Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Hello!

This is along the same lines as my other thread:
https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Ideas/Allow-For-Drag-and-Drop-in-The-Interface-Des...

I love building Analytic Apps, and i wish it was just a little bit quicker to do.

Currently when adding an element from the dropdown to the interface designer:

 

it will always be added to the bottom of the interface:

And requires moving manually. It would be great if depending on where you have selected on the interface, the element is created. For instance, i would like to select one of my elements:

Hit add - Label:

And the label be created under my element:

Thanks,
TheOC

Hi Alteryx team,

The current UI options for building Alteryx Apps are very restrictive. Three simple changes could allow us to build much more feature rich apps.

1. Make the html sdk for building custom tools available for building Alteryx App interfaces.

2. Allow us to place objects from the interface palette next to each other (horizontally)

3. Allow the text in Labels and text box tools to be driven from incoming data fields, for instance in a chained app.

It would be great if the "fields from connected tool" option pulled fresh data at runtime when used in the gallery and pulling data from non-interface tools. The external source option doesn't have many settings (i.e. I can just point to one file), whereas the possibilities would be endless if I could use the full suite of tools to create a data set, at runtime, to pass to the list box/dropdown.

I frequently make analytic apps for my clients that requires them to enter information or parameters to the workflow via a prompt before running. The user could be entering codes that will affect a certain filter or it could be a prompt to browse to the new source file required to run the workflow. In order to make adjustments to the workflow itself, I need to work in Debug mode so that I can see the data as it passes through each node in the workflow. Once I am done making all of the changes in debug mode and I am satisfied with how it works, I then have to remember each change I made, and copy and paste each tool and its contents over to the workflow that I am debugging. This is a pain because it is like I am fixing the workflow twice. A good solution to this would be allowing the user to apply changes made in debug to the workflow you are debugging, so that there is no duplication of efforts!

Hi Alteryx,

 

Can you add the search functionality in the dropdown (Apps) where the user enters specific text and the dropdown list gets filtered accordingly?

It would enhance the user's experience while using large lists in dropdown.

It would be helpful to have the same options for App chaining as Events in cases where there is user intervention required to correct input parameters, etc. This would also create continuity between a scheduled workflow and a Gallery app when you are upgrading a workflow for ad-hoc cases and interactivity.

 

Event Run Options- Multiple scenario optionsApp Run Options- Only one scenario option

I would like to see a time interface tool similar to the Date and Numeric Up Down tools. I am working on some macros where the user can select the time they would like to use a filter for the data. 

 

Example: I want all data loaded after 5:00 PM because its late and needs to be removed.

Example 2: I want to create an app where the user can select what time range they would like to see records for (business hours, during their shift, etc) 

 

Currently this require 2-3 numeric up downs or a Text box with directions for the user on how to format field with Error tools to prevent bad entries. It could even be UTC time.

 

Time Interface Tool 

Pardon the length of this post, but I have been working with Alteryx since version 2.0 (11 years) and have been accumulating a wish list ever since.  Some of these suggestions have been made in the past but have yet to be embraced.  This is the first post for the first 'idea' but, as I said, this is a wish list that has grown since I was first introduced to Alteryx. More posts will follow.

 

I will break this into sections to hopefully make the suggestions easier to categorize and digest.

 

Application interface - Since I was introduce to Alteryx, the application interface (what is presented to users) has remained rather stagnant and, with the rumored push to adopt HTML as a replacement for pcxml, could benefit from the following additional settings. I suggest these based on the fact that dot Net classes for interface controls are readily available in Windows which allow for manipulation of each of the controls attributes.

 

1. The ability to set 'style' attributes for each of the interface tools in the application interface (font-family, font-style, font-size, font-weight, color, etc. This could be presented to the developer as an additional (perhaps optional button) in the Configuration panel for each interface tool as below:

These settings would be specific to the type of interface tool and to how the individual tool would layout and/or be styled relative to the application interface window. One layout option, applicable to most interface tools, would be where the label would be relative to the object itself (top, bottom, left, right). The CSS could be stored in and interpreted from the XML of the yxwz file referencing the ToolID of the Node in a section of the XML hierarchy called <CSS> or something standard.  An option to alter the default CSS could be displayed with a radio button control so that if not selected, the tool would fallback to the default system CSS of the tool.  This default could also be set in System settings so that a consistent interface could be defined across the enterprise.

 

2. Moving to the actual window that displays when the application is opened, a lot of the same concepts could be applied to the Interface Designer pane.

Attributes that could be set could include position on screen when opened, width and height of the window, and all the attributes of a dot Net form.  The same radio button strategy used for individual interface tools could be employed to use or not use system defaults.

 

3. In the UI, it would be nice if there was additional flexibility in how the interface tools could be laid out.  Along with the relative position of labels for each control, being able to layout controls horizontally as well as vertically would allow for a more organized interface.

 The Radio buttons would work as normal with the Text Box controls inside each Radio button and only displaying when the button is selected.

 

I realize a lot of the current development in Alteryx is focused on the new Alteryx Connect and being able to attach to more data files and services. But, if there is still also a concerted effort to move from what could be considered a legacy proprietary mark up language, pcxml, to a more robust and universally accepted mark up, html and css, then, in my humble opinion, expanding the options for developers to design more user friendly and customizable applications to a standard 'style' across the enterprise, both on the desktop and in the gallery, is a worthy endeavor.

 

Thanks for your attention.  More to follow.

 

Dan

The method of saving the results of one app to be read in by a follow on app seems very clunky to me. Can we develop a method to use the results within a workflow to feed drop down lists in later stages in the same workflow? That way an app can stand on it's own without having to save files out and chain further apps to read them again.

 

It seems this only works for selecting fields to include in the output but not for list of values to feed to a drop down list.

Vanilla Alteryx Chained Apps can only progress linearly, which means developers could not let users skip few applications ( or ) reach the last app in the chain ( or ) let the user select which specific app to trigger based on the requirement.

 

 

This can be bypassed by using a render tool with output as PCXML and HTML link of the Application you can trying to divert to, which does not affect the existing workflow in any way.

 

 

 

 

By using the below set of tools on any workflow/chained app you can either branch the flow of apps ( or ) you can skip a few apps in the chain.

 

1. A excel or csv file which has the links of the apps -  the reason for keeping the hyperlinks in an external file is so that we can update the link if the server link changes/updates - refer Image 1
2. A filter tool to specify which application to move to ( can be changed using a radio button/drop down to app 2/3/4/5 etc.)
3. A text tool ( This is where the magic is ) - configure it to pick the server link from the incoming data from the filter tool as hyperlink and generate a output preview, as shown below - refer Image 2
4. Use a render tool as output and write to any PCXML file ex: "File.pcxml" - refer Image 3

 

Image 1 - Input Configuration with the flow that can be part of any existing application

 

 

Image 2 - Text Tool Configuration

 

 

 

 

Image 3 - Render tool Configuration

 

 

 

 

 

POC in action

 

• Let assume our 3rd application is located in www.alteryx.com - if the user selects 3rd app in the radio button

 

 

 

 

• Which would generate an Output Preview like below

 

 

 

 

Now If clicked on App 1, it would divert me to www.Alteryx.com

 

 

 

Keywords : Chained Applications, Chained Apps, Application Sequence, Skip Application Sequence, Branch Application Sequence, Application Order, Controlled Order, Trigger Next Application

 

Regards,

Maithreyan S

It would be nice to be able to set a default date for the Date Interface tool.

Props to @KaneG for the workaround ( http://community.alteryx.com/t5/Publishing-Gallery/Set-Default-Date-for-Date-Interface-Tool/m-p/3573... But I'd like to see something built in to the tool rather than use a workaround every time as the standard.  Plus, I enjoy the uniform look of having two date inputs.

Just as a side note while we're on the topic of the Date Interface tool; it is really misleading the way "Today" stays outlined even after you click on a different date.  I always second guess if it took my click or not.

 

Sometimes I will get the error "You have found a bug".  Could this include a link to a stack trace, or some diagnostics that might allow us to see what the problem is?  Or suggestions to turn on logging, perhaps? 

 

I understand that new users do not want to see stack traces, but Alteryx is a serious business tool and it should give users a chance to find workarounds, but for that we need more diagnostics.

Analytical apps currently do not have the ability to provide any indication of progress to users when hosted on the galaxy.

 

It would be valuable to be able to provide a progress bar or some indication of progress to the user when invoking analytical apps from the gallery.

Hello. While working at my company it has come up a few times that An Interface tool that acts like a standard "grid" would be extremely helpful.  

 

This tool would allow users to update data that has a logical link to each-other like a stanard "row".  Below are a few very simple examples where this would be extremely helpful.

 

 

#1) An application is being used as a file System ETL that has an interface that allows users to select what data to pull from a flat file and store in a database.  The users can pick which 'columns' to keep by choosing the following information.  The column name, type, and final database location of that column. 

 

In this case a user needs to enter 3 key pieces of field information that have to relate to eachother.  

 

#2) There is a table in a database that has thresholds for a specific law at the state level. (for Example: All loans in Florida must have a loan balance < 300k).  However these laws can be updated, and the end users want the ability to #1: See the data, and then #2: Update it if the laws have changed.

 

A grid in this case would be perfect, as they could query the data to see the 50 states and specified limits, and then change the data in the "limits" column in order to update the database.

 

 

The previous 2 examples are pretty simple examples, but I have run into this request a few times from my personal experience, so figured I would see what everyone thought!

 

 

 

It would be nice to have functionality similar to the List Box where a user can select all items at once, or deselect all items at once.  The workaround for now would be to roll everything up to an individual Key (maybe called "All").  But it would still be nice to have those two options (again, just like on the list box).

A problem that recently came up for us was the need to be able to build an application, called App A, that would launch App B and its set of choices under one set of logical circumstances, launch App C and its set of choices under a second set of logical circumstances, etc.  After working with our Alteryx rep and trying to use the Run Command object to launch the apps from the command line (which caused a licensing issue error), we've been told that this is not something that is currently possible in Alteryx.  We were wondering if it would be possible to get functionality like this in a future edition of Alteryx.

This idea is concerned with suggesting values based on text box entry in an analytic app. This would be an autocomplete within the text box interface based on matches to a list of connected values. For example, if someone was posting "805 Wells Road" it would expand the text box window and supply potential matches to click on.

 

Quick and dirty photoshop image below:

 

One thing I have noticed is that for some of the end-users of the apps I have in the gallery is that running the app from server is enough of a barrier that they don't use it at all. I have had to send links repeatedly to gallery, to apps on server for them to run them.

 

What I would love is a way to create a custom desktop icon (bear with me - I don't have the lexicon.) that an end-user would open and it would launch the app in the server directly (I'm assuming this would be opening a browser of choice, opening the app/workflow to the screen where it gives you the option to 'Run/Download/Schedule'  rather than accessing it through a shared collection in the Gallery through a browser.

Possible extensions of this are the ability to create an app for a mobile device where they can access an app/workflow on server directly to run it from a phone/ipad.

Similar to being able change the parameters of a tool using the interface tools, it could be very useful if Alteryx Designer had an option where the configuration of a tool can be modified by another tool's output (which can only consist of one row & column and may include line breaks/tab characters, only first row is used if there are multiple rows) while the workflow is running, therefore reducing the need to chain multiple apps.

 

This feature could be made possible as the "Control Containers" feature is now implemented, and it could work like below:

 

Suppose you need to write to a database and may need to specify a Pre-SQL statement or Query that needs to be dynamically changed by the result of a previous tool in the workflow.

 

In this case, as the configuration of a tool in the next container needs to be changed by the result of a previous formula, there would need to be an additional icon below the tools, indicating that the tool's result can be used for configuration change.

 

This icon which will appear below the tools will only be visible once at least one Control Container and an Action tool is added to the workflow, and will automatically be removed if all the control containers are removed from the workflow. User can change the configuration of the destination tool using an action tool, which must be connected to a tool in a container that will be run after the one it is contained in has finished running, as a tool (or several tools) that is contained in the next CC in the workflow needs to be dynamically modified before the container it is contained in is activated.

 

If a formula tool containing multiple formula fields is added to the action tool, the user will see all the formula outputs similar to connections (i.e. [#1], [#2]...) that can be used as a parameter.

 

The screenshot below demonstrates the idea, but please note that this is a change where adding an action tool may not mean that this workflow will need to become either a macro or an analytic app, so a new workflow type may or may not have to be defined, such as "Dynamic Configuration Workflow (YXDW)". Analytic Apps and Macros which utilize this feature could still be built without having to define a new workflow type.