Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Hello,

For those unfamiliar, static type checking in Python is a process that analyses your code without executing it, highlighting any potential errors such as type mismatches. An example of this is MyPy (https://github.com/python/mypy), this tool allows developers to easily address issues before runtime - which is a personal gripe of Python (and why I love Alteryx so much).

I believe that integrating static type checking, such as MyPy, into Alteryx Designer could vastly improve the users experience. A user of Alteryx Designer expects intuitive feedback - generally through the error red exclamation marks or messages, and this change should align the Python tool to the expected functionality.

Data Connections and Workflow Credentials are key part of migration process for workflows to Gallery.

They are provisioned for each user upon request.

When a developer leaves the organization, there is no easy way to identify all the Data Connections and Workflow Credentials assigned to that user.

Current options in the Gallery is for the Admin to browse through each Data Connection and Workflow Credential, navigate the Users tab and identify the list users. 

For a large organization with many Data Connections and Workflow Credentials it will hard to manage this since.

1. If the workflows change ownership, the new owner has to be given access to the Data Connections and Workflow Credentials.

2. Remove user access to the Data Connections and Workflow Credentials.

A Gallery page in Admin should include all Assets a user owns/has access to which includes the following. By selecting a user, the list should populate.

1. Workflows
2. Schedules
3. Collections
4. Data Connections
5. Workflow Credentials

We have implemented a solution to capture this information by getting the details from MongoDB. Also an automated process where the list goes to the manager when a developer leaves the organization so that he can manage the assets by identifying a new owner for the assets.

In the new version, we have an easy way to change ownership of a workflow in Gallery. In the same manner other Assets also should be taken care.

Most tools do not result in record changes: Select Tool, Data Cleansing, Record ID, Formula, Auto Field, Multi Field/Row, etc.  It would be nice to be able to tell Alteryx which tools to display the Connection Progress; specifically the Record Counts.  It would reduce the clutter/noise and allow the Record Counts to only display for the tools that matter to the analyst/user.  Right now it displays for all tools regardless of whether the records changed or not.  My hope would be to tell Alteryx to only display the Record Counts for tools like: Input, Output, Filter, Join, Summarize, Crosstab, Unique, etc. and ignore all other tools.

I would like the ability to configure a default naming convention for yxdb files created through the "Cache and Run Workflow" feature.  For example, the naming convention could be <YXMD filename>-<ToolID>-<CreatedDateTime>.yxdb.

This would make it easier and faster to identify and re-use yxdbs.

Cache function is very useful when executing very long db request.

I'd like to see a checkbox option (in workflow runtime settings for example) to enable/disable automatic caching of first execution for all inputs tools.

I used to use a software before (LabVIEW) and it had the capability to exchange code via snippets or as part of png images. I think this will impact not only community, but also facilitate the code exchange

Include a tool specific configuration to allow for the ability to turn off annotations on that specific tool instead of the global setting to turn them all off.

This would especially be useful for the SORT tool.

I find myself wasting multiple clicks in order to eliminate the annotations every time I insert a sort tool into my process flow, since it is rare when I actually need to include an annotation.

Whether it is a date range or a numeric range, I would like an official tool that can tell me where the gaps exist within the range.

Hi, I have been using different tools for some time now and now I started using Alteryx. It would be better if you can provide a feature to select particular components of workflow and on clicking Run, only selected components gets executed. It would save lots of config  time and resources. In case none is selected, the workflow shall execute all tools/functions as it is currently running.  I am open to test these features, if approved by Alteryx Team.

Please allow disable or ignore conversion errors in SharePoint List Input. 

In SharePoint List Input I see the same conversion error about 10 times. Then....

"Conversion Error Limit Reached".

Can you simply show the error once or allow users to choose to ignore the error? (Union Tool allows users to ignore errors).

I am not using that SP column in my workflow. Meanwhile I have to show my workflow to a 3rd party within the company. SO annoying to see errors that do not apply to my workflow being shown.

Github support. push/pull your workflow code directly to/from a repo. I posit this is the single biggest feature misisng form Alteryx -and I'm be happy to blab on and on to the product team about how not having this is a huge miss.

Hi Team,

I understand there is no .dmg i.e. direct macOS installation package is available to install directly on Mac instead we have to use other third party apps to install WindowsOS and then use it.

However I would suggest that if Alteryx can have a web version or something called Alteryx Public (similarly that Tableau has for their users) which users can use and explore the tools with limited to basics functions and to understand the UI and experience the tool itself by having hand-on it.

Please find the below Tableau Public snapshot for reference purpose.

I am looking forward as I am keen on exploring Alteryx as a beginner and become expert one day :)

Thanks,

Sachin

To rename a workflow, usually we have to save and then name the workflow. Could you please consider adding a feature of renaming a workflow after "Close" & "Duplicate"?

When a workflow runs on the server and the server tells me there was an error with Tool ID 103, I'd like to be able to open that workflow in my designer and search for that Tool ID 103.  We have some really large workflows and it takes a long time to manually locate that tool.

It would be great if you could include a new Parse tool to process Business Glossary concepts formatted using the SKOS (W3C) standard in the next version of Alteryx.

SKOS is a widely used standard for the representation of concept and term relationships. It provides a consistent way to define and organize concepts (including versioning), which is essential for the interoperability of these data.

We believe that supporting SKOS in Alteryx would be a valuable addition to the product. It would allow us to:

• Improve the interoperability of our data sets with other systems (M2M)
• Make it easier to share and reuse our data sets
• Provide a more consistent way to describe our data sets
• Bring down the costs of describing and developing interfaces with other Government Entities
• Work on some parts of making our data Findable – Accessible – Interopable - Reusable (FAIR)

We understand that implementing support for this standards requires some development effort (eventually done in stages, building from a minimal viable support to a full-blown support). However, we believe that the benefits to the Alteryx Community worldwide and Alteryx as a top-quality data preparation tool outweigh the cost.

I also expect the effort to be manageable (perhaps a macro will do as a start) when you see the standard RDF syntax being used, which is similar to JSON.

SKOS, which stands for Simple Knowledge Organization System, is a W3C Recommendation for representing controlled vocabularies in RDF. It provides a set of classes and properties for describing concepts, their relationships, and their labels. This allows KOS to be shared and exchanged more easily, and it also makes it possible to use KOS data in Semantic Web applications.

SKOS is designed to be flexible and extensible, so they can be used to describe a wide variety. They are both also designed to be interoperable, so they can be used together to create rich and interconnected descriptions of data and knowledge.

Here are some of the benefits of using SKOS:

• Improved discoverability: SKOS makes it easier to discover and use KOS, as they provide a standard way of describing their attributes.
• Increased interoperability: SKOS allows KOS to be integrated with other Semantic Web applications, making it possible to create more powerful and interoperable applications.
• Enhanced semantic richness: SKOS provides a way to add semantic richness to KOS , making it possible to describe them in a more detailed and nuanced way.

Here are some examples of how SKOS and DCAT are being used:

• The Library of Congress uses SKOS to describe its controlled vocabularies.
• The Dutch Government made it a mandatory standard for all Dutch Government Agencies.

As the Semantic Web continues to grow, SKOS is likely to become even more widely used.

SKOS

• Reference Page: https://www.w3.org/TR/skos-reference/
• Dutch (NL) Standard: https://forumstandaardisatie.nl/open-standaarden/skos
• WIKI Pedia on SKOS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Knowledge_Organization_System
• Video: https://youtu.be/pbTRDDQ43Sw?si=RG3f-jPBsx2OK8IQ
• Tools: https://csiro-enviro-informatics.github.io/info-engineering/semantic-tools.html

RDF

• Reference Page: https://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/
• Dutch (NL) Standard: https://forumstandaardisatie.nl/open-standaarden/rdf
• WIKI Pedia on DCAT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Description_Framework

This is a question which is somehow in between Designer and Gallery ideas.

When saving a workflow to the Gallery, the user can select the Assets (elements which are also copied to the Gallery). The point in time during the save process is a bit questionable from my perspective.

Often, I develop workflows locally until they reach a state in which I want to move them to the Gallery so that they can be included in Schedules or be made available to other users. I would like to be able to select which macros or datafiles are copied to the Gallery as well much earlier in the development process. From my perspective, it would be great if the user could set the Assets settings in the "Workflow Dependencies" window as well. I propose 3 possible values for each element (macro or data file):

• "Auto" → decide on asset when saving the workflow to the Gallery (current behaviour)
• "Yes" → Copy this element as asset in the Gallery
• "No" → Do not copy this element to the Gallery 
• "N/A" → The question does not apply to this row (e.g., directory)

It could look like this:

When I open I'd workflow, I'd like the option click on "something" to see content previous created for the workflow.  The content I'd use most frequently is:  How was the INPUT data obtained?  ALL of the Alteryx workflows I will be creating with my current employer will require some level of pre-build of the data sources.  I would like to document the pre-build requirements (could be pages of text, so "comments" aren't optimal) and be able to ask for them as needed.

Optimally, this feature would accept .docx, .pdf and other standard formats.  Another option would be to support a URL that would link me to the content.  For my purposes, this would be even more advantageous as all of our knowledge content is on-line.

All the input tools like Input Data and Dynamic Input will have a new flag  "Skip on fail" that will process all the data, or none of the input data, or partial of the data requested and will return the data that could be read and do not return any error in the WFs.

If the 'Skip on fail' flag is false - the system should act like it is now.

if the 'Skip on fail' flag is true - the system should return the  only the accepted or manager to read data on the default out put, and can have a second output connection for the error log, so we can parse it and do something with it, but the WFs should still run,

It will very good to connect multiple 2 or more tools by rightclicking and join. similar to cut and connect around.