Tool or macro to process one file then loop back and process the next file in a directory

[aamerin]

Hello all,

At work I have to process a particular form over and over again (think, same form submitted by a different person each time). To make my job more efficient, I'm wanting to process the forms through Alteryx (forms are saved in a folder on my computer--about 50 forms).

I've figured out the workflow for processing the forms, however, the issue is that it is currently only set up to process one form at a time. This would mean that if I have 50 files, I'd have to put a new file in the input tool 50 times. There's got to be another way! I also don't want to combine all the forms first and then process through the workflow, because each form needs to append to a particular cell value that can only be found in it's unique form submission.

Therefore, what I am needing is to find a way to have a directory for my files, have Alteryx process one file through the workflow at a time, then loop back to the directory and process the next file until all files have been processed. I also need the results to be unioned together. 

Here is the alteryx package and a sample form. Any help is appreciated!

[BenMoss]

You have two options. If the form is identical in structure then you can simply use a wildcard input.

So before if I have my input set to 'c:/ben/desktop/forma.csv'

Then I could replace 'forma' with *, this will then try and union all csvs' within that folder together.

An alternative option is a batch macro which you can configure to do all the data prep for each file one after another.

You would have an input that was say a list of the filepaths required. Within the batch macro you would have a dynamic input tool to bring the file in and process any downstream transformation tasks before using a macro output which will then automatically union each loop together.

https://help.alteryx.com/9.5/BatchMacro.htm

Ben

[aamerin · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the response! Since I needed the tool process each file separately, I couldn't use the wildcard function. I ended up finding a very old article that walks through setting up a simple batch macro (https://inspiringingenuity.net/2014/02/12/alteryx-simple-batch-macros/) and that format was exactly what I needed in order to process one at a time.

The one problem with the example above was that it was saving each out put individually to my computer (I wanted a unioned final result). I then took your advice and inserted a macro output--it turned out exactly how I needed!

 Now, my final question is, "Is there a way to spur a prompt at the end of the process that asks the user if they want to save the results?" I saw a "File Browse" Interface tool and I'm wondering if that's what I should use and how it works.