Switch Connector

[aduplessie]

Hello,

I think it would be extremely useful to have a switch connector available in Alteryx. What I mean by a switch connector is a connecting line with an on/off state that will block the data stream through it when off. Something like below:


Switch Connector in an "Off" state

This would be extremely useful when you only want data to flow down some of the paths. In the example above, I might turn the switch connector to off because I want to see the Summarize results without outputting to a document.

The current methods for having a path/set of tools present but unused are insufficient for my needs. The two methods I and Alteryx support were able to find were:

1. Deleting the connecting line - This works, but throws up errors. Even though this is functional, it looks bad when I need to present my Alteryx module and there are errors.
2. Putting the tools in a disabled tool container - I cannot see the tools when the container is disabled. I want to be able to see my tool set-up even when I am not using it.

This is inspired by the use of switches in electrical circuit design, such as:

Please comment if you also think this would be useful, or if you have ideas for ways to improve it further. Thank you!

[cbridges]

I absolutely love this idea, and I would love to see it as a tool that could be dragged to any point in the flow. Really great idea and would save a bunch of time spent running test procedures and dragging things around in and out of containers that can be disabled.

[don_searls]

I really like this idea.

[JustinJ]

Currently Alteryx has a detour tool that will allow this functionality. I posted a couple a links that will help you get started with the detour tool. Please let me know if you have any additional questions about it.

http://help.alteryx.com/10.0/index.htm#Detour.htm?Highlight=detour

http://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Knowledge-Base/How-To-Properly-Use-A-Detour-Tool-In-An-Analy...

[aduplessie]

The Detour tool does accomplish some of this functionality (and is my current go-to), but it does not clearly indicate an on/off status until you click into it. It would be more helpful if the Detour tool had a clear visual indicator showing whether it was currently directing to the left or right path.

[achudnovsky]

The option to disable a Container Tool works really well as a switch, but I agree that it would be useful if you could still view the tools inside of the Container when it's disabled.  Maybe instead of minimizing the Container Tool when it's disabled, an option to have the Container's background color change to indicate the Container and its tools are disabled.

[NicoleJ]

Doing a bit of Community Ideas cleanup today... The Detour tool (in the Developer category) should give you the functionality you're looking for here! There is an example workflow in Designer to check out how it can be configured, or you can reference the Help documentation here: https://help.alteryx.com/20223/designer/detour-tool 😁