Native Pubish to Tableau Server Tool Embedded in Alteryx

[wale_ilori]

With the amount of users that use the publish to tableau server macros to automate workflows into Tableau, I think its about time we had a native tool that publishes to Tableau instead of the rather painful exercise of figuring out which version of the macro we are using and what version of Tableau Server we are publishing to. The current process is not efficient and frustrating when the server changes on both the Tableau and Alteryx side.

[Mike2456]

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@wale_ilori wrote:

With the amount of users that use the publish to tableau server macros to automate workflows into Tableau, I think its about time we had a native tool that publishes to Tableau instead of the rather painful exercise of figuring out which version of the macro we are using and what version of Tableau Server we are publishing to. The current process is not efficient and frustrating when the server changes on both the Tableau and Alteryx side.

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Yes I support this as well.  In the healthcare industry, the security/audit/compliance is very tight and users of such tools do not have Admin privileges to be adding or removing stuff like this.  Make items like Publish to Tableau native to Alteryx Designer and load it at the time Alteryx Designer is installed on a workstation. 

The one place we do have as an opportunity for this is when Alteryx Designer is initially installed on a workstation.  Why can’t these little items such as Publish to Tableau or any others that would be needed,  be included with a release of Alteryx Designer and handled as part of the Alteryx Designer install?   Then there is no doubt about it and no special handling required that delays the install of Alteryx Designer wares.  When the Alteryx Designer install is completed, they have what is needed for Publish to Tableau and other items that would be needed.    

The same considerations should be given to any fixes/updates/patches that would be delivered as well for an installed version of Alteryx Designer.  

I hope this gets the consideration it deserves to enhance the Alteryx experience.

Mike Shaw

Senior Applications Analyst

Christiana Care Health Service

New Castle, DE 19720

[joeGade]

Same For us, Users don't have Admin RIghts on Machin's, which is causing a lot of headaches as alteryx has limitations on Licences which is Tied to a named user,. I as  Alteryx Server Admin has to install the tool on all Desktops with a Process in place. 

Also, the Main Reason is, When users install they install in Multiple locations, ,when its uploaded to gallery/scheduler as the Path of install is not correct it will fail . When users install without admin rights it will install to User's Temp folder or c:/Users/<username>/AppData folder.

With Alteryx Install it has to install in to "C:\ProgramData\Alteryx\Tools\PublishToTableauServer\Publish to Tableau Server.yxmc"

Please fix this ASAP. 

[ARich]

Hi All,

Thanks for the feedback. Because this tool is not embedded in the product, we actually have a lot more flexibility over updates and compatibility for as many users as possible, regardless of which version of Tableau Server they are on.

However, I hear and understand your frustrations with the overall process around identifying which tool you should be using and when you should upgrade, compatibility between Alteryx and Tableau Server versions, and the issues with admin rights and having to install the tool on multiple machines. 

We are actively exploring improvements to the experience around tools shipped from the Gallery and would love to continue hearing your thoughts and feedback as we strategize on how to improve.

Best,

Alex

[wale_ilori]

@ARich Thank you so much!!!

I understand the current approach of not embedding it for flexibility reasons. I have some thoughts on perhaps how that could be a better experience for us when we push workflows to the server.

• Increase the capabilities of the workflow dependency to include macros. Just having the relative and absolute references does not work in its current form
• having some validation of the versioning for the macro on the server to ensure that the right macros has been installed. Not sure if there is any way for an admin to know that if he/she upgrades the server, changes to the macro may be necessary
• I think having these validation capabilities should apply not only to macros but to connectors too. Part of my troubles was publishing to the server to find out the macro cant be found and that my data coming from connectors could not work also (possibly because the server box has not been given permissions to connect to such or other reasons.)
• It may be a nice idea for Alteryx to somehow "certify" some of the macros published to the gallery too. this will create some sort of assurance that the macro has been vetted for broad use. There has been an instance that we have had to amend a macro as it was truncating the authentication details by a few characters.
• One last thing, having some guidelines from macro writers on the considerations before usage. We just resolved that the current publish to tableau macro does not like passwords with some special characters especially if it has more than one special character.

I think at the end of the day, being able to know if we have all our ducks in a row before publishing to the server would be of great benefit to easing this process and help both user and admin efficiently troubleshoot the matter.

[ARich]

Hi @wale_ilori,

Thank YOU! This is exactly the type of feedback we want to hear!

These are all great examples of pain points and provide a clear focus for what we should think about when improving this experience.

We're still in fairly early stages of figuring out how to improve the experience and the first thing we have to do is understand all of the current issues, so this is extremely helpful!

Keep the feedback coming, all!

Best,

Alex

[wale_ilori]

Hi @ARich 

Just checking in. Happy to see this under review. After months working with a client on different things, it's needed more than ever so looking forward to having this in production sometime soon!!

regards,

Wale

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[ARich]

Hi @wale_ilori,

The first thing we're doing is moving the Publish to Tableau Server Tool into the Designer install. We're hoping that will help address some of the dependencies and installation problems.

If problems persist, please add an idea in a separate thread so that we can track that specific feature request and understand demand around it!

Best,

Alex

[wale_ilori]

@ARich This is great news to hear. Having it as part of the install is a great welcome message many would lik.

What would be fantastic would be that it either works with a wide diversity of Alteryx versions to Tableau Server versions that are not too far behind (Tableau and I believe Alteryx are on quarterly releases now) or there is some sort of configuration that can be done within the tool that one can select and set the version of Tableau Server the user would like to write to

[adrianloong]

+1, this is especially useful as for enterprises transition between tableau server versions.