Automatic Rewire capability for Upstream Added Tools

[margossian_christa]

When working with complex modules, it would be great to allow an option to add a tool upstream and automatically rewire to downstreams tools.

Simplified example:

Text Input flows to (1) Filter and (2) Formulae Tool. If I want to drag and drop a Formulae Icon after the text input to be applied to both paths, I can't. I have to either choose To apply to Path (1) or to Path (2).

I know that you can right click, press insert after, and search for the tool, but this is not a time efficient manner.  You can also delete the wiring and rewire yourself, but if you have mutliple downstream tools, this is a pain.

[BenG]

Hi Christa,

There are several things we have been discussing around working with mutiple tools or connections at once.  Applying a tool to multiple connections is one.  We also want to maybe select multiple tools, think 4 or 5 input tools, and all at once connect them all to a join multiple tool.  We will think about this one and would love to hear more comments from users on how they would use it.

Thanks,
Ben

[tom_montpool]

I would love this feature and I'm sure if I ask around my office, I would find at least half a dozen other enthusiastic supporters.

Anything to allow working with multiple tools/connections at once would be useful (as I've commented on before):

http://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Product-Ideas/Right-click-gt-Connect-Tools/idi-p/1412

[cbridges]

Agreed! A possible function that I suggested is "paste after", which would allow an already configured tool to be moved wherever you want it and connect seamlessly to the tools before and after. To make this even easier, it might be helpful for outputs going to 2 or more tools to be Y shaped or tree shaped as opposed to V shaped (each tool would have a short straight section following it before branching off to other tools).

[bgrab]

Ben,

Another useful function with multiple tools selected would be configuring all the tools at once.

For example, I have a workflow that has about 30 output tools. I set the initial configuration and copy and pasted 29 times, then customized each one with file names and everything. The tool all output to excel and upon testing and troubleshooting I discovered that I needed to "Overwrite Sheet" for all of them instead of creating a new sheet. Since each tool was already configured with file names, the copy and paste option was off the table. Going through and changing that option one by one seems a little inefficient to me.

There should be a better way to bulk configure, where you select all the tools you want, and as long as they're the same type, changing the configuration options on one changes the options on all.

Thanks,

BG