Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Whenever we upload a workflow in the Gallery, we have to manually unselect, one by one, all the workflow assets in order to avoid them being packaged, because we use absolute UNC paths everywhere: if an asset is packaged, there might be errors due to relative paths

It would save time to have the option to either "Select all" or "Unselect all" in the interface shown in the attachment (Capture.png)

Additional Dynamic Select Mode for All Native (Non-Macro) Tools with Select Functionality (with or without Data Type Selection)

This is the updated version of an idea I posted a while ago (which only included Multi-Field Formula), and after the release of Alteryx Designer 2025.1, which I found to be very successful from a new tool and functionality perspective, I decided to post about it.

My proposition is to add the Dynamic Select functionality* (at least the Select via a Formula mode) to all native (non-macro) tools in all tool categories that include a Select functionality (as an alternative, where the user would be OK with not being able to also change the field types of the selected fields, such as Join and Append tools, the opposite would apply to Multi-Field Formula, where the user would be able to dynamically select which fields the Multi-Field Formula would be applied to, in addition to changing the data type), including but not limited to (to account for any new tool with a Select functionality that might be added in the future):

Preparation Category

- Auto Field

- Data Cleanse Pro (added in 2025.1)

- Multi-Field Formula

- Multi-Row Formula (for Group By option)

- Rank (for Group By option)

- Record ID (for Group By option)

- Sample (for Group By option)

- Tile (for Group By option)

- Unique

Join Category

- Append Fields

- Find Replace

- Join

- Join Multiple

Transform Category

- Arrange

- Cross Tab

- Make Columns (for Grouping Fields (Optional) option)

- Running Total (for both Group By (Optional) and Create Running Total options)

- Transpose (for both Key Columns and Data Columns options, the tool would generate an error if the Dynamic Select formula written for both options are selecting the same field(s), as the Transpose tool is not supposed to allow it)

- Weighted Average (for Grouping Fields (Optional) option)

In-Database Category

- Select In-DB

Reporting Category

- Layout (for Group By and Per Column Configuration options)

- Table (for Group By and Per Column Configuration options)

Machine Learning Category

- Transformation (for Select Features mode only, as the other two modes with Select functionality (Clean Up Missing Values and One Hot Encoding) require Method and Missing Category Action specification)

Developer Category

- Download (for And values from these fields option present in Headers and Payload tabs)

- Dynamic Rename (for the Select functionality present in Formula mode)

Spatial Category

- Find Nearest

- Spatial Info

- Spatial Match

Data Investigation Category

- Pearson Correlation

Skipping Address and Demographic Analysis categories as they have tools that seem to be using a static input, therefore not requiring a Dynamic Select functionality.

Laboratory Category

- JSON Build (for Grouping Fields (Optional) option)

- Transpose In-DB (with a similar logic to the regular Transpose tool found in Transform category)

*The Dynamic Select functionality added tools that have more than one input anchor (such as Join and Join Multiple) could have new additional fields the users can utilize, such as:

- [Origin] (can have the values "L" or "R" for Join and Append tools)

- [Connection_ID] (can have the values 1, 2, 3 etc. for Join Multiple tool)

- [Unknown] (can have the values "True" or "False" for the Data Columns option of the Transpose tool, or any other tools such as Join that would have the Dynamic or Unknown Columns option as a part of their Select functionality)

I was setting up a rather large set of repetitive filters and formulas and when I got done, I wanted to select the output of each tool all at once to drag them in to a Union tool. I think it would be great if you could hold the control key to select multiple outputs to drag to the next tool at a given time. 

In the regex tool, there is a checkbox called "copy unmatched text to output".

Unfortunately, if you are using regex from within the formula tool, this is not an option. It would be helpful if this could be added as an optional parameter in the regex formula i.e: 

REGEX_Replace(String, pattern, replace, icase=1, unmatched=1)

Without this, regex outputs can sometimes be confusing, as string characters not specified by the pattern (unmatched) appear in the output. This confusion would be alleviated with the optional parameter.

As many Alteryx Designer users are already aware, there is an option to connect a tool to multiple tools at once by right clicking on it and selecting View Possible Connections.

I would like to suggest an enhancement for this feature, which I think will make it even easier to connect multiple tools.

Scenario 1

Suppose you drag & dropped many Append tools to existing connections as you realized you needed to add an extra information to your data. For example, a year input from a Text Input tool that is modified by the interface tool. If there were 30 Append tools, you would have to select all those available "ID - Append Fields S" checkboxes one by one.

Scenario 2

You added multiple Input Data tools to canvas but don't want to select them individually to connect them to a single Union tool.

Idea

If there were a group checkbox for each tool category on each side (Output Connections and Input Connections), creating multiple connections would be as easy as clicking on the group checkbox on the Append Fields category on the Input Connections side (for Scenario 1) or clicking on the group checkbox for Input Data category on the Output Connections side (for Scenario 2).

Currently, the Alteryx Designer canvas can only be extended to the right and downward. This restriction makes organizing complex workflows more difficult, especially when trying to insert new logic upstream or manage spatial layout more naturally. It forces users to design in a constrained directional flow, limiting flexibility and sometimes resulting in awkwardly stretched workflows.

Proposed Solution:
Introduce an Infinite Canvas option that allows users to pan and place tools in any direction: left, right, up, or down. This would:

• Enable more natural workflow layout and organization
• Allow insertion of tools before existing logic without major rearrangement
• Improve visibility and navigation for large, complex workflows
• Mirror the functionality of modern visual tools like Figma, Miro, or Lucidchart

Bonus Suggestion:
Include a toggle or setting in Preferences to enable Infinite Canvas mode, so users can choose their preferred design behavior.    

Impact:
Improved usability, better layout control, reduced time spent reformatting workflows, and a more modern, flexible design experience for Alteryx users at all levels.

Allow the user to select which type of Join is happening in the join tool. Allow the J anchor to output the join type within a radio option in the tool configuration. Right now the J anchor outputs matches in both inputs. New suggestion would allow the user to select a Right Outer or Left Outer join without having to use a Union tool after the Join.

It would be nice to track changes. The function would need to have an on and off switch. Some workflows are large and you want to go back to the changes you've made. My team has 2 identical workflows one for production and one for validation. Tracked changes would help manage changes between both workflows. The tracked changes could be something like highlighting the tools red once changed, and after the function is turned on. I have attached a sample image for your reference. Thank you.

1. Image Processing Tool functionality should be available in Reporting tools.

2. Image Output Location should allow for a temp file location

3. Image Processing should allow lock of aspect ratio when Cropping (like Scale)

4. Image Processing should allow for fieldname selection for Crop, Scale ...etc to allow for custom calculations.  Being able to generate custom values for width and height based upon the values generated in from image profile would be useful

Anytime you create a formula in the formula tool, you get a data preview based on the values in the first row of data.  However, if you have a complex "IF c THEN t ELSEIF c2 THEN t2 ELSE f ENDIF" formula then the data combination that gives a TRUE result will likely exist on another row.  Therefore, you need to run the workflow, or place a filter tool upstream to isolate the specific row, to test if the formula result is correct.  

It would be easier if you could select the Input anchor of the Formula tool, then filter the data in the results window to isolate the row in questions, then the data preview would be based on that filtered data set.  I believe this would save a lot of time in the workflow development phase.

Hello,

I really would appreciate the ability to store our templates in a Teams/Sharepoint (or whatever exists) folder. However, it doesn't work today :

Best regards,

Simon

I want to have the ability to share workflows with non-Alteryx users so they can see what steps were followed within my workflows in order to create the output(s). Without a read-only viewer Alteryx users are forced to screenshot and write out the steps they followed in the workflows to document what they did which can be extremely laborious and time consuming when workflows get into the 50+ tool range. A read-only viewer would save Alteryx users time and give non-Alteryx users a sneak peak into how Alteryx works as well. It could peak the interest of non-Alteryx users to learn more about Alteryx and possibly convince them to download a trial and eventually purchase a license, so it could improve documentation methods as well as be an asset for marketing to non-Alteryx users. For reference, Tableau offers a similar solution called Reader.

when using switch formula as a more elegant way then if else

't' is not working in switch while it working in if then.

so i recommend to have a formula call True() and False() as excel to solve this issue. 

At a minimum one checkbox added to the Summarize tool, which would trigger the output to be automatically sorted in the order in which the fields were aggregated.

On a more elaborate level, it could allow the user to select a different sort order than that in which the fields were aggregated.

Currently the summarize tool field selector has one empty column on the left side that must be clicked on when selecting the fields, otherwise the 'Add' button does not activate.

I don't understand why the need for this empty column to be used when selecting the fields to aggregate/calculate.  Why can't we select the fields by clicking directly on the names of the fields instead?  Selecting fields this way is actually possible, but then the 'Add' button does not allow for the selection of the 'Group by' or aggregation method.

This creates confusion, especially for beginner users who might click on the field names, see them selected and be puzzled why the 'Add' button is not working.

Thanks!

The Unique tool is likely lighter than the Summarize tool and extremely useful to identify and remove duplicates, however unlike the JOIN tool where one can select which fields are included in the output, the unique tool will return all fields regardless.

It would be extremely useful if the UNIQUE tool also featured a list of fields to be included or not in the output for users to select from, because many times, all we are trying to extract is the list of unique values from a given column in the dataset and the other fields are not needed, neither do they make sense in this particular type of operation.

Thanks!

My request is to allow navigation to specific System settings without having to click through the entire process to get to the specific section of the settings you want to change.

I noticed the Workflow appears to validate the SQL when you click on the three dots next to the SQL statement in the Workflow Design.  My suggestion is to not run the validation until after the workflow is saved.

Hello,

As of today if you want to connect to Snowflake or MongoDB, you have to overwrite the default LUA Files, and that requires admin rights. I don't see the point of not including the good LUA files directly in the Alteryx packaging.

Best regards,

Simon