Random wait time/ throttling

[Hydra]

Hi all,

Is anyone aware of a way to set a random wait time that would function like the throttle tool. For example if I want to use the download tool to get info from webpages at random intervals between 5 and 20 seconds I am unable to figure out to do this in Alteryx today.

Any ideas or solutions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[patrick_digan · Accepted solution]

Hi @Hydra! The easiest solution that comes to mind would be the wait macro that is part of the latest crew macros: http://www.chaosreignswithin.com/2016/06/crew-macro-pack-2016-q2-release.html?m=1

Hope that helps!

[Hydra]

 Hi Patrick,

Didn't realize they put out a release recently. Just needed to modify the macro slightly to get it to work.

Thanks for the quick reply!

[patrick_digan]

FWIW I was able to build something similar using the R tool. It appears to be less accurate. You provide the number of seconds to wait and it uses the R tool and the Sys.sleep command to wait for a specified number of seconds. 

[rachit]

Hi Hydra, 

Did you find a solution to your problem. I am facing a similar issue. Can you share your solution. 

-Rachit

[AdamR_AYX]

Just updated the "Wait A Second" macro to add a random wait time option.

Preview attached.

[tmahmo15]

When trying to install the macro, I constantly get following error:

[CAJay]

solution which I could think of using R tool, on Alteryx wait issue please find below

Basically 2 tools are being used to arrive at the solution –

Block until Done and R language Tool

Under Block until done tool

1st  Stage add R Language tool and run below script – (”30” in script means 30 seconds , which can be changed accordingly)

2nd Stage add the relevant tool needed as per your requirement

R Script below

testit <- function(x)

{

    p1 <- proc.time()

    Sys.sleep(x)

    proc.time() - p1 # The cpu usage should be negligible

}

testit(30)