Tableau Induced Alteryx Workflow - Percent Similarity

Hello - I am trying to figure out a way that using a Tableau dashboard, I could induce an alteryx workflow to compare the components of a sellable unit to the components of every other sellable unit in the same file to output a "% similarity" column in Tableau. For example: Below I have three distinct sellable units in an excel file where every row is a unique OR shared component. In the same row is the sellable unit that the component is mapped to. In my tableau dashboard, if I inputted or filtered for 123456-00, I would want to know "what percent of the components tied to 123456-00 are ALSO tied to 123457-00 and 123458-00. Is this possible?

Sellable Unit	Component
123456-00	456789-10
123456-00	456789-11
123456-00	456789-12
123456-00	456789-13
123456-00	456789-14
123457-00	456789-10
123457-00	456789-11
123457-00	456789-12
123457-00	456789-13
123457-00	456789-14
123457-00	456789-15
123457-00	456789-16
123457-00	456789-17
123457-00	456789-18
123458-00	456789-10
123458-00	987654-00

Tableau

Accepted answers

DataNath

To your first point, I'm personally not aware of any way to trigger a workflow run like this. The only (semi-close) alternative I can think of from the top of my head is outputting the workflow to Tableau server, using a live connection to this as one of your dashboard data sources, and then re-running the flow with whichever Sellable Unit you want to use as a comparison in the Alteryx filters.

Regarding your second point, do you mean something like this? Amended flow attached.

Component % similarity comparison.yxmd

DataNath

The app is exactly the same - but on running it will ask you to provide a Sellable Unit for comparison. I've attached it and when opening it normally, it will run and only show you the results. If you'd like to see the workflow behind it, just open the app from within Alteryx (File > Open Workflow).

For now, the app is just setup to show you the results on completion, but if you wanted to follow the route I mentioned in my previous post, you could just replace the last browse tool with a 'Publish to Tableau Server' tool.

All comments

binu_acs

@muddobber26 I am not sure the attached workflow is that something you are looking for. May be you can update the calculation in the formula tool

PercentSimilarity_14_05.yxwz

muddobber26

Thanks for the quick response, but not quite what I am looking for. I probably should have been a little more clear. And I think there might have to be a qualifying variable like "count of components" per "sellable unit" because there could be a varying amount of components per sellable unit. In a perfect world the output would be like this below. Would be every sellable unit and then what percent of the components of the sellable unit being compared (in this case 123456-00) are also tied to the other sellable units. So in this case every component tied to 123456-00 is ALSO tied to 123457-00. So the % similarity would be 100%. But only 1 out of 5 components of 123456-00 are tied to 123458 so the % similarity would be 20%. Would be good to add a qualifying variable of "count" eventually to compare sellable units with varying numbers of components, but for now I am just trying to focus on the logic of "% similarity". Does that make sense?

Sellable Unit	% Similarity
123457-00	100%
123458-00	20%

DataNath

How does this look @muddobber26? Depending on which you want to use as the comparison, you just change the 'Sellable Unit' ID in both of the filters (can build this in for you as an app if wanted) and should run the same. Let me know if not/what else needs adding and I'll happily take another look!

Component % similarity comparison.yxmd

muddobber26

@DataNath This looks great! Thanks so much. Really appreciate the help. Couple of things. Is there any way to induce this workflow from filtering or "entering" the sellable unit in a Tableau dashboard? Maybe that's not feasible, but wanted to ask.

Also, currently if you put "123456-00" in the workflow, then "123457-00" is 100% similar because it has all of the same components. But in reality 123457-00 has 4 additional components so its actually not 100% similar. Trying to see if there is a way to include "similarity of count of components" as an additional column.

DataNath

Regarding your second point, do you mean something like this? Amended flow attached.

Component % similarity comparison.yxmd

muddobber26

Thanks @DataNath . Really appreciate it. Holy Grail would be having a Tableau dashboard filter induce the workflow for a particular sellable component. I'll keep looking around. Thank you!

muddobber26

@DataNath Regarding building the "sellable unit" filter into an app, what would that look like? Would be awesome to have a way to easily type in a sellable part number.

DataNath

@muddobber26 realised that bringing in the data set twice is totally unnecessary so have attached the amended flow and app.

muddobber26

@DataNath Circling back on this one. What if I wanted to create a loop where I could have a table of values that are input and looped through the filter tool to output batches of data? Would that be a batch macro? Not very familiar with those.

DataNath

So you'd want to conduct this workflow but instead of having a user selection, you'd want Alteryx to automatically run through - changing the Sellable Unit each time - and output the results as one? If so, then yes that'd be a perfect Batch Macro use case. All you'd need to do is pass a list of your Sellable Units in to the upside down question mark (control parameter).

muddobber26

Yes. I would want to input a list of Sellable Units and then have Alteryx run through and output all of the results in one sheet. I read this blog post (https://interworks.com/blog/mtreadwell/2015/11/20/control-parameters-and-simple-batch-macros-alteryx), but not going to lie, I still don't quite understand how to set things up as my macro knowledge is pretty limited. Any way you show me how it works?

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