Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Hello all,

This is a very interesting feature of the List Box and Drop Down interface tool : the ability to select fields

However such a feature is not available for in-database, highly limiting the use of macros.

Please change.

Best regards,

Simon

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)

The current update notification in Alteryx Designer can feel overly persistent and disruptive — especially for enterprise users whose Designer must stay compatible with an Alteryx Server version. Users often see repeated prompts to upgrade Designer to the newest version, even when doing so would break compatibility with their organization’s Server, which can cause errors, confusion, or rework.

Proposed Solution:

Server Version Awareness:
When Designer is connected to Alteryx Server, automatically check the Server version and suppress any upgrade prompt that would lead to a version mismatch.

Flexible Dismissal:
Allow users to snooze or permanently dismiss the update notification for the current version cycle - or dismisal longer than 30 days which is the current max - rather than re-seeing the prompt each launch.

Impact:

Prevents accidental incompatibility between Designer and Server

Reduces user frustration with repetitive prompts

Why This Matters:

Many organizations cannot upgrade Designer independently of Server, and compatibility mismatches lead to support tickets and lost productivity. A smarter, quieter update experience respects these realities and makes version management more reliable for everyone.

Hello all,

A few years ago, I asked for svg support in Alteryx (https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Ideas/svg-support-for-icon-comment-image-e... ). Now, there is Alteryx Designer Cloud with other icons... already in svg !




So I think it would be great to have an harmonization between designer and cloud.

Best regards,

Simon

If the tables in the config window has lots of rows, it is quite complicated to find those of interest. 

Please add a filter or search option (e.g. by the field name) to display only the relevant rows.

It would also be helpful to select or deselect multiple selected rows with one click.

Find an example from the "Select-Tool":

Hello all,

As of today, when you want to retrieve or create a file on Apache Spark for Databricks, you have only two choices :  CSV and Avro

However it's clearly missing parquet file type :
-it's faster
-it's better for storage
-it's standard and already supported as input/output of Alteryx or for HDFS so doesn't seem hard to add here.

Best regards,

Simon

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.

Hello all,

We all have experienced these last years the now famous concept of hide/unhide password :
Here a few examples of it

I would like this exact principle everywhere we have a password on Alteryx.

Best regards,

Simon

In some cases, the information about incoming columns to tools are (temporarily) forgotten, e.g. if Autoconfig is switched off, if the incoming connection is temporarily missing, or if column names are generated dynamically and the workflow has not been executed, yet.

Many tools deal with that situation well, e.g. Selection, Formula, or Summarize. In these cases, the tools tell the user that they cannot find incoming columns, but they preserve the configuration so that the user still can (at least partially) work on these tools and important information on the configuration is not lost:

Example Select Tool

1. First step: Connections present, configuration typed in:
   
2. Second step: Connection cut, confguration opened. The configuration looks screwed up but implicitly contains all settings:
   
3. Third step: Connection re-connected. The configuration is as before:
   

Other tools behave the opposite, for example Unique or Macro Input (an for sure many other tools). If the incoming columns are currently unknown to the Designer and you click once on the symbol, the entire configuration of this tool is lost. You might try to get the configuration back by pressing undo. This, in most cases does not work. Or, even worse, you find out what happened later when it's too late for undo. In this case, you either have an old version of that workflow to look up the configuration or you have to re-develop it. In any case, this is unnecessary and time-consuming software behaviour.

Example Unique Tool

1. Step 1: Connections present, configuration typed in:
    
2. Step 2: Connection cut, confguration opened. The configuration is empty:
   
3. Step 3: Connection re-connected: The entire configuration is permanently lost:
   

I wasn't sure whether I should report this as a bug or a feature enhancement. It is somehow in between. Two aspects tell me that this should be changed:

• Inconsistent behaviour of different tools for now reason,
• Easy loss of programming work, resulting in time-consuming bug fixing.

Please make sure that all tools preserve their configuration also if information on incoming columns is temporarily lost.

Today, I am able to take an excel file from a folder and drag it onto the canvas, which automatically creates an Input Data tool.

I would like to be able to drag an excel file right from outlook to do the same! 

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

Hello all,


As of today, we use the good old alias in-memory to connect to our datasources in in-memory. We have several environments so we use constants in order to change the name of the in-memory alias during execution.

To illustrate :

Depending of the environment, the constant « v_gp_contexte » will take different values :

• GP_DS08_SIDATA for la dev.
• GP_EE_SIDATA for prod.

Sounds nice, right? But now, we would like to use DCM and the nightmare begins :

We can't manually change the name and set the question :

if we look at the xml of the workflow, we only find an id so editing it is useless :

(for informationDCM connections are stored in some sqlite db in C:\Users\{yourname}\AppData\Local\Alteryx

So, I would like to use the DCM inside the in-memory alias (the in-memory alias is stored and can be edited), just like for in-db connection alias.

Best regards,

Simon

I can't even count how often I looked at an Excel, CSV or even YXDB file, where I KNEW that it was generated by Alteryx, but I couldn't remember the workflow. Currently, I have to simply go through all workflows I ever build and see if I can find it.

Theoretically, I could use a text-search across all workflows and see if I can find the output names - problem here: Most of my output filenames are generated dynamically on the run.

It would be amazing if Alteryx could simply write the Workflow name (maybe even path) into the metadata of a file.

(Screenshot from Google, as my os is set to German) 

How about, we write "This file was created with by "Create Controlling Reports.yxmd on 2023-02-06 with Alteryx Designer 2021.4.298434" in the field 'Comments'?

This would make it extremely easy to find what workflow the file generated. I think it would be an option to talk about "filepath" instead of filename, but the filepath could include the local machine name, which might include GDPR information.

@Community: Is there any additional information that you'd like to see in the metadata?

Best

Alex

Today, there is an checkbox to "Disable All Tools that Write Output" within the Runtime settings for a workflow.  Setting this option requires at least 3 clicks:

• Click on the canvas
• Click the "Runtime" tab in the Configuration pane
• Click the checkbox

Could a keyboard shortcut be added for this?  I've spoken to several users who leverage this feature and, while it is already a time saver, it seems helpful enough where a keyboard shortcut is warranted.

Hello,

It's nice to have this OpenAI Connector but it seems it must be the default OpenAI URL. In my company, we use OpenAI on an Azure instance and I'm unable to connect to it.

(by the way, I know pre-sales teams have developed lot of connectors for fireworks, mistral, etc.. it would be very cool to have it available).

Best regards,

Simon

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

Hello,

Here is the proposal about an issue that I face frequently at work.

Problem Statement -

Frequent failure of workflows that have either been scheduled or run manually on server because the excel input file is sometimes open by another user or someone forgot to close the file before going out of office or some other reason. 

Proposed Solution - 

The Input/Dynamic Input tools to have the ability to read excel files even when it is open so that the workflows do not fail which will have a huge impact in terms of time savings and will avoid regular monitoring of the scheduled workflows.

Very often, I used a container to make notes about certain parts of the workflow. Some of the comments that I created are pretty long. Could the user have the possibility to have at least rows for the title of the container?

I have created a screen to show what I have in mind. Potentially users could have the ability to turn this option on or inside the container?

Dynamic Input should either:

(a) have the option of merging files with different field schemas

(b) Return a list of rejected filepaths

One of the problems I have with using Alteryx is the frequent need to input a bunch of files, but a few have an extra/missing field. The extra/missing field is often unimportant to me, but it means that the dynamic input doesn't work.