Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

As my Alteryx workflows are becoming more complex and involve integrating and conforming more and more data sources it is becoming increasingly important to be able to communicate what the output fields mean and how they were created (ie transformation rules) as output for end user consumption; particular the file target state output. 

 

It would be great if Alteryx could do the following: 

1. Produce a simple data dictionary from the Select tool and the Output tool. The Select tool more or less contains everything that is important to the business user; It would be awesome to know of way to export this along with the actual data produced by the output tool (hopefully this is something I've overlooked and is already offered).

Examples:

• using Excel would be to produce the output data set in one sheet and the data dictionary for all of its attributes in the second sheet.
• For an odbc output you could load the data set to the database and have the option to either create a data dictionary as a database table or csv file (you'd also want to offer the ability to append that data to the existing dictionary file or table. 

 

2. This one is more complex; but would be awesome. If the workflow used could be exported into a spreadsheet Source to Target (S2T) format along with supporting metadata / data dictionary for every step of the ETL process. This is necessary when I need to communicate my ETL processes to someone that cannot afford to purchase an alteryx licence but are required to review and approved the ETL process that I have built. I'd be happy to provide examples of how someone would likely want to see that formatted. 

It would be awesome if I could re-display the users selections to them before I continue with the remainder of the workflow in an analytic app. That way, I could collect all of the UI inputs, do my validation on the values provided and then re-display the selections/options/text to the user so they can confirm that they are correct and they wish to continue, or they can stop the processing and make changes via the already-open UI without having to re-enter everything from scratch.

 

Then, when someone selects something that's potentially harmful or very time consuming, I can confirm their selections and alert them to potential issues.

Hello,

 

I would like to make 2 suggestions in regards to the Table Tool.

 

1) The ability to format all of your tables in a workflow at once or the ability to set up a default theme for tables.  I may have many table outputs in one report and if I want to change the font in the header I have to go to each table icon and change the configuration one at a time.  Generally, I set up the first one then cut and paste it for all of the other tables in my report but if I have to go back and change something it is a real challenge.  I am working on a report with 20 table outputs and have to change the header font in each one.... not fun.  

 

2) The ability to change the header justification in the default table settings rather than have to change it in each column.  The same report I mentioned has a minimum of 5 fields in each table that is a minimum of 100 adjustments just to have centered field names.  A HUGE waste of time. An alternative would be to have centered field headings as the default.  I may be wrong but I think the majority of reports have centered field headings.

 

Thank you for a great product and for listening

 

Abi

Hello,

 

First of all Many thanks to the team for the revamp of the reporting tools. It's so nice to see it's getting a bit more dynamic. 

 

 

- I'd love to have more options extended to the graph, such as  being able to add 3 dimensions to a scatter plot, just like below 

 

 

 

- Or being able to have dynamic plot size such as :

 

 

- Or again, being able to have a filter in the Interactive Chart (just like the one in the insight tool) would be a great feature to have

 

- Having Bart chart in differents orientation 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

Changing the User Setting "Default Distance Units" doesn't only change the distance units for the Spatial tool. Bizarrely, it also changes page margin specs in the Render tool, and Height and Width specs in tools like Layout.

 

Separating "Distance" units from "Layout" units would be useful. I may want a map showing kilometers, but when I'm laying it out on an 8.5 x 11 page, I want a half inch margin...

Team,

 

It would be very useful if we could import Excel graphs as images. I've created graphs, tables, and charts using Alteryx tools from raw data (sql queries, etc.), but Excel offers more options. Generating customized emails with Excel graph images in the body instead of Alteryx charts would make this tool all the more powerful.

 

Idea is to pull in raw data through SQL queries, export data simultaneously to Tableau and Excel, pull back in the Excel graphs that are generated from that data, and create customized emails with links to Tableau workbooks, Excel file attachments, snapshots (graph images), and customized commentary. The Visual Layout tool is very handy for combining different types of data and images for email distribution, and importing Excel graphs as images would make this even better.

Good Afternoon,

 

Working with the Alteryx Insight tool there are a few functionality features our team believes would be quite useful:

 

-When you have multiple charts within an Insight the ability to "Drill Out" of an individual graphs versus having to "reset" the entire dashboard would be incredibly useful and save a lot of time

 

-When drilling into graphs we have found users often forget what particular category they drilled into leading to them having to reset the entire dashboard and start over. Could a "legend" type area be added to drill able graphs to show the user what they have drilled into?

 

-The ability to "select all" or "de-select all" options in a filter on the right hand side of the Insight

 

-The ability to drill into your graphs when in the Design Mode or "Configure Insight" to see how any formatting changes impact all layers of your graph once you begin to drill versus having to switch over to Preview Mode and test all layers and then switch back to Design Mode to make necessary changes

 

-The ability to adjust formatting on individual layers of a drilled graph. For example on the x-axis of your first layer have labels set at font size 10 with no angle, but then on your second layer once you drill have the x-axis font size adjusted to font size of 6 at 45 degree angle in the case where your data labels are longer once you drill

 

Thanks,

 

Nathan Brock 

Is it possible to have Output like below in Insight?

 

Ozone	Solar.R	Wind	Temp	Month	Day
41	190	7.4	67	5	1
36	118	8	72	5	2
12	149	12.6	74	5	3
18	313	11.5	62	5	4

Hi,

This feature isn't a must - but would definitely be a nice to have.

Similar to the excel having a tab with key figures like average, count and sum 

It would be a really good idea to do something similar within Alteryx just to have a quick glance on key figures/functions (example attached - apologise for the bad paint job but definitely would look good with Alteryx colour scheme)


Thanks

I think there should be a tool that allows you to produce grand totals for any numeric field you want. In the tool, you should be able to check off the fields you wish to be totaled at the bottom. I prefer this over having to use the summary tool and then using the union tool to produce totals at the bottom of my output. 

Hi, I've seen some requests lately where the users are requesting maps in  EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) format, which is an

Adobe Illustrator file type. If this could be added as a Report Render output type, along with BMP, it would make the tool even more useful. Thanks!

Can an interactive mapping tool be added as an output tool? 

When reports, files, or tables are generated, it would help to be able to view them on an interactive map.  Currently I am trying to show where high population growth is located for large areas, ie-entire US, entire State(s), etc., so the user needs to view where these areas are on a map.  Ideally, it would be nice to have additional layers seen on the map as well, for example, our current locations, competitor locations, etc.

I know this is a reach, but it would be nice to have the ability to drag around points or lables on the map before outputing them.  Specific example, plotting competitor stores that are at a Mall, all of the points stack on eachother.

Here are a few things that I feel would be useful enhancements for the stacked column chart:

1. In series styles, replace current "Label Data Points" Yes/No dropdown options with "No/Top/Bottom/Left Side/Right Side/Alternating Sides" options to allow label text to fall above the line marking the top of the set (current implementation), below the top line, to the left or right or alternating between left and right.  Side labels reduce the need for #3 below and alternating side labels partially mitigate the need for #2.

2. If "Label Data Points" is turned on, allow an option to set a minimum threshold to display the labels.  In the current implementation the data point labels are placed on top of each other in cases where series with comparatively high volume are mixed with series with very low volume unless there is only one low volume series and it happens to be the last series in the set.  With alternating side labels from #1 above this would only be an issue if more than one consecutive low volume series was displayed.

3. Lighten default series colors or change default text color to white.  Black label text does not stand out or is unreadable against most of the default colors (dark blue, dark brown, etc.).

Would it be possible to add the capability to import or build a CSS for reporting in a future release, I am sure I am not the first to think about having Style Sheets in reports so you do not have to define fonts, colors and all that HTML stuff to each output line. 

Currently, when creating scatter graphs you are unable to order the plots based on a sub-group of the data (ie the legend). It would be nice to have the ability to pick which part of the legend is displayed first, above the other data plots. Could we also have the option to take the 3D element off the scatter graph plots?

 

Thanks,

 

Oliver

Most organizations have rules for password expiry every 60-90 days. We have to go into each workflow that has an email tool and update it manually and reschedule it.
If the username and password for an email tool is coming from a field, we can then use a macro to update it.

 

Hi

 

The native email tool is great up to a certain volume, but at high volume it makes more sense to use sendgrid to take advantage of its features like deliverability etc

 

Would be great if there was a ready-made connector tool for SendGrid

 

Thanks

I would like to suggest adding in additional options to the Output tool for running VBA code after inserts finish.

Similar to how the "7 Post Create SQL Statement" works for "ODBC" or "Oracle" Connections, having this option for excel would be game changing.

 

Our current processes rely on us calling a .vbs script, or manually formatting our output.

My job of automation would be significantly easier if this was an option.

Getting deliverable ready in an easy to digest format is key.