Restart from Here

[SeanAdams]

all too often, we build an alteryx flow just to realise that step 8 out of 10 was wrong -so back to the beginning and rerun the entire thing.   this often is tedious if your work requires a big data set.

So there is a workaround, using the Cache Macro which can be downloaded (but this does require quite a bit of fiddling with containers; disabling items; setting flags; etc) - but it would be good to allow the user to "restart from here" like you can with a powerpoint slide deck.    I appreciate that this may be tricky since Alteryx may be flushing data out of memory as it goes along, so it cannot restart from any arbitrary point - but if we put the workflow into a "testing cached mode" to cache data at each step; or allowed users to set particular controls as a breakpoint and cache at these points, that would help immensely.

Thank you

Sean

[Di2g10]

This would be super useful. I could see having specific Tools that you could put into your flow that achieve these flags.
Along a similar line would be to only run tools required to view a specific browse tool rather than the whole macro.
If the above idea is run from midpint then this would be the equivilent run until midpoint rather than run beginning to end each time.

Thanks

David irvine

[adrianloong]

Game changing if it could be implemented. Most of the time we want to run from a specific point onwards to test.

Only way to do it currently is to use cache macro however would be best if the product supported this natively.

[Daniel_dup_81]

I absolutely agree. This feature is essential when building large workflows in conjunction with the ability to cache data at any tool. This way, the user can turn on a cache say after a big join, run the work flow, and then select a tool after the cache, right click it and select run until this tool. Rather than running the entire workflow, it will start from the closest cache point and run only until the selected tool.

So in summary, allow a toggle switch to turn caching on and off on each tool, and add the ability to run up to each tool.

(FYI: SPSS Modeler includes this feature)

[PeterPetersen]

I keep hoping for Alteryx to include this feature. Any news?

[Di2g10]

Since all my work is mostly creating novel complex flows for large data sets i have been experimenting with methodologies for getting around this problem. The key is to be able to run smaller sections as quickly as possible but still be able to run the whole flow and be confident that the whole flow has still run correctly. I.E. not started from an outdated cache of data.
My current solution is to break the workflow into a number of macros. For each macro output become the input for the next macro however alongside this it also saves the output to a file location. The next macro input uses this saved file as the input. Essentially caching at specific points with the ability to jump in anywhere and run but also having the ability to run the whole workflow from a parent flow that just links all the macro's together.

I don't know if this method would work for anyone else. Or please let me know if there is a better workaround or ways to improve.

Thanks

[MackStewart]

It would be great if it could work the other way around too.

Run the workflow UNTIL this breakpoint.

My input files come from 3rd party, so when it changes, I need to redesign the workflow.

I have containers, but not all the tools can be containerised, so I know they are going to fail.

[AlexKo]

Thanks @SeanAdams and everyone here for this excellent input. Although it's not quite the same concept, we'll be releasing a version of caching in 2018.3 that we think we'll be very helpful when rapidly building and testing your workflows.

Stay tuned! We'd love to hear your thoughts once you get a chance to play with this new feature.

[AlexKo]

Hi all,

Caching's live in 2018.3!

It's not quite the same as what is described in terms of implementation, but please play with it and let us know what you think. If you could think of improvements we could make I'd love to hear about them.

[adrianloong]

Alteryx 2018.3 rocks!