Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Currently SharePoint Input Tool allows downloading a file from SharePoint to local machine, then we can process it locally, this is great since the tool can only handle 3 types of files and won't support the rest like Zip or anything else.
SharePoint Output tool, only support the same 3 files type, but will not allow uploading to SharePoint a local file, similar to the input tool but in reverse. Why is this important:

1- We can create local files that is in a format like KML, KMZ, ZIP etc., which we can't upload it to SharePoint after.

2- updating multiple sheets on the same file, updating locally then uploading the file to SharePoint will be a lot faster and more efficient. 

it is easier to overcome above challenges if we use Alteryx Designer and Sync the SharePoint, or map it to local drive or folder. but it is impossible to do it when using and scheduling it on Alteryx Server.

Please update the SharePoint Output tool to allow uploading any type of file(s). 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.

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. 

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!

sometimes we deal with hundreds of columns and it's hard to scroll and locate a specific one in the Data panel.

In the Metadata panel it's easier to locate the fields by scrolling vertically, however it would be even easier if we could click on the 'Name' column header and have that temporarily sorted so as to quickly locate a given column.  (This would be IDEA 1).

Additionally, but not necessarily dependent on IDEA1, if we could have the Record number of each of the fields in the metadata, also included alongside their respective names in the Data panel, that would make it for much easier location of particular fields in the Data panel, as users could look for a given field in the Metadata, find their 'order number' and then switch back to the Data panel and scroll directly to that number.

Additionally, column name search buttons could also be added to both Data/Metdata panels for a 'contains' like field name search.

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!

*unknown field is not available in the interface list box when it connected to a macro input.

i wish it has the "*unknown" field like in the select tool.
because it normal that the data flow has new columns and need the macro to take care the new columns. 

as an analysis software. The result window plays a crucial role.
However, the numbers are not left-aligned, making it difficult to identify the number in the first grant.

and as most coding editor, monospace is recommend. it help to identify text length as well

Suggested Settings Adjustments:

1. Change of Font Type and Size: Include options for different fonts, including monospace.
2. Alignment: Provide options for left, right, and center alignment.

3. Option show whitespace

I would love to have the option to easily disable a section of the workflow while diverting around the disabled tools.

I know the Detour and Detour End tools exist, but I think this functionality could be improved.  My idea would be either/both of the following functions.

Break links between tools.  Think of a workflow as a circuit board and the connection paths between tools as parts of a circuit.  With every tool connected/enabled the full circuit is complete.  However, if there is a section of the workflow which is temporarily unneeded, it would be great to have the option to break the connection between tools and then reconnect at a later point to complete the circuit.  My idea would be to have the option on a line/path to break the connection temporarily (greying out the tools downstream) and enabling it further downstream.  It's similar to what the Detour and Detour End do, but without needing additional tools on the canvas

Alternatively, if you were to select the unneeded tools in the workflow and place them into a container, then disable it, it could skip those disabled tools without breaking the circuit.
[ tool ] ---- [ tool ] ---- [ tool ] ---- [ tool ] ---- [ tool ] ---- [ tool ]

The Predictive tools, such as Linear Regression, come with the Alteryx Predictive Tools download, which is in the Alteryx Designer license download option. You have to click Download, then click the radio button for the version you want and click next, then have to download the Alteryx Designer AND the Alteryx Predictive Tools. This has caused confusion - based on the name (Predictive Tools), many, including myself, thought that they would be a part of the Alteryx Intelligence Suite license; I didn't have that, so thought I couldn't use them. But it turns out that they aren't a part of the AIS license, but the regular Alteryx Designer license. I just had to go through that confusing process of downloading Alteryx Designer and Alteryx Predictive Tools. To help customers avoid confusion and make it simpler, it would be awesome to have a single option that would get me both (just having to download Alteryx Designer instead of Alteryx Designer AND Alteryx Predictive Tools).

When jobs have run successfully in scheduler, retain a baseline average so when items are in the queue much longer than normal, an alert can be sent.

This will allow us to kill stuck jobs and free up resources.

When a workflow group is created/saved, could it by default always open the tabs in the order they were in when the Workflow Group was created?

As of now, the workflow tabs open at some undeterminable order and the user must take great care to switch from tab to tab in intended order. Sometime they are in the "correct" order, other times they randomly appear in different order. 

When running a job in the gallery, a file output has to be chosen every time, even if there is no other option. I propose that under "My Profile >> Workflow Defaults" users be able to choose a preferred default file format for outputs. If it is available then the gallery will automatically choose that, otherwise the user can pick. 

I work with lots of Excel files, and because they don't always consistent schema, I'm often changing the configuration.

The default Window frame/window for the "Options" panel in the Input data tool only shows 3-4 rows, plus title (the section in RED in the image below).  As I have large screens 

The panel size can be resized by dragging the line above the "Preview (first 100 records)".  However, once I move from this tool, if I return to the tool, it defaults back to 3-4 rows, plus title.

I would like to be able to set the default size of the Options panel/frame/window.

• This would improve my efficiency when setting up flows
• This would improve debugging - I would be able to see all my parameters at a glance

I was exploring how to make the Outlook 365 tool run faster, and I noticed in my Action tool that there are Start and End Date parameters. However, they come across as these large numbers. I learned today from Alteryx Support that "The numbers you provided for StartDate (1725163200000) and EndDate (1726751052709) represent Unix timestamps in milliseconds. Unix timestamps indicate the number of milliseconds that have passed since January 1, 1970, at 00:00:00 UTC."

While I am attempting to build a custom macro myself, it feels like this enhancement could just be included in the tool itself! Relatively simply conversion using DateTimeDiff([#1],"1970-01-01 00:00:00",'milliseconds') 😊

Edit: it's there for the Calendar option, but ideally it could be included for the Email option too! And while you can you the search parameters, we could make it easier for the user.

When using "Find and Replace", the content of the search term field ("Find") is cleared when switching between workflow windows. From my perspective, there's no reason for that. Why does Alteryx Designer decide that I don't want to search for the same term in another workflow?

Please change that behaviour that content in "Find", "Search Locations", and "Replace:" are preserved when switching between Designer windows.

I have a sales column in my dataset that includes both a dollar sign and a period (e.g., '$320,000.00'). When I use the data cleaning tool and select 'Remove unwanted characters' with the punctuation checkbox, it removes both the dollar sign and the period. However, I only want to remove the dollar sign. It would be great if @Alteryx could allow users to specify which character they want to remove after selecting the punctuation checkbox. Thanks!

Hello team,

It would be really nice if user interface tool can be set with a default set up that will flow into the connected tool. Currently it will always been blank as no data flow in.

There are ways to bypass it as run the automation in Open Debug, but then if you want to amend the the automation you need to go back to the original WF and then run it again with Open Debug.

Of course you can set a static data for these fields however then you must remove them before saving it to the Gallery, which might create future errors if you are forgetting to delete the static data.

So if I added a Select Date, it will be nice if it will be possible to select a data in that tool and that date will reflected in the WF. It is less an issue at the development part as normally at that stage these tools will not be set up, however when you need to upgrade existing WF or amend one due to changes, that's were it will be very handy and will save a lot of time.