Scheduler Workflow Chain

[kevinbird15]

It would be nice to instead of scheduling a workflow at a certain time, just schedule workflows to run after the current workflow is done.  

So what it would be is instead of running workflow B at 6:00 AM every morning, you could run workflow B when workflow A finishes running so that you would know that if there was anything happening in workflow A that workflow B relied on, everything would finish in the correct order.  

[GarthM]

Hey @kevinbird15,

This is already possible. See here

[kevinbird15]

Yeah, but it would be much more convenient to have that available through the scheduler.  Otherwise, we might as well not even use the scheduler and do everything through that + Cron Jobs.  

[pcatterson]

I agree. We have some time consuming flows that run sequentially overnight. Every once and a while they can't run, but they bump into each other time wise and we have to schedule them to run further apart. Started with one at 10:00 PM, one at 12:00 AM, and one at 2:00 AM Then became 9:30 PM, 12:00 AM, and 2:30 AM Then 9:30 PM, 12:30 AM, and 3:30 AM Now 9:00 PM, 1:00 AM, and 4:00 AM

[robcamp]

It would be nice to be able to schedule workflows in a sequence within the Alteryx environment. I have a windows batch command script using the AlteryxEngineCmd.exe to run the workflows.

Then they are scheduled in Windows Task Scheduler. The reason is dependencies. One workflow creates an output data, the other reads it. This may sound redundant, but the issue with large complex workflows is they are difficult to debug and maintain. Breaking it into smaller components has made the maintenance easier because it allows you to localize the data issues.

Currently, I am maintaining workflows in two environments. One within Alteryx Scheduler and the other with Windows Task Scheduler.

*A visual workflow software system like Alteryx should not subject it users to writing command line scripts to run workflows*

[Community_Admin]

The status of this idea has been changed to 'Inactive'. This status indicates that:

1. The idea has not had activity in the form of likes or comments in over a year.

2. The idea has not reached ten likes.

3. The idea is still in the 'New Idea' status. 

However, this doesn't mean your idea won't be implemented! The Community can still like and comment on this idea. With enough renewed interest, this idea can be brought back into the 'New Idea' status. 

Thank you for contributing to the Alteryx Community and the Alteryx Product Idea Boards!

[mlange]

It would be wonderful to have native scheduler functionality that accomplishes workflow chaining!  All of the officially supported ways to get around this feel clunky to implement, and have other drawbacks. 

Chained Apps can't actually be scheduled, so you can manually run a series of workflows on the gallery, but can't automatically kick them off at a specific time.  They also require all elements to be packaged, so if you want to sometimes run WF's A + B + C but sometimes run only B, you have to maintain two copies of WF B. (One packaged, one not packaged)

Chaining workflows using events (AlteryxEngineCmd.exe) require special licensing for designer + server users unless they have direct access to the server machine.  Events also have to be packaged and have the A + B + C but sometimes B issue.

Conditional runners (CReW Macros) aren't supported on server and can lead to resource over-utilization that could potentially harm the server.  They also haven't worked for a couple of our use cases.

We've have created a macro similar to the conditional runners that instead utilizes the Gallery API with some awesome help from Maureen Wolfson, Cameron Steele, and Emily Roach. This works for all of our use cases so far and doesn't have the A + B + C issue because it calls gallery workflows using the API so WFs don't need to be packaged.

It has taken our team quite a bit of time and research to figure out how to get Alteryx to provide the same kind of chaining functionality that is supported natively in many software solutions.  The only work around we found that does everything that native server chaining would do (using the Gallery API) is complex and custom.  It also would have been really painful to develop on our own without the great help we received.  It seems like adding native chaining functionality to gallery would make things easier for a lot of users.

[SayliD]

Hi mlange,

That sounds great. I have the same purpose to achieve, Running workflows sequentially on Alteryx server. Do you have anything to share on this Gallery API, or any direction on how i can develop it. Sorry if i am sounding very silly, but i have never tried something like this before.

Many Thanks

[Dynamomo]

@Community_Admin 

What will it take for this request to be reviewed again.  I can't believe that this is being ignored.  This has been a much needed feature request for years (I can attest to this as I used to work at Alteryx for 14 years) . It is a complicated workaround to get 1 workflow to run after another and is definitely not easy for a regular gallery user to figure it out.  

[KylieF]

Hi @Dynamomo!

This idea hasn't quite reached the criteria needed to be brought back to the new idea status and returned to the pool of ideas that will be reviewed by Product.

Ideas get automatically moved into Inactive based on several criteria in an attempt to make the idea boards easier to navigate, and are automatically returned to New Idea once enough engagement has been received, if an idea does receive that renewed interest. However, we do our best to insure no ideas that have met the necessary criteria to be brought to our product team are pushed to Inactive. Looking over this idea, it appears that it had not reached the needed engagement to be brought to our product team formally, and thus has never been reviewed by our current product team. However, should this idea receive enough engagement I would be happy to return it to the new idea status.