Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

The Text Input tool and Macro Input tool with text input determine the output data type based on the input data by best guess. This works in many cases, but also frequently results in incorrect data. This might be fixed with a subsequent Select tool in many cases but not always, e.g., if "1.00" is first converted to Double, the desired string "1.00" results in "1" instead (no chance to go back to the original input).

Current situation:

What if Column 1 should be Bool? Or Column 2 should be String, preserving the exact input? What if Column 4 needs to be longer?

Proposal: Add possibility to select Type and Size in the Text Input dialog:

While Alteryx Designer's Input Tool will correctly presume that DateTime values from a SQL Server query are indeed DateTime types, it does not correctly presume that DATE type values should remain as Date types.  Instead, they are currently interpreted as Strings.  While downstream tools, such as Select, Formula, and DateTime can transform the types, this can impact run times.  I suggest that the Input Tool do correct interpretation of Date types in the origin data set.

My company still uses .xls files regularly due to the older systems we use. I will need to run a macro or directly save the .xls files as .xlsx before running workflows. This is annoying and not necessary likely for Alteryx to continue to progress.

Problem:
In large Alteryx workflows, renaming a column using a Select tool (or similar) causes downstream tools like Formula, Filter, Join, Sort, etc., to break or throw errors if they reference the old column name.
This means every time a column is renamed, I have to manually go through every tool that used the old name and update it - which is tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone.

Proposed Enhancement:
Add a feature to automatically propagate field name changes across all tools in the workflow that reference the renamed field.

This could work similarly to how modern IDEs allow you to "rename variable" across an entire codebase, or how refactoring works in platforms like Tableau Prep or Power BI.

Benefits:

• Saves time when making structural changes to data schemas.

• Reduces human error caused by missing updates in some tools.

• Makes workflows more scalable and easier to maintain.

• Improves usability and development speed for all users, especially in large or collaborative workflows.

Hi

Currently the date time now input outputs data only in string format, it could be useful if there was an option to output the data in date or date time format.

We have a feature to limit the number of records, and I thought why not have a column limit as well? 

Columns take up a lot of space and processing, the more columns we have the more it slows down. So if we can declare it at the start to import the first 20 columns always, it’ll ensure that any new or unwanted columns in Excel will be avoided. 

Idea: “Create THEN Append” Output Mode for Files and Databases

When outputting data in Alteryx—whether to an Excel file or a database table—the standard practice is:

First run: Set the output tool to “Create New Sheet” or “Create New Table.”

Subsequent runs: Manually change the setting to “Append to Existing.”

This works fine, but it’s very easy to forget to switch from "Create" to "Append" after the first run—especially in iterative development or when building workflows for others.

Suggested Enhancement:
Add a new option to the Output Data tool called:
“Create THEN Append”

Behavior:

On the first run, it creates the file/sheet or table.

On future runs, it automatically switches to append mode without needing manual intervention.

Why This Matters:
Prevents data loss from accidentally overwriting files/tables.

Improves automation and reusability.

Makes workflows more reliable when shared with others.

Mirrors functionality found in many ETL tools that allow dynamic "upsert-like" behavior.

Applies To:
Excel outputs (new sheet creation vs. append)

Database outputs (new table vs. append to existing)

CSV or flat file outputs where structure remains consistent

Hello,

The Data source window allow severla kind of connections like quick connect, ODBC, etc. But the order is not the same and this is confusing :

Best regards,

Simon

Hello,

Could there be a way to explore the details of the results window by double-clicking on a value of the Browser profile?

Basically if the profile of a field in the Browser tells me that there are x records meeting that value, could they be selected by double-clicking on that value in the profile? A bit like when you explore the underpinning rows in a pivot table in Excel; if you want to see which records meet the criteria, you double-click on the value.

For example clicking twice either on the label or the count and the specific records would show.

I have to switch to using alternate software anytime I need to input a file where the spatial projection is not recognized by the input tool for a spatial object field.

I would really like to see an option added to the input tool that allows custom designation of a spatial projection. Allowing manually choosing the projection and being able to open a ".prj" (or something similar) for Alteryx to use when ingesting the data.

For the Output Tool it would be very beneficial to be able to pass a password in order to populate a password protected Excel spreadsheet. It appears there is a decent amount of interest based on the Community feedback pertaining to the subject.

In 24.1 the email tool was adjusted such that any error in the workflow prevents the email tool from sending any emails. Previously, if AMP was enabled, the email tool could still send emails even if the workflow contained an error, but this is no longer the case. There are many cases where this is not ideal, one example being:

In larger workflows, I have multiple data streams which, after a point, operate independently. Even if one stream errors, I would like emails to be sent from the other streams. I have tried nesting the email tool within multiple layers of macros, but if any of the parent or child workflows/macros contain an error, the email tool will not send any emails. 

I would like a checkbox option in the email tool or workflow configuration that will still allow emails to be sent if the workflow errors. Then, with the use of control containers, I will have full control over email distribution with errors. 

Hello,

There are several dozens of data sources... maybe it would be useful to have a search in it?

Best regards,

Simon

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.