Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

When a macro that is not "installed" is inserted to a workflow (from a folder), its dependency can also be modified (including the macro inputs, if there are any) from the Workflow Dependencies settings.

I would like to suggest that the macro tools and the relevant files have separate buttons for dependency configurations.

One use case for this would be when a user saves a workflow in a specific location after configuring the paths as All Relative and moving the workflow to an entirely different folder afterwards, making it difficult to find the original location of the macro used in the workflow, also introducing the chance of breaking the workflow when opened and saved with the undefined (question mark sign) macro tool if the underlying workflow XML is not examined by a text editor.

Currently, Dynamic Select and Multi-Field Formula tools both have the option to select fields by type (like Numeric, String).

It is however not currently possible to select which fields will be selected by using a formula in the Multi-Field Formula tool.

Due to having to use at least two tools to select which fields I need and apply formula (optionally changing the data type),

- I first Dynamic Select the fields by the suffixes I have in the field name which specify the data type (like Name_String, Spends_Double)

- I then apply the Multi-Field Formula (at least trim the whitespaces from the fields due to working with CSV files containing fixed whitespace in fields) and change the data type if necessary,

- Finally, I Join Multiple the fields back using the RecordID field I previously added as a key.

This also changes the order of the data and there might be some scenarios where the user does not want the field order changed.

By embedding the Dynamic Select via Formula option to the Multi-Field Formula tool, it will become possible to select which fields will be subject to formula and (optionally) data type change in one tool as opposed to having to use many tools.

Being able to specify a name for the FileName field in the Input Tool configuration would be helpful for cases where a field named FileName is already present in the input data and has a different purpose than the newly added FileName field. Instead of having to use Field Info and other tools to rename the last field into something else (i.e. AYX_FileName), this would be an easier approach.

Hi Team,

With Sharepoint Tool 2.3.0 , We are unable to connect Sharepoint Lists with service Principal Authentication as it requires SharePoint - Application permission - Sites.Read.All and Sites.ReadWrite.All in Microsoft Azure App. However, as those permissions will gets access to all sites in respective Organization community, it is impossible for any company to provide as it leaks data security. Kindly provide any alternative or change in permsiions for Sharepoint Connectivity with thumbprint in Alteryx.

Regerence Case with Alteryx Support : Case #00619824

Thanks & Regards

Vamsi Krishna

The C API for e1 is included in the Designer Desktop installation. The new AMP engine must have a C API as well, but it has not been released publicly.

Let tool and SDK makers create custom tools that plug into the AMP engine by releasing the specifications of the AMP C API.

The Table tool does not allow renaming a field so that it breaks at a specific point.

Fields like "H.S. Dropouts Non-Hispanic" and "H.S. Dropouts Whites" need a forced break after Dropouts.

Now we get random breaks like

H.S. Dropouts

Non-Hispanic

H.S. Dropouts White

The Rename Field function in the Basic Table tool would be a great place to allow forced breaks.

Thanks!

Sometimes when creating a workflow, or a chained application I create fields or parameters in a formula tool and need to be able to quickly copy and paste the entire formula output column into another formula tool across a different part of the workflow / entirely different workflow.

This most often happens when standardizing fields across different data streams. We have the ability to save expressions, but if you save too many that can quickly get messy. We also have the ability to copy and paste a formula within a formula output column...so why not extended the functionality slightly to copy/paste the entire formula output column?

In this proposed enhancement a user could right click on the 3 lines at the top left of the formula section and copy/cut a formula output column between formula tools:

Hello!
Currently when you share a workflow that contains a Directory tool, it will instantly fail if you do not setup the directory tool to point at a similar folder structure. This is expected, but can make it painful to share workflows between multiple users, especially when a shared network drive and dynamic paths cannot be used. 

What I propose as an addition to Alteryx Designer would be the option to 'convert to yxdb' / 'cache and replace' any tools that are at the start of a workflow, similar to the cache and run workflow option:

What i expect this to do is to containerise the tools previously used, and create a new file within a temporary location, and replace the containerised tool connection with a new data input to that file:

Why this would be fantastic, is that it would allow me to now export the workflow, including the file that has been created:

and I could then share that with a colleague.

Kind Regards,

Owen

Apologies if this has been suggested already - did a search and didn't see anything similar.

This is a quality of life/UX idea. The search functionality in the results pane essentially does a 'contains' search on all of the columns (see below screenshots for the filter inserted by the 'apply data manipulations button). As I build workflows and profile the data, it'd be helpful if I could click one or more columns and limit the search bar to just those fields.

Right now, depending on the dataset I could get rows returned by the search due to the search term appearing in columns that aren't relevant. To workaround this I could add select tools to limit the columns or do more robust filters in a filter tool, but having it built in would be very helpful.

When I work I typically have 2 to 3 screens at my desk, or an oversized single screen. Being able to take the results window and float it on to my second monitor is great as it allows me to view more canvas and more data results in one setup. However the results window will not maximize or dock to my second window, would be great for it to have this Windows feature. 

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. 

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

Hi:

I believe the ability for Alteryx Designer to read from/write to parquet files will enhance its capability to serve the DSML community better. Potentially someone can design this connector as part of the App community but given the importance parquet file formats have gained as a columnar storage format (as opposed to something like Avro - which is a row storage format), Alteryx supplying native connectors to such files would be awesome. 

Thank you,

Shiva Badruswamy

Principal Architect - DSML

Stratascale

Currently if I have a connection between two tools as per the example below:

I can drag and drop a new tool on the connection between these tools to add it in:

And designer updates the connections nicely, however if I select multiple tools and try and collectively drop them inbetween, on a connection then it won't allow me to do this, and will move the connection out of the way so it doesn't cause an overlap.

Therefore as a QoL improvement it would be great if there was a multi-drop option on connections between tools.

Alteryx can enhance the interactive dashboard capabilities by adding more visualization options, such as heat maps, treemaps, and network diagrams. This will allow users to create more informative and engaging dashboards, and enable them to better communicate insights to stakeholders. For example, Alteryx can add support for heat maps and treemaps, allowing users to visualize data density and distribution, or network diagrams, allowing users to visualize relationships between data points.

Alteryx should take a look at the BI platform so they can integrate the Dashboard Capability and remove the dependency of Visualization tool and become one stop solution

Alteryx can add more advanced machine learning capabilities, such as deep learning and neural networks, to its existing set of predictive modeling tools. This will allow users to perform more complex and accurate analyses, and enable them to tackle more sophisticated machine learning problems. For example, Alteryx can add support for deep learning frameworks like TensorFlow and Keras, which will allow users to use pre-trained models or create their own models for image and natural language processing.

Alteryx can improve the data connectivity options by adding more built-in connectors to various data sources such as big data platforms, cloud-based services, and IoT devices. This will enable users to easily access and import data from a wider range of sources, without the need for complex coding or manual data preparation. For example, Alteryx can add connectors to popular big data platforms like Hadoop and Spark, or cloud-based services like AWS and Azure, which will allow users to easily import data from these platforms into Alteryx for analysis.

I think the undo/redo capabilities in Alteryx could be greatly improved. Here is an idea that I think would be beneficial... 

I'd like to see which exact tools are affected by my undo/redo actions. An idea was suggested a couple years ago to move your location on the canvas, but that was not added to the roadmap. Instead, is it possible to add the tool ID to the undo menu so that it is obvious which tool each line is detailing?

This is the current debug menu that shows your previous actions:

When a tool is created, the ID can be displayed in this menu, but this is not shown when a change is made to an existing tool. My suggestion is that the menu would say:

4. Change Sort (3) Properties

This same change should be made in the Edit dropdown menu.

Hello All,

I am not sure whether my idea makes sense or not. 

In today's advanced analytics world, we used RPA for various automation, process simplification, etc. There are CO-BOTs that are designed to run the Alteryx flow as well. Through RPA we are able to log in to the system and tools like Cognos, Oracle, TM1, and so on.

So, I am thinking, if Alteryx developed RPA as a tool in the Alteryx Designer like other tools such as Join, Transform, ML, Computer Vision, Interface, etc. 

I believe the implementation of RPA in Alteryx will prove an Asset, and make Alteryx.com more powerful.

Thanks,

Mayank