Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Hi all,

Hope you are doing well! Recently I have come across a use case where I had to dynamically rename columns based on Field name ánd position. While I was able to come to a solution using a set of tools, it got me thinking: would it be possible to include the Fieldnumber function exactly like already has been done in the dynamic select tool (i.e. 'Select via a Formula - Column Position' example)?

For example, one would write: IF ([FieldNumber] = 1) OR ([FieldNumber] = 3) OR ([FieldNumber] = 7) THEN [_CurrentField_]+"_Code" ELSE  [_CurrentField_] ENDIF

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

Formula Tool --> Functions --> Operators list

The operator titles for the two comment functions are too similar, the difference cannot be determined unless checking the hover text.

Can the title for /* Comment */ be adjusted to make it more clear that it is for block or multi-line usage?

I didn't understand the difference until I saw this post on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7165816592063266817/

/* Comment */ --> /* Block Comment */   |   /* Multi-line Comment */

Writing to XLSB Files using Delete and Append does not behave properly.

Alteryx currently is having an issue with writing to an XLSB file using the Delete and append option with Take the file/table name From field.

Issue:

• Old data gets deleted, and new data is added but on the wrong row.
• New data is added after location where old data was originally.
• This output error for XLSB files only shows when using Take the file/table name From field. Static paths are fine.

Workaround:

Create a Batch macro to simulate the Take the file/table name From field function without actually using it.

Example of Issue:

I received a "string variable switched type" error on the filter tool performing a basic filter on the value column of "is not empty" after a transpose tool.  The value column is datatype of  V_String 255.  So even though the values are null, blank, number, text, it is all string as per the data type column flowing in.  When switching from basic to custom with formula: IsEmpty([value]) same error.   BUT, when using the Formula Tool to generate a new column for true/false there is no error. Also the Fitler Tool works as expected with IsNull on this dataset.

Please look into the isEmpty code in the Filter tool so that it behaves correctly.

Please note that pre-splitting the data with the isEmpty flag column using the formula tool, applying IsEmpty Basic Filter  to the True and To the False both worked without incident.  

What would be nice is if there is an error in the filter tool that it would output those to it's own stream.  Something like - True (T), False (F), Error (E).

Add Unicode category to the cleansing tool

Hi currently if you use the cross tab tool and the names of the new fields should have special characters they end up being replaced in the new headers with underscores "_", and then need to be updated in someway. It would be great if this was all done in the tool. In other words the new headers have the special characters as desired

Alteryx is great for for forecasting but it would be useful if we could use it for back casting (predicting historically). Might have fewer use cases than forecasting but would still be useful.

Hey it would be great if we could use alteryx designer on macs (without needing to use VDIs or splitting the hard drive)

Hello all,

As of today, the error message when trying to activate a license doesn't give any useful information :

I want to know :
-do I manage to access to the Alteryx Licensing? (so maybe a security/proxy issue.. so I have to contact my IT)
edit : for that there is another message usually

-is the key correct but not more seats? (so I have to contact the Alteryx License manager) Or another issue?
Here, I perfectly know the license key is correct so the error message is really misleading.
-also displaying the machine id as it appears on the License portal would help.
-and anything that can be helpful to debug.

Best regards,

Simon

I know that the container title/label should or can be short, and as much descriptive as possible. Also, adding extra comments inside the box helps to a more detailed explanation on regards what process is run inside the container. Visually, if I collapse the container, the "Short" title given can't be of much help.

Could it be possible to enhance the "caption" for the "Container" title? I mean to allow to type 2, 3 or more lines of text?. This will make the Container title more descriptive and visually will allow to have the containers collapsed but with a reasonable amount of text that describe (as much as possible) what happens inside the container.

At the moment, If I type certain amount of text, the container expands according to the length of the text 

Below is the typical container Title 

Below is the current situation if a person would like to give a bit of more description in the "Container" header (The container expands)

An dream would be to have the workflow with all containers collapsed and with titles that tell you what they do (see image below)

I am using Alteryx as an ETL Tool and then QlikSense for data visualization.

Alteryx only gives QVX outputs which are the old version QlikView files. It works for QlikSense but it slows down the system. So, the QlikSense support suggested using QVD outputs. 

I want to suggest supporting QVD files as QlikSense is being used more widely instead of QlikView, most users are migrating to QlikSense.

It would be more useful and efficient if Alteryx supports latest file format.

Hello all,

It's really frustrating to have an "alteryx field type" in In-Database Select. It doesn't even make sense since we're manipulating only data in SQL database where those types does not exist. What we should see is the SQL field type.

Best regards,

Simon

We have lots of tools that create new column(s) from the Inputs, e.g., Generate Rows. It'd be very nice if the new column(s) is/are highlighted in the Output. This makes it a lot easier for users when developing the workflow.

Good morning!

This may be a very simple thing, but would it be possible to add a DateTimeQuarter() function? We have DateTime Second, Minute, Day, Month, and Year, and being able to have an easy formula for the quarter as well would be incredibly convenient. 

Thanks,

Kat

Sometimes, Control Containers produce error messages even if they are deactivated by feeding an empty table into their input connection.

(Note that this is a made up example of something which can happen if input tables might be from different sources and have different columns so that they need separated treatment.)

According to the product team, this is expected behaviour since a selection does not allow zero columns selected. This might be true (which I doubt a bit), but it is at least counter-intuitive. If this behaviour cannot be avoided in total, I have a proposal which would improve the user experience without changing the entire workflow validation logic.

(The support engineer understands the point and has raised a defect.)

Instead of writing messages inside Control Containers directly to the log output (on screen, in logfile) and to mark the workflow as erroneous, I propose to introduce a message (message, warning, error) stack for tools inside Control Containers:

1. When the configuration validation is executed:
1. Messages (messages, warnings, errors) produced outside of Control Containers are output to the screen log and to the log files (as today).
2. Messages (messages, warning, errors) produced inside of Control Containers are not yet output but stored in a message stack.
2. At the moment when it is decided whether a Control container is activated or deactivated:
1. If Control Container activated: Write the previously stored message stack for this Control Container to the screen and to the log output, and increase error and warning counts accordingly.
2. If Control Container deactivated: Delete the message stack for this Control Container (w/o reporting anything to the log and w/o increasing error and warning count).

This would result in a different sequence of messages than today (because everything inside activated Control Containers would be reported later than today). Since there’s no logical order of messages anyways, this would not matter. And it would avoid the apparently illogical case that deactivated Control Containers produce errors.

Currently when debug mode is entered in analytic apps and macros, the direct inputs to the app/macro when the error occurred are hardcoded into a workflow in debug mode, so that errors can be more easily detected.

However, inputs into analytic apps also create global variables which can be used in the more code-heavy aspects of Alteryx such as the Formula Tool. These are not updated in the same way which can cause workflows to break in debug mode - it would be really helpful if global variables could be updated in the same way as the inputs into tools are.

Everyone knows the importance of adding the appropriate controls and governance to your workflows - and often, this means including events that will generate notifications if a workflow is running with errors.

But who is the audience of that email? If it's not a developer, will that person know what they are reading and where to focus?

How about a developer that would like to customize the message that the end user will receive?

Porting some existing functionality from other tools in the Alteryx toolkit to the Events page could easily provide added flexibility to event generation:

1) Add a formatting bar to the tool like shown in the image below

-- Style changes

-- Alignment

-- Highlighting

-- Coloring

-- Images

2) Add a function bar to the tool like shown in the image below

-- Ability to view all available variables

-- Ability to apply formulas using variables

-- Ability to save formulas

What do you think? Give this post a thumbs up if you find the post helpful!

It would be great if we could add example workflows to our macros, accessible in the same way as from the original tools (example hyperlink shown after single-clicking on a tool in the tool palette or when searching in the search bar).

There is a post on how to do it for custom tools How to add an example link in the custom tool (alteryx.com). The way described there has limitations and does not seem to work on macros: I was able to get the link to show up, but nothing happens when I click.

My suggestion, make it easy to add an example workflow to a macro, like it is to change the logo or add a help link.