Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

In version 10.5 if the taskbar is auto-hidden and alteryx is the active window - you cannot access the taskbar by moving the mouse to the bottom of the screen.

You have to use the windows key or switch to another application window

I would love to see a detailed change log to help when I encounter issues after upgrading from one version to the next. For concrete examples, I've come across these issues recently:

1) Files saved to %TEMP% were displayed to the end user in the 10.0 but not 10.1 when running in the gallery. 

2) The cross tab in 10.1 would run with a warning if you had column heading of "p_d" and "p d" where the space in the latter item is changed to a _ and then one of them is renamed with a 2 at the end ("p_d" and "p_d2").  In 10.5 you now get a warning and an error and the workflow stops. I've attached a sample workflow.

I'm all for bugs getting fixed and the improvements not always being backwards compatible, but I struggle with some of these when I can't reference a detailed change log. For some context, I've also attached a change log from some other software I used in a previous life. Anytime that a change in coding could affect past results, there was a note in the change log to identify these changes to the end user.

It would be great if you could link a comment box to an object.  This would be great because if the objects moves for what ever reason the comment would stay with it.   

I've come across multiple requests for help that relate to dates.  Having to know that "2016-05-04" is the only way to get May 4th, 2016 into a date field is sometimes a challenge for new users.  When they begin to use date functions and now have to learn adding and trimming etcetera the complication factor increases.  Then we date time format and have to do all of this in English (my one and only language), makes me think that there is room for improvements.

I am always coping the open workflow path for various reasons - would love a COPY button right here to copy to clipboard.

Please?

Currently, the default location for autosaved files is "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Alteryx\Autosave".  It would be nice to be able to customize, the same way you can for the working directory.

We encountered an issue with clob data.  Looks like alteryx is very slow performing while loading clob data to Oracle database. We need to figure a better way to handle the clob data.

I'm in a situation where IT has to install all my updates, so I always forget if I have Admin or non-Admin installed.

It would be nice to have that info onthe "About" screen within the software itself.

Had to get on a live chat with support today to get the secret decoder ring to figure it out.

Let's put it where it makes more sense and is easier to find...

Let's put it where it makes sense and make it obvious!

It would be nice if I had a workflow that had multiple paths to be able to run only one line of it.  This would allow me to only run what I needed so instead of having to run the entire workflow, I would be able to run up to a certain point and only run tools that are required to get to that point.  

Other tools that I have used allow you to determine where you are caching from so instead of always having to cache at the input, you could cache after a big join.  This would be great for efficiency as having to run everything through the entire workflow every time is innefficient and I end up spending a lot of time waiting for my workflow to go through the same tools.  

Under options/restore defaults, it would be nice if the canvass could be reset (I sometimes lose windows), but the favorites be left intact.

Thanks!
Susan

I see the mention of VR but has anyone talked about touch screen capabilities with Alteryx?  Would make even the tough projects more fun!

Could you please assess the idea of reverse engineering existing SQL code (in special inside DataWarehouse's code, thousands of LOCs filled with SELECT and JOINS) and replace it with Alteryx widgets?

Doing this will accelerate penetration rate of Alteryx products in large companies and dismantle IBM Cognos and their cousins.

Would love to have a 'common used' tab, rather than a favourties box (as that lags what I am currenty using).

Would be nice to have it look at my usage and create sort by frequency of use table. Could also be done with all users as well (some kind of opt-in telematary data?).

I saw this article (Oculus App Makes Programming Tangible To Non-Coders) and immediately thought of Alteryx.

How about a virtual reality based version where the user can be in the canvas and reach out and touch their data directly?

I love that Alteryx lends itself to good workflow documentation, but I'd really like to be able to add a bit of basic formatting within my comment boxes. I tend to have one large (read: verbose) box at the top/beginning of the workflow describing the purpose of the workflow and quirks of the datasource to watch out for, and it would be easier to read these if I had some simple options like Bold, Italic, Underline, numbered list, bullet list. You know, the sorts of things you can do in basic HTML email? Those. I want them!

I think it would be extremely beneficial to have the customization option to rearrange tools within their panels in the tool palette.

This would allow the user to group frequently used tools in their desired order, which would make navigation of these tools easier.

As an example, having the ability to place Data Input as the first tool in the palette would make a lot of sense to me, as its usually where I start building a new workflow.

Sometimes I need to replace the last instance of something, such as change the last comma to an ampersand ("A, B, C, D" becomes "A, B, C & D").

Currently I do

ReverseString(ReplaceFirst(ReverseString([Subtypes]), ",", " &"))

One function to do this would be helpful.

Many times; ideas for new ways to use Alteryx come to me while I'm not at work.

Most of the time that happens, I can use RDP via VPN to get to my work desktop.

But sometimes it isn't easy to do that.  Like when I'm driving, outside for a run, in the shower.. you get the idea.

My point is that there should be a mobile app for Designer (iPads and Android tablets).  The mobile app wouldn't necessarily need to be connected to the actual sources live (maybe require a template used for input for ODBC; but allow connections to HTTP/FTP/local sources). 

The user would design the workflow, and then have the option to email the schema to themselves (or others) so that once back at work, one could pick up where they left off.

Although I would prefer to use it on an iPad, it could technically be used on an iPhone as well.

For an example of how that could look, see the iOS app "Workflow".  That, in combination with the now defunct "Schemes" was a great way to do visual programming similar to what we do in Alteryx.