Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Hi there!~

 

I work as an accountant for one of the nation's largest firms. In my day-to-day work, I utilize alteryx to cleanse and format data provided by our clients in preparation for use in another program that is very specific with its imports.

 

I was recently reviewing an Alteryx workflow prepared by a colleague. Upon attempting to run it again (with new input data) I noted some data fall out and am now reviewing the workflow tool by tool (first to develop understanding of the developer's mind, and second to make changes where needed).

 

During this review, I thought it would be very cool to have a Review/Markup view, where each tool could have a checkbox that could be checked/unchecked if that specific tool was reviewed/unreviewed. There could also be a circle function that could bring attention to specific places that are of concern in a workflow. This might work similar to how when one drags an Interface tool on the canvas, appropriate connections above non-Interface tools appear, only it would be a view that could be turned on/off.

 

In addition, I have a tendency to annotate the heck out of my workflows I create -- however there isn't really a way for reviewers to do this without modifying the workflow annotations nor adding a Comment tool with comments. It's especially difficult to do the later since space might be tight. Having a comment function that only shows up in the Review/Markup view would be amazing and very appreciated as I don't want to visually alter the workflow to accommodate such comments if it can be helped.

 

It would be even more helpful if a review/markup report (maybe a temporary PDF or .yxdb) that would summarized what was summarized as "reviewed, with no comments", "reviewed, with comments', "unreviewed, with comments", "needs attention", etc.

 

Lastly, with regards to fallout data, I would like to tag/trace a record and, after running the workflow, have the last location of that record be circled in red (or some other visual cue) on the canvas. Currently, I just create a "Flag" column (or, if it works, track a specific RecordID in Alteryx and follow my best guess of where the data may have fallen off -- something that can be very time consuming when I'm not familiar with the workflow.

 

The organization I work for has experienced some of the best time savings from Alteryx and currently supplies licenses to our staff members. In particular our Audit function may need to review some client processes, which may be entirely in some part Alteryx. As our managers attain Alteryx familiarity, they may also want to review our workflows for completeness and data integrity purposes. Having these functions above would definitely be something to look into and would further drive the review function further away from other more archaic programs and increase our usage of Alteryx throughout, and I'd be happy to be part of a testing for this if possible!

 

Thanks!~

Jon

Do you often present your workflows to others within Alteryx, as opposed to just printing a PDF? Wouldn't be nice to have a formatted heading that describes your workflow?

 

I'm sure you may already be adding and formatting nice headers, like many of our Alteryx tools. For example, the Filter tool:

 

 

However, once you begin to scroll down the headers disappear. I recommend we add the ability to freeze the canvas. In this scenario, I would want to view this Header no matter how far I scroll down or right. This would be extremely beneficial when presenting to stakeholders. Additionally, it would be nice to have this repeat on each page, when printed!

 

Thanks,

Mark

On the Reporting palette, the Map Legend Builder tool has an extra "the" in the tooltip. I have enclosed an image below. Full disclosure: it isn't a bug, it doesn't affect functionality, and it's trivial. This is version 2018.3.4.51585.

 

When I currently hit F1 when function is highlighted within properties window it brings me to tool help - it would be helpful if it brought you to help on the function.  Or if I hover over a key word function it brings up info on it.

Hello Alteryx Support,

 

I’m a Business Analytics Manager at Evernorth. My team and I use Alteryx Designer 2020.2 x64 for daily data preparation + analytic purposes; primarily, the desktop version but also have access to the company Alteryx Server ‘Gallery’ as well. Recently, we ran into a challenge and after asking around we still couldn’t find a solution.

 

Our Need:

We are seeking a solution to ‘add an example link’ in our custom built macro.

 

Our Challenge:

We don’t have the proper permissions to save and/or write to the “C:” designated folder location required to host the file as specified within the Alteryx Community help documentation (e.g. outlined below). --> We understand this is an internal IT obstacle that will take time to work out from a corporate data governance perspective, which is why we are seeking Alteryx Support.

 

At the end of the day, we are reaching out to see if your team can help us understand if there are alternative solutions that we can explore. Making the assumption, that is…that we can’t take the suggested approach in the documentation. See below for details about what we are trying to achieve.

 

Current macro state (…as viewed by Alteryx Designer users in the user-interfaces top tool panel for viewable macros):

 

 

Desired future macro state:

 

***Help Documentation***

What we currently know: (According to…How to add an example link in the custom tool - Alteryx Community)

Prerequisites

1. Alteryx Designer

Procedure

1. Place the sample workflow in the %ALTERYX_INSTALL%\Alteryx\Samples\%LANG%. A separate folder can be created to store the workflow. An example of a directory: C:\Program Files\Alteryx\Samples\en\MyTest
2. Add in the "Example" tag with "Description" and "File" child tag in the tool configuration file of the custom/user tool.

Example:
 
    <metainfo>

 ...
     
            Open Example
            Path to the workflow
       

... 

 

Limitations

1. The sample workflow can only exist in %ALTERYX_INSTALL%\Alteryx\Samples\%LANG%. The link will fail  if the file is located in a different path.
2. The sample workflow needs to be distributed separately from the custom tool installation since it has to be stored in %ALTERYX_INSTALL%\Alteryx\Samples\%LANG%.

 

Thanks for your support and consideration to create a feature enhancement that allows Alteryx Designer users to 'add an example link to their custom tool' without having to go to the C:\ file location in order for it to work!

 

Respectfully,

Corey

 

 

The Install by Command Line documentation, also known as Silent Install Doc, is incomplete. Though it mentions the Predictive installer location, it does not explicitly describe how to peform the installation using the command line, nor does it mention that it is possible. According to the 2017 Alteryx Partner Certification Exam, it is indeed possible to do a silent install of the Predictive tools. Please update the documentation. Thank you. 

Hi Team,

 

Alteryx designer to integration with VSTS/ GitHub to have multiple resources working on same workflow.

 

In current scenario we are facing issue if we have two developer that need to work on complex workflow and need to complete in short timeline.

 

Please have a thought around to see if there is any faster option to integrate.

 

Thanks In Advance.

Right now we can only change the alteryx log folder but not the log file name. If we can change the log file name , it will be great because that gives us the ability to parse certain logs and check for errors/issues and send out emails accordingly.

There are several tools and tool categories that I have limited knowledge of.  It would be a nice feature to be able to right click on a tool and in addition to  "help",  have an option to view a video (on-line) overview of the tool or tool category  including examples of using the tool

Hello,

The release notes quality is not exactly at its best nowadays The 2022.1 releases notes available here https://help.alteryx.com/release-notes/designer/designer-20221-release-notes don't mention at least two cool new features :
-DCM for in-database connection.
-distinction between greenplum and postgresql, which is important for me as I post this as an idea : https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Ideas/Separate-entry-in-in-db-configuration-for-Po...

 

Note that the corresponding idea aren't also up to date.

It's cool to have new features, it's way better if you gives the full list.

Best regards,

Simon

The Alteryx File Types page describes only the more common file types. The page fails to describe many of the more obscure and esoteric file types and the community doesn't either.

 

I would like to know the purpose of each file type, where it typically lives, and with which tools it is associated when applicable.

 

Please update this page with a complete description of each file type.

Hi Alteryx team,

 

Not sure if this is a Designer or Connect idea but the idea is to allow more options when searching in Connect from the Designer interface. As of now, it seems that it is only possible to search for tables and views, or generally those objects which can be added as an input data tool.

 

I believe that search directly from Designer is a great feature and at least our clients use it more and more. Would it be also possible to find workflows within Connect catalogue and open these workflows in Designer?

 

This could also apply to other data assets within the Data sources section like APIs, procedures etc.

 

Thank you

Michal

Go on, please!

When selecting a colour for a container I would like to be able to click randomize and let Alteryx pick the colour, however I would like the option to click 'random new colour' so it picks a colour not already used in a container on the current workflow  I should then be able to customize the transparency as per normal.

Hi,

 

Please provide users the option of downloading course videos and transcripts. If it is already there, please let me know.

 

Regards,

Meenakshi

I find this page very helpful to understand how each tool works:  Alteryx Tools

 

It would be really great if Alteryx also provides a working example for each tool. For an effective hands-on experience....!!

Hi,

Add to the feature where you can open a workflow to show how to use a tool.  Allow a user (and share this within an organization) to add a tool template workflow to a tool so one can open the template workflow and then copy the tools in the template into the workflow being worked on.  There are instances where we use the same tool combinations like for dynamic file naming and output.

 

Regards.

I hope have a flexibility to adjust the print area workflow.

in the canvas.

 

it similar to excel print area, so we can adjust all the area easily.

for security. it may add function to check whether all tools is covered in print areas.

it is hard to cut the workflow to pieces when it is huge. 

 

 

Hi,

 

Can we get this list updated?

 

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Videos/Video-Training-Index/td-p/45161

I think it is one of the most interesting sources of knowledge on Alteryx community but unfortunately, it wasn't updated for the last year. 

It is possible that new sessions will be added here?