Saving output files iteratively to different locations

[PeterV]

Hi,

I am setting up a report that utilises some of the grouping functions to personalise the results which is fine.  What I would like to do to support the distribution of the reports by email is to save them to a file structure that is similar.  This means that for support cases I would have an overall report that shows certain top level metrics as well as individual reports that are sent to the case managers showing their performance.  What I also want is to be able to output the details in Excel files for each manager in a directory structure - Case is the top level and then a sub-directory for each manager as contained in the data - so perhaps 'c:\Data\Reports\Cases\Manager1' with all the relevant files being saved here.

I am sure that this can be done but would like a few pointers if anyone has done something similar.

Kind regards,

Peter 

[jrgo]

@PeterV,

I don't think I fully understand your use case, however, at the bottom of the "Output" tool, there is an option that allows you to modify the output filename or the entire path based off values you have within a specific field. In your case, I believe you'd want to use the "Change Entire File Path".

 

Hope this helps!

Jimmy

[PeterV]

Jimmy,

Many thanks for the reply and apologies for not expressing myself too clearly....  Yes I was aware of your solution but couldn't get it to work as I think that the file structure needs to be in place rather than being created dynamically depending upon the data.

So I can get the system to render some *.pdf files that contain the output that I want which is tailored to the needs of some users contained within the data so that's fine.  There is an issue internally with the email send tool being blocked by the firewall so we are looking to generate hard copies of all the reports stored within a folder structure so that I can provide a link to a file so that their reports are always the using the latest data.

I just wondered if there was a neater process than the one you mentioned?

Kind regards,
Peter 

[jrgo · Accepted solution]

@PeterV

I see... So this example is using the Run Command tool to create a .bat file and then executing. The .bat file contains the 'MKDIR' command. The tools before this are creating the command string and also filtering out any directories that already exist (because it would throw an error if it did).

This is just an example of this approach, but you would need to ensure that adding this to yours that you summarize your directory paths one time or else it'll create the same command string various times, which will throw an error.

Note that you may get an error if you try to run this 'as is' depending if programs are able to generate files/folders directly on C without running as admin. If so, change the paths to a directory that does not require admin consent.

 

This still may not cover all bases of your use case, but hoping that it solves part of it!

Best,

Jimmy

[PeterV]

Jimmy,

Many thanks again for the thoughts.  I have had a look at the following thread - https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Connect-Gallery/Output-to-new-folder/td-p/54472 - and got this to work so all is well in the world again especially as this effective covers what you sent to.

Thanks again for your time and interest.

Peter

[jrgo]

Pleasure!