issues with renamed columns and formulas when runing workflows in Server (gallery)

Hi all,

I run into a recurring problem when trying to move workflows in app format to the server gallery for sharing with the team.

Most of the time I set up workflows where the user uploads a file to the flow to use as input and the output is stored in a sharepoint file.

When I run locally the workflow has no problem. The issue is that when it has to be run in the gallery it shows an error that says "unknown variable" within the filter / join / formula tools. I suspect this is caused by some renaming done within the flow, which causes the variables not to be created until the transformation step is handled.

It is a bit frustrating to see these errors that are clearly not related to errors in the workflow.

Has anyone encountered this and managed to resolve it or done any troubleshooting?

Any help or hints would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Jorge

Regards

Jorge

Gallery

Input

Parse

Transformation

Preparation

Expression

Interface Tools

Accepted answers

All comments

IraWatt

Hey @Jmarquez,

Do you have a screenshot of the error, does it give any tool numbers on which tool is erroring and what order? Are you outputting to SharePoint with the output tool?

Jmarquez

Hi @IraWatt I don't have a screenshot at the moment.

The error was refering to a tool number of a simple formula tool. it actually was showing 2 errors both refered to formulas, where the variable name was created/renamed before in the workflow.

about the output, it's being outputed using the sharepoint files output tool ( no problems there )

Hope this helps to clarify the problem.

Regards

Jorge

DataNath

@Jmarquez I’m wondering if the issue is perhaps to do with special characters in the variable names? Are there things like spaces, currency symbols or anything? If so, it may be the case that Alteryx is converting these to an underscore (as standard), which will cause the variable name to become unrecognised when referenced downstream? If this is the case then it may be worth adding a lookup table or transpose and RegEx replace before a dynamic rename in order to restore the original name to use further into the flow.

Nezrin

Is the input file from SharePoint List? If yes, you could try enabling "save connection details" on Sharepoint list input tool

Jmarquez

HI @Nezrin , no it's not a sharepoint input, the input is made by a select file tool. The user uploads the file when the workflow is executed.

Nezrin

For every sharePoint site, there is a corresponding folder location. You can get this path by opening the site on IE and click on "open with explorer" you can use this path on the input data tool as a regular folder location. This would be more stable.

Jmarquez

The point is that the issue is not in the input/output through sharepoint. the issue is palced in the middle part of the flow where some renames are done and the renamed variables are used in tools such select / filter / formula. Once in this tools, Alteryx returns an error saying "unknown variable" etc

Tony_Castillo

Doesn't look like this was ever resolved. I've seen this issues several times and all fingers point to the Dynamic Rename tool. After the workflow is complete, the metadata is not saved in the output anchor, which impacts the filter tool or formula tool. In v2020.2, this bug never prevented a workflow from completing on the server. In v2021.3, this bug does prevent a workflow from running successfully on the server.

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