Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

It will be a really nice feature if we can sum up values horizontally (row by row), as what we can do in Excel. This will give us more flexibility and hot to have to transpose data first in order to do the sum, especially when data set is really large. It is very time consuming to do all the preparation work to set data ready.

Please add the ability to minimize Alteryx during loading as well as minimize the app. I would like to do other tasks while Alteryx is loading. However, it operates as its more important than other applications and can not be minimized. Additionally, it would be nice to hide/minimize the app.

As a developer I want to Cache & Run all/selected inputs in a Workflow with one command. Maybe even with a keyboard shortcut?

 

Be able to have a round function similar to Excel's Round Function. Basically, be able to round "5 and up" or "4 and down" based on the number of decimal spaces we choose. This would be similar to what is taught in grade school and would resolve 80% to 90% of the rounding issues in Alteryx. Most of rounding solutions provided are too technical and worthless. This is very basic and common sense. (FYI - I don't know if this helps, but I believe Excel only goes out to 13 decimal places before cutting it off, maybe if Alteryx could do the same with the rounding it would be helpful. 

 

Currently I'm pulling the exact same data through two different workflows, and getting two different amounts slightly off from each even though both use the same raw data source and datatype.  

Many legacy applications that use Mainframes have certain data encoded in EBCDIC  in DB2 tables(variable length columns  that can have 0-100s of iterations in a single EBCDIC encoded compressed data). When this data is downloaded to a platform like Hadoop that does'nt understand EBCDIC data , It appears as junk characters . 

 

I solved this issue in my project  using an approach designed/implemented in PySpark script[ separate logic needed for COMP , COMP3, X(alphanumeric)  datatypes] .Having this functionality in a Tool can help many Organizations that  use data from Mainframes applications.

Hello,

Well, the title is pretty simple : it appears that the tendancy right now is to  have web version of any software on a server.

A few notes about that :
-a lot of Alteryx competitors are already in this mode and it's hard to sell you're still with a desktop-only mode for design, even if the product is far better.
-a good idea is the one used by Qlik with Qlik Sense : they still have a desktop and a web version of Sense but the desktop works mainly as an hidden browser plus an engine. The web version is cool too because you can make your own application, or your own data connection etc..
-the main interest of a web implementation of Alteryx would be to reduce installation on client computers (and that means packaging the installer, managing the data connection, the paths, the access to macros... etc) and to have a better control of the users.

PS : this idea is soooo simple and so obvious I'm surprised I didn't find it. It may be a duplicate.

It would be nice if you could add blank space or separators between elements in the visual layout tool. 
I want some additional spacing between data tables/charts. 

 

Currently, my work around is adding a blank report text box. It is not the most streamlined solution, but works. 

In the Visual Layout Tool, is it possible to improve the naming capabilities?

 

Upstream in the workflow I named tables. 

 

However, in the Visual Layout Tool, Tables are listed as 1,2,3 despite the names assigned earlier. 

With several tables, it is difficult to keep track.

 

 

 

Transfer of records from Python SDK RecordRef seems to be slow sending large amounts of data to the Alteryx Engine (e.g. discussion here). Although unclear of the exact specifics, it seems that there's a copy and convert process in play.

 

Apache Arrow appears to be addressing this issue, and the roadmap and specs are impressive! It seems like (again I have no understanding of the Alteryx Engine specifics) that something like this would be excellent for expanding SDK use cases as well as for other connectors such as the Apache Spark connector.

 

And it looks like it'd be fun to build into Alteryx! 🙂

I have been working in some large files where I end up wanting to highlight several tools that are connected together, copy them, paste them and what to insert all at the same time in the same order into another section of my workflow and still have the tools around it connect the way things work when you are dragging in one tool at a time. This would save a lot of time of having to delete connections, drag tools out to make room for the ones I want to add and then reconnect everything back together again. I perform this sort of  thing on a regular basis and it adds time when I am trying to save time by connecting the same series of tools I was just using.

When writing a good amount of code, it is easy to get lost in a sea of parentheses.  Just when you think you're all done, you get an error that can force you to scour through your code to find the missing, extra, or misplaced parenthesis. 

 

A common feature today is to highlight a parenthesis when its partner is clicked on.  This instantly lets you know if you have the wrong number of them and where. 

 

I didn't think this was that important early on in Alteryx, at least for me.  Formulas were meant to be short and easily readable at a glance.  Now as I dig deeper, there's R, Python, SQL and other text-heavy inputs. 

 

I don't need a full-fledged text editor in Alteryx, but I would love some quality of life features like parentheses matching.

I hope that there will be a radio button or a check box where Auto Save on Run can be disabled.  Auto Save on Run is a bad idea.  I often go into workflows and only need one report - so I break a bunch of connections to other reports, maybe I make some other small adhoc or one-off type changes and then Run the workflow.  I get my one, maybe modified, report and close without saving.  So the next time I open the workflow it's as it should be. 

 

With Auto Save on Run - I'd have to undo everything I changed.  What if it's not my workflow to be changing?  If there is no option to turn it off:  I'd have to make a copy of the workflow, open and make changes, then run, then close, then delete the workflow.

 

In general, you should never be saving unless it is a deliberate act performed by the user.

When opening an App in Designer - you are generally opening it to work on.  It should not open as an App but rather it should open as a Workflow.  Maybe make it so if you hold down the Ctrl or Shift key and opens the App - it opens as an App and you can test it out.

I just downloaded Alteryx Designer 2019.2 yesterday and got busy straight away but couldn't help notice that while I like the general look and feel of the tool and general design language, I'm concerned that configuring the tools I work with will require so much scrolling.

 

Could we add the ability to set the zoom level of the configuration pane like we do in the workflow window or have some form of control on how the config pane sizing of contents.

 

I have attached the config panes using the crosstab tool as an example with 2018.4 on the left and the new 2019.2 on the right. I took care to snapshot both versions the same dimension for a more apples to apples comparison.

Now that 2019.2 is officially released I'll raise this here as I know it was raised as part of the beta testing. With the new interactive browse tool when filtering results the record numbering restarts.

 

For example in this window from a weekly challenge, I originally have this:

Then when I filter on the Allocated column for records where the Allocated amount is 0, I get this:

And as you can see the Record on the left hand side is numbered 1 - 15, so when trying to locate one of these lines to check the formula is working as expected it makes it difficult to isolate, where as if I knew that filtered record 10 was actually record 394 in the data I can then scroll to that point.  

 

I know a solution to this would be to add a record ID field to the data, but this is not always needed.

From discussions the new distribute auto spaces when distributing. Any chance we can get a spacing setting in the user settings. Settings would be like we do our grid spacing except we would separate the horizontal and vertical spacing(set number of pixels for horizontal/vertical). This would allow people to have a different vertical spacing compared to their horizontal spacing. Particularly helpful for heavy formula usage. Thanks.
Also take into account ability for it to stay snapped to grid. Example I use a 72 px grid size for ease of lineups. With the new distribute it pulls between those grid snaps

I’m sure this has happened to you.

You’re working on several workflows at a time and you’ve made some progress on one of them but not saved it yet. You then try open the same file again in error and somehow, as you’re trying to declarer by closing windows, you mistakenly close the workflow you’ve made all the changes to without saving, leaving the one open without all your changes.

I’d like a similar situation where for example, you get an error message if you try and open an excel workbook if it is already open on your desktop.

I'd appreciate the ability to use the Find and Replace tool and "Find" on multiple fields as if it were a join. Currently, in order to flag clients (who are repeated across the data set) with some records that I've already isolated that meet certain criteria, I have to create a compound key for the client and the flag and then use Find/Replace on the compound key. I'd rather use a Find/Replace where multiple columns match (ex: Client, Product, Month, Shipping Depot A, etc.) and skip the compound key step if possible.

Hello Product Management,

 

I'm trying to emulate a graph from the book, Effective Data Visualization by Dr. Stephanie Evergreen.  Here's what I have so far:

 

This was a little bit of work to create and while it isn't what I exactly had hoped for, it does approximate my attempt.  Ideally, I would do the following to complete the exercise:

1. Have a Y-Axis (none) line on for both Old/New Sites (dual-axis)
2. Replace the Y-Axis number with the Label for the departments
3. Remove the (line) from the label

As observations, in order to add carriage returns to NOTES, i had to use HTML tags <br>.  The settings for points and lines required me to do lots of configuration.  Maybe a format painter would help to copy the format from one set of point/lines to the next.  Once I completed a chart/insight it would be "nice" to be able to copy and configure the other.  If you have an insight and wish to create a chart, you have to reconfigure the new element from scratch.

 

I do have an error in the creation of the chart that says, "Error parsing configuration."  I have no idea what error exists.  I submitted a ticket on that issue.  

 

I haven't created this chart via Excel, but the textbook shows you how to create the result in Excel.  The graph is easy for me to see and to understand.  I like it and think that it could be a valuable way to demonstrate the potential for Alteryx visualizations.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark