively.

apathetichell · Answer

read in your original file as a blob/template. make changes. shoot out file which is consistent with original file with changed data.

you get your file to read in as a blob by getting your filename/full path. doing nifty regex to extract the data you want. feeding that into a blob input tool.

tcouey · Answer

I need confirmation on number 1 but from my awareness the server workflow outputs do get stored "somewhere" on the server because we have the ability to go back and look at the workflow logs and see what outputs were generated.

For 2, I do not mean chained apps. In our current process, a user selects an input file, alteryx reads it and does it's workflow, then the user gets a separate/new file as an output. We're trying to get it to write back to the same file used as input.

apathetichell · Answer

2 questions:

1) Is there a shared space (ie a network drive) which you can write to (and are there data restrictions cross server users)?

2) You do not mean chained apps (ie succesive workflows where output 1 - immediately feeds into input 2) - right? you mean non-ephemeral outputs?

If you have a sharedrive you can write to - and create naming conventions (and don't have data restrictions with the share drive). Sure, If all storage is ephemeral (ie on server/in process) - you would have ot use the Server local for your shared space and that can have complexities.