Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Hi,

I am not sure why it is so complicated to troubleshoot formula tools in Alteryx. When I am getting an error with information parse error at char (char number) why we don't get this information highlighted in the configuration tool at the left. 

It should be crystal clear for the user where he needs to troubleshoot his workflow. We can say that the formula tool is showing us where the formula is working, so it isn't so bad.

When working with a multi formulas tool, it isn't easy to figure out where the mistake occurred.

Can we highlight somehow this specific character and make users life easier?

Hello Alteryx,

Would it be possible to extend the "Cache and Run" functionality also to tools with multiple outputs? Our clients use the R and Python tools very frequently and the runtimes tend to be pretty long. For the development purposes, it would be great to have the caching possibilities also on these tools.

Thank you very much for considering this idea.

Regards,

Jan Laznicka

Dear Alteryx Gods, I beseech thee!

The most common use of the Browse tool in the Alteryx Designer is to pop the results out into a full window. Can we PLEASE have a single button to do this rather than this functionality being hidden under the action menu?

M.

Passing data to the next app running in a chain from the gallery varies from challenging to impossible. An impossible situation I've found is when the same user needs to run multiple instances of the app simultaneously. Very difficult is just allowing two different users to run simultaneously without risk of passed data mixing between the two.

This idea would add the capability to pass values from one app in the chain into user variables in the next app in the chain.

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 Interactive Chart configure window cannot be resized.  I'm using a single, large monitor, and this window occupies the entire monitor so that I am forced to switch between windows to see other applications.  Most of the space used by the configure window is wasted white space.  Please update this to allow this window to be resized.

I'm using a 32:9 monitor running at 5120x1440, and the attached screenshot shows the size of the configure window on this monitor - 4986x1286.

Hello!

I had found this quirk whilst working on a fairly large workflow, where i had multiple tools cached to keep things quick. I had moved one of the tools on the canvas to a pre-existing container, and it removed the caching on my whole workflow.

Steps to reproduce:

1) setup a super basic workflow (or any workflow):

2) Cache part of the workflow:

3) drag one of the tools (in this case the formula) into the container:

As you can see, the workflow is no longer cached and i have to re-cache it.

This would be a welcome change as that is an unexpected behaviour to me, and so I would imagine others too. A workflow no longer being cached can cost the developer a lot of time (and potential resource, if hitting a Snowflake instance, for example). 

Thanks,
TheOC

All the other file types have different coloured icons and it works well to differentiate them in a directory. Its impossible to differentiate workflows and database icons currently. 

Currently Alteryx supports floating windows for some of the windows. But I would like to open multiple workflow at the same time. It is good for multiple display since I can view 2 workflows at once, 1 for main development and 1 just for testing a small part before putting in the main workflow.

Simple request to revert back to the functionality that generated an error at the onset of running the workflow.  

Using a wide-screen monitor and canvas, I typically initiate a workflow by clicking the RUN button.  But, in my canvas, I am usually working in the left or middle portion of the screen.  The Run button is to the far right and find myself moving to the right to click the button and then back to my workflow location. 

I'd like to be able to have this relocated or optionally functionality to move this button (maybe even creating a customized personnel quick access toolbar or button panel) to the left portion of the canvas window.  Sure, there is a key board shortcut, but if the button is provided, than it implies that it is a valid UI feature.  I've also seen and liked the ability to have this as a right-click menu enhancement. 

There are three places that provides the log information:

1) Regular results window:

Pro: In the process sequence so the user can understand the order of the process.

Con: Doesn't have info on how long each tool takes to process.

2) Workflow -> Runtime -> Enable Performance Profiling

Pro: Processes are sorted in the processing duration descending order which helps to identify the ones that took long to run.

Con: Doesn't show the process sequence.

3) Actual Alteryx log file:

Pro: There are timestamps for each process so the duration can be calculated.

Con: Not ready accessible and not user friendly to be seen from the interface. Not clickable to see more details in the workflow.

I think it will be SUPER HELPFUL to integrate all three together to show in the process order along with the running time.

I know we have the capability to copy a Tool, and paste it into a Connection. This step requires having to right click on the connection to select the option Paste In Connection. I don't know how many times I've tried to copy tool, click on connection, and do Ctrl + V to paste just remember that it does work that way. It sure would be nice if it did.

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!!!

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.  

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.

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. 

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 😀

For the Image Input Tool please add:

   1) A wildcard input for filename.

   2) A check-box to choose sub-folders.