Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

When I import an Excel file in to Alteryx I get an error: “shared strings root=x:sst” and Alteryx cannot read the file.

I can work around this by manually opening and saving the excel before importing it into Alteryx but this is not ideal, especially considering the automation implications.

I believe this may be happening because the XLSX generated by the source of the report has a prefix “x:” in all the tags in the Shared String XML embedded in Excel. See: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/open-xml/working-with-the-shared-string-table 

Essentially, it would appear Alteryx is not able to read generated Excel sheets which has the prefix "x:" (e.g. from a bot). The second file which has been opened and saved in Excel manually can be read by Alteryx correctly.

Example of file as exported from ”BOT”:

How the same file looks once it is manually opened and saved:

Ideally Alteryx would read the file as is, i.e. with the "X:SST" tag seen above as having to manually open and save the excel before it can be read is rather clunky.

Thanks!

Hi there,

When you connect to a DB using a connection string or an alias - this shows up in the Workflow Dependancies in a way that is very useful to allow you to identify impacts if a DB is moved or migrated.

However - in 2023.1, if you use DCM then the database dependancies just show up as .\ which makes dependancy management much more difficult.

Please could you add the capability to view the DCM dependancies correctly in the dependancy window?

BTW - this workflow Dependancy Window would be a great place to build a simple process to move existing DB connections to a DCM connection!

CC: @wesley-siu @_PavelP 

When you start using DCM - you may have existing canvasses which use regular old connection strings which you want to migrate to DCM.

Currently (in 2023.1.1.123) - when you select "Use Data Connection Manager" - it shreds the configuration of your input tool which makes it difficult to just convert these from an existing connection to a DCM connection

The only way to then make sure that you don't lose any configuration on the tool then is to use the XML editing functionality of the tools and copy across your old configuration.

Could you please add the capability to keep my current tool configuration, but just change from using a regular old connection string to using DCM?

Many thanks 

Sean

cc: @wesley-siu @_PavelP 

Hi there,

When connecting to data sources using DCM - could we please add the ability to make JDBC connections?

see:

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Ideas/Add-the-ability-to-connect-to-data-s...

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Engine-Works/JDBC-Connections-in-Alteryx/ba-p/968782

As mentioned in these threads - JDBC is very common in large enterprises - and in many cases is better supported by the technology teams / developer community and so is much easier to make a connection.    Added to this - there are many databases (e.g. DB2) where JDBC connections are just much easier 

Please could you add JDBC connections to the DCM tooling?

Thank you

Sean

cc: @wesley-siu @_PavelP 

When making any type of macro, it's important to test the functionality of the macro via a debug.  This is accomplished successfully with normal tools, however there's a bug that will not allow the user to debug In-DB macros that use either of the following standard Alteryx tools:  

• Macro Input In-DB
• Macro Output In-DB

If either of these tools are included in the macro you are building, an error message will appear not allowing you to open a debug.  

Error message: Question Tool Load Error:  A question tool with a tool id of XXX is missing the associated question data.

Of course, Macro input and output tools do not require any specific action/question tool associated with it.  This is a bug.  A user pointed out the XML issue almost 3 years ago here:

In summary: "It appears that the tool itself inserts a hidden Question attribute into the XML which can also be seen in Workflow Configuration"

Source:

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Discussions/In-DB-Macro-Input-and-Output-t...

Examples....

A normal macro, using standard tools:

After debugging a standard macro, the Macro Input/Output tools correctly change to a Text Input and a Browse tool.  This allows the macro author to test the macro.

However, when trying the same thing with In-DB tools in a macro, an error message appears:

In-DB macro 1:

In-DB Macro error message (after clicking "Open Debug"):

Why we don't add the search feature in the Multi-row formula same as the formula tool?

I have been very excited about Dark Mode.  Its arrival in 2023.1, whilst only in Beta and with plenty of work to do, means it's party time at my house.

It made me think we need a switch on the main Alteryx page to make it easy to flip between light and dark modes. 

Alteryx is not able to read generated Excel sheets which have the prefix "x:" within it's XML tags.  Often this occurs when an xlsx file is created from a bot or rpa process.  Example file attached.

it would be beneficial to add the same action available in the message result window to be added in the brows tool for the distinct value.

like the copy options. 

Hi there,

When creating a database connection - Alteryx's default behaviour is to create an ODBC DSN-linked connection.

However DSN-linked connections do not work on a large server env - because this would require administrators to create these DSNs on every worker node and on every disaster recovery node, and update them all every time a canvas changes.

they are also not fully safe becuase part of the configuration of your canvas is held in the DSN - and so you cannot just rely on the code that's under version control.

So:

Could we add a feature to Alteryx Designer that allows a user to expand a DSN into a fully-declared conneciton string?

In other words - if the connection string is listed as 

- odbc:DSN=DSNSnowFlakeTest;UID=Username;PWD=__EncPwd1__|||NEWTESTDB.PUBLIC.MYTESTTABLE

Then offer the user the ability to expand this out by interrogating the ODBC Connection manager to instead have the fully described connection string like this:
odbc:DRIVER={SnowflakeDSIIDriver};UID=Username;pwd=__EncPwd1__;authenticator=Snowflake;WAREHOUSE=compute_wh;SERVER=xnb27844.us-east-1.snowflakecomputing.com;SCHEMA=PUBLIC;DATABASE=NewTestDB;Staging=local;Method=user

NOTE: This is exactly what users need to do manually today anyway to get to a DSN-less conneciton string - they have to craete a file DSN to figure out all the attributes (by opening it up in Notepad) and then paste these into the connection string manually.

Thanks all 

Sean

Hi!

Under User Settings, if you could add options to change what Alteryx shows in the tool configuration window. Currently, it shows Field, Type, Size, Rename, Description. I've been using Alteryx for almost 20 years, I've never used the Description field for anything. If Alteryx provided the option to remove it from the view for users who never use it, then the Rename field would no longer get truncated, which is a field I think is more widely utilized.

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: