Allow the use of constant after the "aka:"

[dataprep]

Hello,

we have several environment in our organization : dev, recept, production.

In order to make that change safe we intend to make several connection (standard alias)  like

PRODUCTION_HIVE

DEV_HIVE

RECEPT_HIVE

In our workflows, we want to use aka:%Question.v_environment%HIVE

Sadly, this solution does not work despite the value defaut. 

 

[SeanAdams]

Hey @dataprep

I'm pretty sure that you could achieve this using an action tool, but I'd have to mess around with this for a bit.    I know that's not optimal (not exactly your idea), but hopefully it would get you back in action?

How would you feel about raising this exact issue in the discussion area - my bet is that you'd have a working solution within a day or two?

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/bd-p/designer-discussions

[dataprep]

Hello @SeanAdams

At the moment, we do use an action for that but it's clearly suboptimal.

[saubert]

This would be wonderful for industrialization and the management of environment.
Also : seems easy to implement ;)

[HenrietteH]

To toggle back and forth between different connections, you can also use the workflow dependencies under Options > Advance Options (might be a few more clicks than your idea but works better than the action tool): 

[dataprep]

Hello @HenrietteH,

The workflow dependancies only work for manual change. The goal is to have exactly the same app to work in several environment without altering it.

[lanningb]

Hello,

Our team could really use this!

We have  DEV, STAGE, and PROD environments.

When we try to promote our Workflow/Apps up the STAGE, we have about 25 DB connections that require manual changing. And that is in just one of our Apps! 

Then if we need to demote to make a change or upgrade, we need to change all of the connection again back to our DEV system.

Our only other option is to maintain 3 sets of code for each Workflow/App and that is not a very maintainable solution.

We really would support this type of solution for multiple environments!

Thanks

[saubert]

Hello @lanningb,

Can you add a star on the first post if you like the idea? That's some kind of voting. Thanks !

[sundaramc]

I know that using action tool it can be overwritten but we have many workflows where there are more than 7 input tools and more than 1 output tool. Using an action tool for each would make the workflow quite clunky! I definitely was looking for this solution today.

[lanningb]

Hello.

Are you able to use IN-DB Connection Manager to create your different connections?

I am working on a way to dynamically connect to the correct DEV, STG, PROD database and pull data (haven't gotten this to write yet).

We have our Apps and Workflows running up on Gallery so I am using a small R script to query the server and based on the server name, send back the correct IN-DB connection string name.

Another option would be to put these names in a dropdown and select as the first step in your App.

I created a little macro that takes the connection name and the query from an XML file and will return the dataset from the proper database.

Let me know if this might work for you or if you want to see the whole code.

[sundaramc]

Thanks, Ianningb, for your tips.

In our scenario I am not seeing Postgres as one of the options in In-DB connection or ODBC connection in the connection window. We are on 2018.1

For the second option of drop down I still will need 'n' number of Action tool to replace 'n' connection details (both input and output) and this could at times be more than 10. This means 10 Action tools... may not be the sleekest workflow. This is definitely my go to option in the absence of any other option.