Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Hi all 

Currently when you set your workflow to don't write outputs (disable all tools that write output) under runtime of the configuration of workflow- the render and green output tools become greyed out and do not write an output (as expected). 

However, this is not the case for connectors - for example, if you use the SharePoint output tool and click disable all tools that write output, it will not be greyed out and still write an output. Is it possible for these connectors to also not run when this is selected in the configuration? As otherwise currently, you have to add it to a container and disable it.

Hello,

I think I have neer wrotten an easier idea : the tooltip for the run workflow button should indicate the keyboard shortcut (ctrl+R). So simple, so intuitive..



Best regards,

Simon

In conjunction with the "First N% of Rows" and "Group by column (optional)" features, an additional option that would be great to have would be to tell the tool to take at least 1 record per group. If I am telling the tool to take the first 3% of records and grouping by a field, but one of the groups only has 5 records, it won't return any records for that group, as 3% of 5 is .15, so the tool rounds that down to 0. If I could also choose an option for the tool to always round up, that would also be sufficient.

In the formula tool, you can generate uniform random values using the RAND() function.

I would like to have similar functionality to get normal random values by calling RANDN().

As a workaround, the values can be produced from a Python tool using 

numpy.random.randn()

Python documentation on numpy.random.randn.

The full script below produces 100 random normal values in a column called 'Normal_Rand'.

The zip file has both a direct workflow and macro solution to produce the random normal values.

A client just asked me if there was an easy way to convert regular Containers to Control Containers - unfortunately we have to delete the old container and readd the tools into the new Control Container.

What if we could just right click on the regular Container and say "Convert to Control Container"? Or even vice versa?!

Would like to have the ability to filter to searched fields. Having the ability to search for already known fields, and then selecting those fields, temporarily, and isolating them for view. While there is the selection of fields under "X of Y fields", this still requires manual clicks and could be tedious when there could be a large amount of fields.

While you could also use the SELECT tool, that would still require manually searching for the field and isolating it for viewing. This could possibly be an enhancement for the SELECT tool or it could be an enhancement for the "X of Y fields".

I'd like to suggest that Alteryx make annotations able to be hidden or visible by right clicking or hovering over a little highlighted corner similar to comments/notes in Excel.  Have a highlighted corner of tools when there is an annotation. When hovering over the colored corner, user is able to view the annotation otherwise it is hidden and out of the way of the tool box. 

when you bring in a comment box or tool container to your canvas it should come in with your preferred defaults for  fill colors, font color & size, etc.  I have specific color schemes to identify what my comments are for and one scheme that I use most often has font size, position & color, and background color that I have to set every time i bring in a new comment box.

 I LOVE working in Alteryx it because unlike excel you set a "macro" to perform repeating operations once and then ignore them to do your real work.  This concept should extend to the little things within Alteryx, i.e. settings for preferred defaults for comment boxes & tool containers. 

Hello all,

My idea is very simple, and this is most likely I'm used to do. After highlighting the fields in the select tool, the next action is to click Options and to apply what to do. My idea is just after highlighting, right click on mouse button to go exactly on Options menu. Just a simple right click. I think this behavior is most likely comes from Microsoft, I'm used to select multiple lines or cells and with right click to do the next action. It's a simple, but powerful. What do you think?

Albert

Idea

I feel the necessity of the features to know the version of Alteryx Designer Desktop for each user within an organization. 

As well as some usage data of each user like 'Last Used' are available in License Portal, if 'Version of Alteryx Designer Desktop' for each user is also available in License Portal, it would be more manageable and could enhance the governance in organization.

Background

When the organization uses Alteryx Server and Designer Desktop, it is more challenging to make alignment of version of these products.

We frequently see our users install/upgrade to newer version of Alteryx Designer than that of Alteryx Server, and cause incompatibility issue when interacting with Alteryx Server.

Although we instruct our users to install the particular version, they sometimes upgrade to newer version later on by themselves, but it's not detectable.

I mean, even if they're using a wrong version of Alteryx Designer Desktop, we won't realize it until a problem occurs.

In order to identify such users and rectify their version, administrator shall be able to know which version they use whenever needed.

License Portal would be one of the best platform to make that information available in my opinion.

The DateTime Tool currently displays incoming date-time data types in a dropdown menu and "If no date-time columns are present, the field appears dimmed and shows 'No Suitable Input Fields Available'". However, considering the complexity of date formats, it's beneficial to directly view the data type of incoming date-time data instead of relying solely on visual inspection. While Designer filters options based on string or date/time types automatically, having visibility into the data type ensures a more sound interpretation of the input for analysis purposes.

When making changes to a UI, it would be beneficial if I could move objects horizontally instead of only vertically. Additionally, being able to resize items in the interface designer could improve end user experience. Currently I have List Boxes that are cutting off some words in a workflow and if I could extend the box or wrap the text then I wouldn't lose any context. 

The second idea is the freedom to sort the workflows in collections that I control in anyway that I choose.

Hi! I noticed that there is currently no way to use the debug function when working on an analytic app workflow that contains control containers. I'm running 2024.1 and I use the debug feature in my workflows that currently do not have control containers for me to troubleshoot when data changes in a dynamic workflow. Currently, when running in test mode, I have no way to review the data step by step in the flow when selected dynamically through the interface apps. I can only view the final output and make tweaks. 

Hello! It would be great if I could "favorite" a tool when I search for it in the search bar in Designer. Currently, I can drag and drop it to the Canvas, but if I want to "favorite" it, I have to remember the icon and color, then go find it in the right tab. This would be a nice enhancement!

The Directory tool should also retrieve the author/creator name of a file along with an audit trail of anyone that made changes to the file. The audit trail option may need to be a different preparation tool but the information would be useful.

Providing detailed information about inputs, outputs, data sources and assumptions provides useful information to us that may not always be obvious within a workflow, especially one with many tools used. While the comment tool is useful, and I enjoy the customization options, I think some updates to the annotation tool would be useful.

One improvement I would like to see is the ability to summarize and download all annotations to a PDF document; color coding the annotations according to the tool used would also be helpful. Having this information readily available for presentation purposes or for enterprise-wide users of workflows would be beneficial. 

If this is already possible, please let me know!

After using the PCA can there be a model object to output to be able to "score" new data?

Similar to PCA transform here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26182329/how-do-i-convert-new-data-into-the-pca-components-of-my...

As currently there is no way to use this model with new data

When opening the File Open dialog in Designer for loading a file from the Gallery, the default location inside the Gallery is set to "All Locations". 

In most of the cases, a developer does not want to work on a workflow produced by a random other person having stored a workflow in the Gallery but on his own workflows. Thus, the default should be "My Private Studio".

Please apply the change to open the file open dialog with "My Private Studio" selected.