Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

One of the common issues when you build macros is the error "the schema of macro output XXX has changed between iterations"

So the next step that we commonly follow is to put a select tool into the flow just before the macro output - and convert all the fields to a specific type; untick the "unknown" field; and then sometimes have to go into the XML to add the "Forced = true" flag into the XML so that it doesn't change over time:

Please could you add an option under the "Options" tab to force / lock down the type of every field with one click?     That would eliminate dozens of clicks on every creation of a macro.

Thank you 

Sean

Hello,

I am currently testing whether my company could use OneDrive as repository for all of our new projects.

Example path:

C:\Users\MyUserNameFolder\CommonCompanyOnedriveFolder\SpecificTeamsDirectoryFolder\

"C:\Users\UserName" is dynamically changed part of all dependecies located on our Onedrive TEAMS folder. In order to dynamicaly define that part for all of our input/outputs we have to utilize GetEnvironmentVariable("USERPROFILE") function at all input/output routes.

Problem lies with macros. Although I can use %TEMP% user variable to define paths for all macros, I wasn't able to replicate that with %USERPROFILE%

<EngineSettings Macro="%TEMP%\CommonCompanyOnedriveFolder\SpecificTeamsDirectoryFolder\OneDriveTesting\testingmacro.yxmc" /> works

<EngineSettings Macro="%USERPROFILE%\CommonCompanyOnedriveFolder\SpecificTeamsDirectoryFolder\OneDriveTesting\testingmacro.yxmc" /> doesn’t

Could you please enable all user/system variables to be detected at runtime (even custom ones)?

This would enable Alteryx Designer to support cloud based storage folder natively, as filepaths for all OneDrive based files stored locally would be dynamically changed across users with a particular workflow opened.

Alteryx version 2020.4

Hello!
I have recently come across something within Alteryx that caught me by surprise. Currently when you are within the configuration window of a tool (in this example, the browse tool) and use ctrl + backspace (shortcut for deleting a previous full word), a blank character is instead added.

Please see example:

Currently in the Browse tool configuration

Go to change the Name of the tool - and naturally to clear it, use ctrl + backspace:

[] is added to the end. From what i can gather, this is a 'control character' , used when an application does not support ctrl+backspace.

Ctrl + Delete however, is supported.

I am proposing for this character/functionality to be supported. I believe the configuration window is the main - and potentially only, i couldn't find any other examples - place this is not supported.

Hope this makes sense!
TheOC

I tend to use a lot of the 'Names' for the connections. 
If you're not familiar with this option, or the above makes little sense, when you select a connector (line) on the canvas, within the configuration window, you can enter a 'Name' (or just some text) in the box, that will then appear on the canvas. 

I'd like this option to be expanded on. 

Rather than just putting in some text, I'd like the ability to have the text centred on the line between the tools. Maybe have the text a different colour. One definite option I'd like is for 'Wrap-Text'.

I tend to use this option to make notes on my workflow, as I find that it looks better than a comment box or tool annotation. It's useful if your workflow has multiple streams and you want to note what one stream does. 

As an example of how I use it: 

To be able to have this 'Wrapped' would make it so much neater. 

Only a 'small' change I guess(?)

It will be helpful if we can set the Importance (Normal/High/Low) of an Email sent by ALteryx. 

A new option can be added in the existing Emailer event (see attached)

Best Regards!!!

Currently if I drag a tool onto the canvas and it has multiple input anchors, Alteryx will try to connect to the first input anchor from the output of the nearest tool I am hovering near.

However the improvement I would like to see is where there are specific tools which are required to go into each input that it 'intelligently' connects to the correct input, for example on the gif below I have a PDF input and PDF template tool (pre-computer vision), and when I bring the image to text tool in, it will try and connect the output of the template tool into the D input anchor, when the correct input is the T anchor. What this leads to is me having to delete a connection and then re-wiring which slows down the development time.

It would be awesome if we could edit annotations while the workflow is running.

I love annotating all my tools, and I'm often sitting there looking at my canvas right after hitting run and thinking, "I should annotate that!" and then moving on and forgetting after it's run.  I'm not sure if that's feasible or not, but I think it would be neat.  

In order to make it easier to find workflow logs and be able to analyze them we would suggest some changes:

• In the log name instead something like "alteryx_log_1634921961_1.log" the log name should be the queue_id for example: "6164518183170000540ac1c5.log"

This would facilitate when trying to find the job logs.

 To facilitate reading the log we would suggest the following changes: 

1. Add the timestamp 
2. Add error level 

For the example of current and suggested log: 

 Please consult the document in attachment.

In the suggested format the log would be [TIMESTAMP] [ERRORLEVEL] [ELAPSEDTIME] [MESSAGE] 

Hello,

It would be very helpful to have a search box for field names in the summary tool, I think it would help decrease errors by selecting fields by mistake with similar names and will help gain a couple of seconds while looking around for a specific field, particularly with datasets with a lots of them.

Like this:

This error may be encountered and replicated when you are using an image in the reporting "Header" tool where the path contains an "&". Yes this is rare, but possible and sometimes you want to keep the path, but can't update the path name. If you select the image in a path with an "&", then you'll get an error similar to the following:

Error: Report Header (36): The Action "Update Image Tool" has an error: ParseError: Unterminated entity reference, 'D' at line 2 and column 19
while processing "Action_UpdateRawXml"

A discussion began in 2016 on this topic:
Solved: Insert Image in Report Header: ParseError: Untermi... - Alteryx Community

It would be easy if there is an alteryx tool or in the input tool a configuration  to put an excel password and it opens the file to use it on a workflow.

Adding "Lightning Bolt" connectors to the standard workflow tools to allow dynamic automation of the settings would be a game changer. I believe that this would enable us to create universally dynamic and adaptive workflows which could be used as drop in solutions for most datasets. This would turn the standard tools into a dynamic ones and dramatically reduce the tool count to accomplish dynamic tasks, and make complex workflows much easier to internalize. Making standard workflow tools more dynamic would allow us to easily dynamically incorporate conditional tests / values / fieldname selections / bypass / etc into tools like detour / filter / formula / unique / transpose / crosstab / summarize / Outputs / etc. I would also like to see the ability to utilize a bool field to bypass any given tool in a workflow. That way we could do things like conditionally bypass an entire formula tool which would dramatically simplify complex formula construction, turn on and off inputs / outputs, simplify error avoidance, etc.

In order to build complex dynamic conditional workflows with the current tool capabilities, most of us are forced to use custom macros (often a multitude of workflow specific ones as well), constantly add and remove formula created fields for message relay, and create complex multi-routings / tests / unions in a standard workflow with large numbers of tools and containers. This hides many of our tasks within short-term use fields / custom macros and it makes the rest of our workflows voluminous and less intuitive.

On the User Interface side, I recommend a simple approach. Next to the standard tool setting there should be a dynamic input option which allows you to select the source field in the lightning bolt connector. Next to that, there should be an icon that can be clicked on to pop up a short text description and a basic screen shot of data in the correct format for dynamic input. I would also like to see a check box at the bottom for manual tool "bypass" which can also be dynamically controlled. (This would especially be helpful on outputs, but it would also be helpful to allow formulas and filters to be kept in place for future use even when they should not currently be used) Turned off tools could be highlighted in a red background or something.

This would be useful for anyone creating dynamic and adaptive workflows, but it would especially expand Alteryx Designer's capability to attract more custom software developers like me.  It would dramatically reduce the need for a large number of complex workflow specific macros that clutter our systems. Users that find the traditional workflow tool approach easier for them could easily use the tools as normal by simply using the standard manual settings. Advanced users could simplify the creation of universally dynamic and self adaptive workflows.

The language options have been so helpful for our Global team; is a Korean language option under consideration for Designer & the online training courses? 

Hello,

  After used the new "Image Recognition Tool" a few days, I think you could improve it : 

  > by adding the dimensional constraints in front of each of the pre-trained models,

  > by adding a true tool to divide the training data correctly (in order to have an equivalent number of images for each of the labels)

  > at least, allow the tool to use black & white images (I wanted to test it on the MNIST, but the tool tells me that it necessarily needs RGB images) ?

  Question : do you in the future allow the user to choose between CPU or GPU usage ?

  In any case, thank you again for this new tool, it is certainly perfectible, but very simple to use, and I sincerely think that it will allow a greater number of people to understand the many use cases made possible thanks to image recognition.

  Thank you again

  Kévin VANCAPPEL (France ;-))

  Thank you again.

  Kévin VANCAPPEL

Building a custom tool is nice, but the best way to show someone how to use it is to have an example. It would be great if we could package example workflows into a yxi file so our custom tools have samples to start from. 

When building a workflow with testing tools, you tend to want to be able to put these in container and then minimise this to improve readability of the workflow.

For example instead of this:

You might want to minimise the error checks like this:

However when running apart from reading through the results window, there is no immediate indicator that there is a tool inside the container that has errored:

So the feature enhancement request is to add in an exclamation marker to show the user that a tool inside has an error and you can then easily open it up and investigate further.

I would really like to see .dif files added as a file option to the output tool. Currently, I have to output as an excel file and then open the file and save as a .dif file format. Figure if Excel can save the file format, Alteryx should be able as well.

Thanks,

Hi,

I am not sure if it is only me, but quite often, I am getting distracted. I believe I am not the only person bombarded by the amount of notification/ping on chat etc. That is the reason why quite often, I forgot what I am doing.

Let's imagine a scenario like this. I want to use the date-time parse function. First, I look at the data. I want to figure out what the format is, and I want to start writing a formula.

I know what format it is, and I am writing a formula in a formula tool. I remember the date was the first position but what was next? I got distracted. I don't know the original formula was structured.

Wouldn't it be cool to see the results from the previous tool still when working on the new one?

My workaround is to copy-paste pics into one note when I am working on something but I am not a big fan of a workaround like this 😀

While it is good to have the test tool stop outputs based on tests, it isn't too insightful to users on the full details of these error messages. It would be more useful to have an output location for a test if these errors appear so that end users can troubleshoot instead of the workflow developer having to work through all of the error messaging.

There are workarounds for this that can be used, but they are often extensive and require the addition of significant logic. Adding optional outputs to the test tool would be a simple fix that could save a lot of hours of debugging when end users find an error.