Inherited field renaming

[shashi_lingaiah]

If we rename a field ‘X’ to ‘Y’  in the alteryx module, the renaming is not inherited by all the tools using that field in that module. The tools which are still using the old field name ‘X’ will fail until they are configured to use the new field name ‘Y’. Most of the tools I have worked will inherit the field renaming.
 
It would be very helpful if the renaming is propagated to all the tools in the module using that field name. 

[smoskowitz]

Good Morning --

Here is another idea for your consideration:

If I change the name of a filed upstream, it would be nice if it would automatically change the name of that field in all tools downstream.

If I have a field name called Column1 in a select tool (let's say its the second tool I use. Now let's say in the next connected tool (let's say it's a formula tool) and I create formula column1 + 5. So far so good.

Now if I go back to the select tool and change the name of column1 to Balance. The formaula tool will throw an error because we typed in column1. It would be nice if Alteryx was smart enough to identify these changes and update the field name downstream so we don't have to go back and update every tool that we entered column1 into.

This would be a big time saver.

Please let me know if you wish to discuss.

Thanks,

Seth

[corey_hermanson]

Can't believe something this intuitive has taken 5 years of review. 

[EricWe]

For workflow metadata such as columns names to be automatically updated, make sure that Disable Auto Configure is unchecked in Options, User Settings, Edit User Settings, on the Advanced tab. Unchecked is the default setting. If this option is checked, you will need to select F5 for a metadata run of the workflow to populate changes to all the downstream tools. 

Keep in mind that some tools create data columns, so the metadata for the output from the tool is not available until the workflow is run. 

An example of this is the Cross Tab tool. Columns included in the Group data by these values section would be part of the existing metadata, and these columns would be updated automatically. The remaining columns output from the tool are created from the data itself at runtime and therefore no metadata about these columns exists prior to running the workflow. 

Please reply with any specific examples of tools that are not automatically receiving updates from upstream changes in a workflow. Also, for any examples found, check to see if the updates are seen after running the workflow. 

[KylieF]

Thank you for your post! Our product team has reviewed and accepted your idea and plan to implement it in a future release. We’ll let you know when your idea is close to being launched.

[ramesh_neel]

So every time we rename a field after we create a  workflow and if that particular field is subsequently referenced anywhere in the workflow on formula tools or joins , we have to manually update the joins or formula to refer to the renamed field as Alteryx does not recognise the old field anymore and throws an error .So It would be great to have a feature which automatically recognize any field name changes and then picks the new field across the workflow. 

Lets say my input has a field called 'Prod' which is used inside a formula tool and if i rename Prod to 'Product' , the formula tool should also reflect this change automatically rather than having to manually update my formula tool and change Prod to Product.

[MJ]

^ this

Biggest use case I see is the Formula tool not getting the new field names when an upstream Select is used to rename

[JunePark]

I agree to @MJ .

This is what takes up my time the most, related to this issue.

[Joe_Lipski]

Hey @smoskowitz - Looks like this has been updated for select tools, or if the field isn't used in an alteryx tool (Summarize, Formula, etc.)

I'm sure you wanted the extra step mind.

[smoskowitz]

@Joe_Lipski --

Good to hear from you and thank you for reaching out. Are you saying that some tools will now auto-update? If so, how do I make this happen?

This is something I truly believe would benefit the community.

Seth

[Joe_Lipski]

I remembered seeing this at Inspire and tested it to see if it worked and it seemed like it did for Select Tools, e.g. Select tool as #2 and #10 the name would change in both. This might have always been the behaviour. However, it didn't work for Formula, Summarize, etc. where Alteryx was using the field in some way.

Might be worth seeing if you get the same behaviour...

Also looks like this is a duplicate idea of the one here: 

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Ideas/Inherited-field-renaming/idi-p/1501/page/3#c...

Which luckily for you Seth has been Accepted (although over year ago ⏲) - so hopefully is on it's way into the product SOON!

@KylieF - you might want to combine the ideas and it would be fantastic if you could provide any updates 🙂