Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Hello all,

As of today, you can only (officially) connect to a postgresql through ODBC with the SIMBA driver
help page :
https://help.alteryx.com/current/en/designer/data-sources/postgresql.html#postgresql

You have to download the driver from your license page

However there is a perfectly fine official driver for postgresql here https://www.postgresql.org/ftp/odbc/releases/

I would like Alteryx to support it for several obvious reasons :
1/I don't want several drivers for the same database
2/the simba driver is not supported for last releases of postgresql
3/the simba driver is somehow less robust than the official driver
4/well... it's the official driver and this leads to unecessary between Alteryx admin/users and PG db admin.

Best regards,

Simon

Hello,

As of today, DCM is great to store credentials. But once we want to dive deeper in technicity, like using macros or Applications, it's really bad. One of the things I hate is that we can't retrieve any informations from the DCM connection, just the id. Not good for logs, really bad for understanding and have some conditional logic related to connection type or name.

Here an example

Nice, I managed to retrieve an id but I have no idea of what it means : what kind of connection? what's name?

Best regards,

Simon

I would like the ability to configure a default naming convention for yxdb files created through the "Cache and Run Workflow" feature.  For example, the naming convention could be <YXMD filename>-<ToolID>-<CreatedDateTime>.yxdb.

This would make it easier and faster to identify and re-use yxdbs.

I work with lots of Excel files, and because they don't always consistent schema, I'm often changing the configuration.

The default Window frame/window for the "Options" panel in the Input data tool only shows 3-4 rows, plus title (the section in RED in the image below).  As I have large screens 

The panel size can be resized by dragging the line above the "Preview (first 100 records)".  However, once I move from this tool, if I return to the tool, it defaults back to 3-4 rows, plus title.

I would like to be able to set the default size of the Options panel/frame/window.

• This would improve my efficiency when setting up flows
• This would improve debugging - I would be able to see all my parameters at a glance

From my perspective, the Text Input tool would benefit from some adjustments.

Allow set the column data type in the tool

Currently, Alteryx tries to identify the data type of a column based on the input. But is "1" a bool, integer, or a string? Of which type is an empty field? Quite often, Alteryx does not select the intended data type. 

Example:

Idea: Allow to define the data type in the Text Input tool:

Improve input window for long content

Currently inputting long text to Text Input cells is nearly impossible. Extending the window size is also limited. Please allow horizontal scrolling within a cell and/or line breaks within cells.

(view in My Videos)

Hello,

Here is the proposal about an issue that I face frequently at work.

Problem Statement -

Frequent failure of workflows that have either been scheduled or run manually on server because the excel input file is sometimes open by another user or someone forgot to close the file before going out of office or some other reason. 

Proposed Solution - 

The Input/Dynamic Input tools to have the ability to read excel files even when it is open so that the workflows do not fail which will have a huge impact in terms of time savings and will avoid regular monitoring of the scheduled workflows.

Whenever I overwrite an Excel sheet with data of the same format just different values (e.g. Q2 data versus Q1 data) all of my Pivot Tables break and I have to manually recreate them even though the schema didn't change.  Somehow the Table is being deleted/removed and replaced with a completely different Table which is what causes the Pivot Tables to break.  The only way to avoid this is to manually set the Cell Range, but who has time for that?  The only solution I have found is to manually copy all values and paste them over the existing data which is very inefficient the more sheets you are working with.

Improve the user experience by enable search filtering options in browse tool result just as in the canvas. See attached pics.

The management of connections, especially in a collaborative environment is not cohesive or intuitive.

1. When configuring an input tool for a server / gallery connection, hunting for the correct connection in a long list is quite frustrating.  There is no search, no sort and the list of connections does not sort in any logical order by default.
   SUGGEST:
   
   • List of Server Connections is sorted Alphabetically by default
   • Give the ability to search and sort
2. Add additional connection metadata
   • Primary Owner (add metadata element to Curator screen & surface in the connection list)
   • Secondary Owner (add metadata element to Curator screen & surface in the connection list)
   • Connection String (surface the server name and login name to the connections list, omitting the password)
3. Rethink the concepts of RCM, Gallery Connections and the external file method of storing credentials for In-DB connections.
   • Make one overarching, cohesive method of storing and sharing credentials across the platform.
   • Enable Artisans to create
   • Enable Artisans to share
   • Retire concept of external files to store credentials, as is used with In-DB connections

Apologies if this has been suggested or exists. I often find myself using manual Excel files as a data source. These files frequently use cell formatting elements, such as cell color and text color, to convey important information. However, when these files are imported into Alteryx, this valuable formatting information is unfortunately lost.

To address this, a dedicated input tool that can read Excel files with separate fields for these formatting elements would be very helpful. This would be incredibly beneficial, especially when the data lacks other fields that relate to the coloring. Currently, I manage to achieve this using a Python tool, but integrating this as a built-in feature in Alteryx would undoubtedly be more efficient and user-friendly. This enhancement would not only simplify data preparation but also ensure the preservation of the full context of the original Excel file.

Hi is it possible to add sheet names (to spreedsheet files) to the output of a file directory tool

Hi all,

When preparing reports with formatting for my stakeholders. They want these sent straight to sharepoint and this can be achieved via onedrive shortcuts on a laptop. However when sending the workflow for full automation, the server's C drive is not setup with the appropriate shortcuts and it is not allowed  by our admin team.

So my request is to have the sharepoint output tool upgraded to push formatted files to sharepoint. 

Thank you!

Please update the Render tool to allow users to name the Excel sheet for the output. Alteryx currently errors when using same naming convention that works in normal Output tool.

Hello all,

Here the issue : I have a workflow in my One Drive folder



In that workflow, I use a macro that writes a file with a relative path (..\6_Big_Data\EN\.csv ) :




Strangely, it doesn't work and the error message seems to relate to a folder that doesn't exist (but also, not the one I have set)

ErrorLink: Output Data (1): https://community.alteryx.com/t5/*/*/ta-p/724327?utm_source=designer&utm_medium=resultsgrid|Cannot access the folder C:\Users\saubert\OneDrive - Business & Decision\Documents\B&D_Market\6_Big_Data\EN\.

I really would like that to work :)

Best regards,

Simon

Please allow disable or ignore conversion errors in SharePoint List Input. 

In SharePoint List Input I see the same conversion error about 10 times. Then....

"Conversion Error Limit Reached".

Can you simply show the error once or allow users to choose to ignore the error? (Union Tool allows users to ignore errors).

I am not using that SP column in my workflow. Meanwhile I have to show my workflow to a 3rd party within the company. SO annoying to see errors that do not apply to my workflow being shown.

It would be neat to add a feature to the Output tool to allow grouping by rows, with all the data related to the group column viewable under a drop-down of the selected field. 

I've heard that this is possible with a power pivot but would be a nice feature in Alteryx.

Ex. A listing of all customers in a specific city -> Group by the "Neighborhood" column, the output should be a list of all neighborhoods in the city, with an option to drop down on each neighborhood to see its residents and their relevant data. 

Thanks!

Problem statement - 

Currently we are storing our Alteryx data in .yxdb file format and whenever we want to fetch the data, the whole dataset first load into the memory and then we can able to apply filter tool afterwards to get the required subset of data from .yxdb which is completely waste of time and resources.

Solution - 

My idea is to introduce a YXDB SQL statement tool which can directly apply in a workflow to get the required dataset from .YXDB file, I hope this will reduce the overall runtime of workflow and user will get desired data in record time which improves the performance and reduce the memory consumption.

Writing to XLSB Files using Delete and Append does not behave properly.

Alteryx currently is having an issue with writing to an XLSB file using the Delete and append option with Take the file/table name From field.

Issue:

• Old data gets deleted, and new data is added but on the wrong row.
• New data is added after location where old data was originally.
• This output error for XLSB files only shows when using Take the file/table name From field. Static paths are fine.

Workaround:

Create a Batch macro to simulate the Take the file/table name From field function without actually using it.

Example of Issue: