Allow input tools to open files as "Read Only"

[keith_ainsworth]

I understand the need for "exclusive rights" when using an input tool.  Unfortunately, due to the nature of some corporate data, getting write access to a file is not always possible.  I would like to have the ability to configure an input tool to open a file in "Read Only" mode while producing a warning message that the file was processed in that mode and may not contain the lastest version pf the data.  I envision this as a checkbox option in the tool configuration panel.

[MPohlers]

I find this very annoying when working with Alteryx on Excel files. You see a problem, want to check it out in the file, possibly make a change, and re-run the workflow.

For Tableau this just works without any problems. Alteryx should be able to do it on the input/reading side as well. I absolutely understand that it can create all kinds of issues when outputting/writing a file.

But very often the files that are read and the files that are being written are different.

This problem has cost me hours/days. I run a workflow that takes 1min - see the error message, close the Excel file, run the workflow again...

Please re-open the idea.

[jason_scarlett]

Agreed, please re-open the idea.

Other tools like Tableau have no issue like this.

[ZihaoSong]

Agreed with Jason, please re-open the idea and try to make user a better experience.

[santosjm]

I agree and support the idea, let the user take the risk

[Allan1]

I agree with @jason_scarlett and the others. I have workflows that access numerous excel files at various times of the day, and not having the ability to read files that are already open causes me a lot of extra work to get around this. Please re-open and implement. 

[karenmtheis]

I agree we need this re-opened.  A nice feature of Alteryx is how easy we can integrate offline data from users with Enterprise data.  I'm writing this during a time when a lot of users work from home.  They don't close their files and shut down their computers at night anymore.  We need an option.

[adscoggins]

This definitely needs to be reopened. How many people need to reply to this before it gets noticed?

[Faye_Karas]

I discovered that if an excel file is configured as 'Shared', then it can be read and used as input by Alteryx when the excel file is open.  This is a game changer for me because as we implement the server, we want to access files (as input) on a predetermined schedule (i.e. daily at 3am) and not have to worry about Alteryx running into issues when the user forgets to close their files. Thought I would share this in case you all found it helpful.  

[jason_scarlett]

I believe you lose functionality when you set it to "shared" (google it and you will see) ... and doing that for hundreds of files is not practical. But good luck, it should work for the one off.

[schaferc]

I fully agree with @jason_scarlett. For the last 9 months I never got this error. Once I updated to 2022.1, myself and my team were unable to load Excel sheets that are open. Is this a bug introduced by the patch? I'm looking for some guidance. This is a major problem for our team. I have the MS Access Driver already installed that apparently should prevent this problem. Thanks.