Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Context:

We have several workflows, chained together and orchestrated with CReW runner and conditional runner macros, several of which have run command events.

Each developer on our team, when running these workflows on their local workstation during development and testing, must remember to change or disable certain events in several workflows to prevent unintended shenanigans in production.

Since we collaborate on- and version our workflows in Git with a branching model and automated deployment to production, each developer must also remember to revert their changes to- or re-enable these events, before pushing their changes to our shared origin.

This is a cumbersome and annoying part of our local development workflow, and a potential risk (forgetting to disable or re-enable these events could be disastrous).

Suggestion:

Allow developers to define logical conditions for triggering run command events.

This would allow us to dynamically enable run command events, based on the environment in which the workflows are run.

There exists a separate feature request for environment variables, which would be super powerful in combination with this feature request, for obvious reasons.

Hello,

we have several environment in our organization : dev, recept, production.

In order to make that change safe we intend to make several connection (standard alias)  like

PRODUCTION_HIVE

DEV_HIVE

RECEPT_HIVE

In our workflows, we want to use aka:%Question.v_environment%HIVE

Sadly, this solution does not work despite the value defaut. 

I'm only just starting to explore the python and html sdks, but I think this functionality would be really useful for Alteryx tools.

I foresee cases where a custom tool is developed and we want to install it for 20+ users.  Rather than having each user manually open and install the file, and troubleshooting for each of them (which could also become challenging if we want to deploy an enhancement to a tool in the future), I'd like a method (preferably via command line) to automatically install a tool for a user without any interaction/input.

This would allow for targeted tool deployment as well as large-scale tool maintenance as custom Python tools mature in the enterprise space.

I collaborate with a team using Git. We commit all of our work automatically with the exception of the Alteryx Alias file. It must be moved manually into the repository and then other teammates must move it out of the repository manually into their local folder and overwrite the old file. This is not an enterprise-friendly solution. If we could configure the location of the Alias file in Designer, we could set it to live in the repository. That way, everyone could automatically have the latest file with tracked changes. Please create this functionality. Thank you.

Hi there!~

I work as an accountant for one of the nation's largest firms. In my day-to-day work, I utilize alteryx to cleanse and format data provided by our clients in preparation for use in another program that is very specific with its imports.

I was recently reviewing an Alteryx workflow prepared by a colleague. Upon attempting to run it again (with new input data) I noted some data fall out and am now reviewing the workflow tool by tool (first to develop understanding of the developer's mind, and second to make changes where needed).

During this review, I thought it would be very cool to have a Review/Markup view, where each tool could have a checkbox that could be checked/unchecked if that specific tool was reviewed/unreviewed. There could also be a circle function that could bring attention to specific places that are of concern in a workflow. This might work similar to how when one drags an Interface tool on the canvas, appropriate connections above non-Interface tools appear, only it would be a view that could be turned on/off.

In addition, I have a tendency to annotate the heck out of my workflows I create -- however there isn't really a way for reviewers to do this without modifying the workflow annotations nor adding a Comment tool with comments. It's especially difficult to do the later since space might be tight. Having a comment function that only shows up in the Review/Markup view would be amazing and very appreciated as I don't want to visually alter the workflow to accommodate such comments if it can be helped.

It would be even more helpful if a review/markup report (maybe a temporary PDF or .yxdb) that would summarized what was summarized as "reviewed, with no comments", "reviewed, with comments', "unreviewed, with comments", "needs attention", etc.

Lastly, with regards to fallout data, I would like to tag/trace a record and, after running the workflow, have the last location of that record be circled in red (or some other visual cue) on the canvas. Currently, I just create a "Flag" column (or, if it works, track a specific RecordID in Alteryx and follow my best guess of where the data may have fallen off -- something that can be very time consuming when I'm not familiar with the workflow.

The organization I work for has experienced some of the best time savings from Alteryx and currently supplies licenses to our staff members. In particular our Audit function may need to review some client processes, which may be entirely in some part Alteryx. As our managers attain Alteryx familiarity, they may also want to review our workflows for completeness and data integrity purposes. Having these functions above would definitely be something to look into and would further drive the review function further away from other more archaic programs and increase our usage of Alteryx throughout, and I'd be happy to be part of a testing for this if possible!

Thanks!~

Jon

I often have up to ten or more workflows open at a time, several are named and are active workflows that I want to save, and the rest are just scratch workflows where I'm trying something out. When I close Alteryx it asks if I want to save changes to workflows, with the list of all the workflows. If I don't want to save the scratch workflows, I have to cancel, close each one individually, then exit Alteryx again, saving the ones I want to save.

It would be great if there was a check box next to the workflows in the list where you could check the ones you want to save, and it would drop the rest.

A suggestion for the designer product...

When one right clicks on tab showing a workflow, an option should come up to duplicate workflow/macro/etc.

Some of us work in teams to build complex workflows, resulting in various versions that have to be stitched together. It would be amazing to have the workflow on a shared drive and have a mode where multiple users can build, review, and modify simultaneously. (This was one of the biggest sells for our company migration from Microsoft Office to Google suite). 

This would promote collaboration, learning, and more efficient and quality driven workflows. 

When I add a data connection to my canvas - it's only added to the Data Connections window under certain circumstances (e.g. when I use an alias, or the SQL connection wizard) rather than showing ALL data connections.

Given the importance of data connections for Alteryx flows - it would be better if ALL data connections were grouped together under a Data Connection Manager, which was as visible as the results window not buried deep in the menu system - and you could also then use this spot to change; share; alias etc.

In Microsoft SSIS there's a useful example of how this could be done - where the connections are very visibly a collection of assets that can be seen and updated centrally in one place.    So if you have 5 input tools which ALL point to the same database - you only need to update the connection on your designer in one place - irrespective of whether this is a shared connection or not.

In a large enterprise - one of the key challenges is cleaning data in a consistent way.    Many of the big EIM stacks have tooling for this which allows end users to create data cleanup rules, and the Microsoft version is called DQS (Data Quality Services).

Can we please add a connector to alteryx to allow us to drop a DQS cleaning tool onto a canvas - and then the 3 outputs will be

• data cleaned by DQS rules (managed by the data steward)
• error data that is invalid
• any status messages from the DQS call?

This would allow Line of Business users to build their own data cleaning rules consistently in one place, an lift this burden from the data analyst.

Thank you 

Sean

One of the biggest areas of time spent is in basic data cleaning for raw data - this can be dramatically simplified by taking a hint from the large ETL / Master data Management vendors and making this core Alteryx.

Server Side

- Allow the users of the server & connect product to define their own Business Types (what Microsoft DQS calls "Domains")

       - Example may be a currency code - there are many different synonyms, but in essence you want your data all cleaned back to one master list

- Then allow for different attributes to be added to these business types

       - Currency code would have 2 or 3 additional columns: Currency name; Symbol; Country of issue

- Similar to Microsoft DQS - allow users to specify synonyms and cleanup rules.    For example - Rupes should be Rupees and should be translated to INR

- You also need cross business type rules - if the country is AUS then $ translates to AUD not to USD.

- These rules are maintained by the Data Steward responsibility for this Business Type.

- This master data needs to be stored and queryable as a slowly changing dimension (preferrably split into a latest & history table with the same ID per entry; and timestamps and user audit details for changes)

Alteryx Designer:

- When you get a raw data set - user can then tag some fields as being one of these business types

      - Example: I have a field bal_cur (Balance Currency) - I tag this as Business Type "Currency"

- Then Alteryx automatically checks the data; and applies my cleanup rules which were defined on the server

- For any invalid entries - it marks these as an error in the canvas; and also adds them to a workflow for the data steward for this Business Type on the server -  value is set to an "unmapped" value.    (ID=-1; all text columns set to "unmapped")

- For any valid entries - it gives you the option to add which normalised (conformed) columns you want - currency code; description; ID; symbol; country of issue

Data Steward Workflow:

- The data steward is notified that there is an invalid value to be checked

- They can either mark this as a valid value (in which case this will be added to the knowledge base for this business type) or a synonym of some other valid value; or an invalid value

Cleanup Audit & Logs:

- In order to drive upstream data cleaning over time - we would need to be able to query and report on data cleanups done by source; by canvas; by user; by business type; and by date - to report back to the source system so that upstream data errors can be fixed at source.

Many thanks

Sean

When using the Cross Tab tool, the Count option under Method for Aggregating Values only appears when the field selected for Values for New Columns is a numeric field. I can add a numeric RecordID before the Cross Tab and then count on that, but why can't the Cross Tab count non-numeric fields? The Summarize tool can.

Hello,

It would be nice if Alteryx had a way to create a time lapse video based on a date field.  Create a map showing data over time (day, week, year, etc) that shows it cumulative or individual for each time frame.  I needed to map a set of location points, with a date field, to show where and when they opened throughout time by each year or by each decade, so it starts with only a few locations, then keeps adding the new locations with time to show all locations at the end or present time.

Thanks,

Bob

Hey Alteryx!

Here's one. I don't care for the tabs at the top showing each workflow. They are not in order by open date and it's hard to tell whether tab all the way on the right is the final workflow or not... They are hard to X out (especially the last one on the right that seems to have a semi hidden X). Depending on your monitor layout/resolution, you can only see like 10 visible workflows at a time in the gui. If you want to see more, you have to go into the workflow dropdown carrot which AFAIK also doesn't seem to be in any particular order esp when you open up several flows having same name. On a side note - what happened Alteryx? They USED to be in order by open date going across at the top AND in the workflow dropdown... That was useful.

So let get rid of these tabs. It's so windows95.

Instead create an interactive workflow history table (window) similar to what exists in TOAD, sql assist and other database tools (see image below). It's a table in the view but each row would reflect a workflow (formerly a tab). Top row is most recent workflow and moving down the table shows history of workflows.

You could can hover over a row to see details pop up for that workflow OR you could click each row (double click to run?) and workflow becomes visible in active canvas and overview and results window update accordingly. Maybe we could even have more than one active window per session? (sort vert/horz).

Additional benefits/functionality:

1. Slightly more screen real estate which we know you are always looking for and asked about 🙂

2. This could also be an autosave feature. When Alteryx crashes - and it does - when you reopen designer all your history will be there - no loss of productivity! Also high on your list.

3. Have an additional search function where we can search for tool names, comments, annotation, workflow/app/macro names, odbc connections, specific formulas or key words and then we see which history rows match our search criteria (rather than searching using notepad++ 'find in Files' feature in a directory)

4. It's not that much dev time since workflow history is already available in some buried log so why not show some of this metadata to the user in the gui?

Thanks,

Simon

As Alteryx becomes more focussed on the Enterprise - it is important that we build capabilities that support the needs of large-scale BI.

One of these critical needs is dealing with heterogeneous data from different systems that use different IDs for every critical entity / concept (e.g. client; product)

Here's the example:

Problem:

- In any large enterprise - there are several thousand different line-of business systems

- Each of these was probably built at a different time, and uses a different key for specific concepts - like Client & Product

- Most large enterprises that I've worked at do not have a pre-built way of transforming these codes so...

- This means that any downstream analytics finds it almost impossible to give single-view-of-customer or single-view-of-product.

Solution option A:

Reengineer all upstream systems.   Not feasible

Solution option B: 

Expect some reference-data team to fix this by building translations.   More feasible but not fast

Remaining Solution Option:

Just as Kimball talked about - the only real way is to define a set of enterprise dimensions, which are the defined master-list of critical concepts that you need to slice-and-dice by (client; product; currency; shipping method; etc) in a way which is source-system agnostic

Then you need a method in the middle to transform incoming data to use these codes.   This process is called "Conforming"

What would this look like in Alteryx?

Setup

• We would use the connect product to define a new dimension - say "Product".
• Give this a unique ID which is source-system independant; and then add on the attributes that are important for analytics (product type; category; manufacturer; etc)
• Then decide how to handle change (slowly changing dimension or SCD type 0,1,2, etc).   Alteryx should take full responsibility for managing this SCD history; as do many of the competitors
• We then create a list of possible synonym types (within Connect).   For example - a product may have a synonym ID from your supplier; from your ERP system; from your point of sale system.  that's 3 different IDs for any product.
• We then load up the master data - this is painful but necessary

In Use:

• I read in data into alteryx via any input tool
• I bring in a "Conforming" tool off the toolbox (new tool which is needed)
• It asks me which column or columns I wish to conform
• For each - it asks me which synonym type to use
• It then adds a translated column for me to use which ties back to the enterprise dimension - and spits out the errors where the synonym is necessary.

Impact:

In BI in smaller contexts, or quick rapid-fire BI - you don't have to worry about this.   But as soon as you go past a few hundred line-of-business systems and are trying to do enterprise reporting, you really have to take this serious.   This is a HUGE part of every BI persons's role in a large enterprise - and it is painful; slow and not very rewarding.   If we could create this idea of a simple-to-use and high-velocity conforming process - this would absolutely tear the doors off enterprise BI - and no-one else is doing this yet!

+ @AshleyK @BenG @NickJ @ARich @patrick_digan @JoshKushner @samN @Ari_Fuller @Arianna_Fuller 

Hi,

I am working on a macro that has multiple listboxes and xml tree controls in it and the listbox controls have a feature in the top right to select all or none, effectively allowing you to clear any entries you had made and start fresh.  In the tree control, there is no such feature but it would be nice to have instead of having to remember and go through and find all the entries you had made to start fresh.

To the point of the macro interface, when developing and testing using the interface designer, you are able to 'reset' the interface using a button at the top of the left pane.  It would be nice if that was available in the macro interface at run time. And that would solve the issue with the tree control in one step.

Thanks,

Dan

Given Crew Macro Pack increases Alteryx's capability so much, and is used so pervasively, is there a reason to not include Crew Macro Pack in Alteryx Designer or Alteryx Server by default?

Can anyone give a reason why Alteryx wouldn't bundle Crew Macro Pack?

If not, can we get Crew Macro Pack bundled into Alteryx and have official support for it?

A user may need to perform regression test on their workflows when there is a version upgrade of Alteryx. To save users time and effort, users can be encouraged to submit a few workflows in a secure area of the Alteryx Gallery. Prior to a version release, the Alteryx product testing team can perform a regression test of these workflows using automation. Thus when users receive an upgraded version of Aleryx it is more robust and with the added assurance that the workflows they had submitted will continue to work without errors.  

I would like to request the ability to connect to a SharePoint List to bring data from and write data to via Windows Authentication.  Currently, the only way to connect to a SharePoint List is via username/password which does not work for our current environment.