Alteryx Designer Desktop Discussions

DavidP · ‎10-08-2019

Hi everyone,

Is it possible to modify the value of a label or the default text in a text box tool from data received from a chained up? Or is there any other way to display text in an app interface from an incoming data stream?

Here's my use case: I have a company credit card statement where each record shows the transaction details and the named user (the statement contains data for 30 users). In the 1st of a chained app sequence, there is a dropdown box containing the list of names. The user would select their name and click the button, which would then pass that user's transactions to the 2nd app as input. The 2nd app would display some info from each transaction (concatenated from 3-4 fields to a single string) with a couple of dropdowns and text boxes next to it where the user would provide more info.

The bit I don't know is how to display the concatenated strings on the app interface.

Any ideas?

CharlieS · ‎10-08-2019

It's possible to pass values from one chained app to the next. The fist app can write a .yxdb file to the working directory with a Name:Value pair that a Dropdown, Listbox, or Tree tool in the subsequent app will read. Those interface tools have the option to read from an "External Source" or "Custom File".

I'm not familiar with a way to modify a Text Box input, but as long as it doesn't have to be modified in the Text Box, you could have a Dropdown with only 1 option maybe?

JordyMicheal · ‎10-08-2019

Where is the data currently stored? If queried from a DB (SQL, Snowflake, Oracle, Etc) we can build the list pre run from there.
If not, @CharlieS idea is mine also. If you need any help building we can gladly walk you through.

Super great use case for sharing information with end users

danilang · ‎10-08-2019

Hi @DavidP

I don't think it's natively possible to modify the default text of a textbox tool. I just spent some time looking around and the closest I could come up with was a couple of "Hacky ideas"(his words) from @MarqueeCrew, involving a chained app modifying the XML of the following app or grouping controls to simulate the behaviour.

Dan

DavidP · ‎10-08-2019

Thanks Charlie, that’s a good idea and should work even if it might end op looking a bit clunky. I play around with it a bit.

Dan, I did think about hacking the xml of the 2nd app from the 1st, so I’ll definitely look at Mark’s posts.

DavidP · ‎10-08-2019

@JordyMicheal, the data comes from a file received from the credit card company. The main problem is that I want to filter the data based on the selection made in the 1st app and present it back to the user.

DavidP · ‎10-09-2019

Hi guys,

It's a case of 1 step forward, 2 steps back with trying to solve this problem. @CharlieS, I used a Listbox in app2 connected to the yxdb file I generated in app1 and it works fine, showing the correct results, So I'll mark your suggestion as a solution.

I was hoping to put some text input and dropdown tools next to this list box to allow the user to add detail for each transaction, but it seems this is not possible in the interface designer. They all get added vertically, which is a shame. I'd have thought that the ability to move and align interface objects both vertically and horizontally would have been easy enough for Alteryx to implement and would make for much more versatile apps. Another great feature would have been to make the HTML SDK available to build UIs for Apps within Alteryx, but this is not possible either.

My best bet is to build the UI in a separate html file and call the apps through the Gallery API with a bit of JavaScript, essentially creating a separate Web App that calls the Alteryx apps as services. I've done this before, so I'll give that a go.

Thanks for your help.

daviskb · ‎10-09-2019

Hi David,

I sure would like to see the results of one of your former solutions using HTML calling the Alteryx apps, especially when it comes to populating text boxes with data that can be edited by the user and replaced in the .yxdb.

Kevin