Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

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.

I think double clicking. a tool will automatically take it to canvas is a good idea and hence a shortcut with it will be nice to have.

As mentioned in detail here, I think that the addition of a "run as metadata" feature could be very helpful for making the analytic apps more dynamic in addition to enabling the dynamic configuration of the tools included in analytic apps chained together in a single workflow using control containers, therefore mostly eliminating the need to chain multiple YXWZ files together to be able to utilize the previous analytic app's output (this of course doesn't include the cases where a complex WF/App would have to be built by the previous app in chain to switch to it, but Runner helps solve this issue to a certain extent provided you don't have to provide any parameters/values to the generated WF/App).

The addition of this feature would be somewhat similar to running an app with its outputs disabled, without having to run the entire app itself, but rather only certain parts specified by the user in a limited manner. Clicking the Refresh Metadata button (which will be active only if there is at least one metadata tool in the workflow) will update the data seen in the app interface (such as Drop Down lists, List Boxes etc.), provided the user selected the up-to-date input file(s) (or the data in a database is up-to-date) where the data will be obtained from.

To explain in detail with a use case, suppose you have two flows added to separate Control Containers where the second CC uses the field info of a file used in the first CC to enable the user to select a field from a drop down list to apply a formula (such as parsing a text using RegEx) for example. After specifying the necessary branch in the first CC where the field info is obtained, the user could select these tools and then Right Click => Convert to Metadata Tool to select which tools will run when the user clicks on the Refresh Metadata button. The metadata tools could of course be specified across the entirety of the workflow (multiple Control Containers) to update the metadata for all Control Containers and therefore all tabs of a "concatenated app", where multiple apps are contained in a single workflow.

With this feature, all tools that are configured as metadata tools (excluding the tools that have no configuration) will be able to be configured as a "metadata only" tool or a "hybrid" tool, meaning a hybrid tool will be able to be configured separately for its both behaviours (being able to change all configurations for a tool without any restrictions in each mode, MetaInfo would dynamically update while refreshing metadata). Metadata only configuration of a tool could be left the same as the workflow only configuration if desired.

For example an Input File marked as a hybrid tool could be configured to read all records for its workflow tool mode and only 1 record for its metadata tool mode. This could be made possible with the addition of a new tab named Metadata Tool Configuration in addition to the already existing Configuration tab, and a MDToolConfig XML tree could be added to reflect these configurations to the XML of the tool in question, separate from the Configuration XML tree, and either one of those XML trees or both of them would be present depending on the nature of the tool chosen by the user (workflow tool, metadata tool or hybrid).

This would also mean that all the metadata tool configurations of a tool could optionally be updated using Interface tools. You could for example either update the input file to be read for both the workflow tool mode and metadata mode of an input tool at once, or specify separate input files using different interface tools. As another example, the amount of records to be read by a Sample tool could be specified by a Numeric Up/Down tool but the metadata tool configuration could be left as First 1 rows, without being able to change it from the App Interface.

Hybrid tool (note how Configuration and MDToolConfig has different RecordLimit settings):

    <Node ToolID="1">
      <GuiSettings Plugin="AlteryxBasePluginsGui.DbFileInput.DbFileInput">
        <Position x="102" y="258" />
      </GuiSettings>
      <Properties>
        <Configuration>
          <Passwords />
          <File OutputFileName="" RecordLimit="" SearchSubDirs="False" FileFormat="25">C:\Users\PC\Desktop\SampleFile.xlsx|||`Sheet1$`</File>
          <FormatSpecificOptions>
            <FirstRowData>False</FirstRowData>
            <ImportLine>1</ImportLine>
          </FormatSpecificOptions>
        </Configuration>
        <MDToolConfig>
          <Passwords />
          <File OutputFileName="" RecordLimit="1" SearchSubDirs="False" FileFormat="25">C:\Users\PC\Desktop\SampleFile.xlsx|||`Sheet1$`</File>
          <FormatSpecificOptions>
            <FirstRowData>False</FirstRowData>
            <ImportLine>1</ImportLine>
          </FormatSpecificOptions>
        </MDToolConfig>
        <Annotation DisplayMode="0">
          <Name />
          <DefaultAnnotationText>SampleFile.xlsx
Query=`Sheet1$`</DefaultAnnotationText>
          <Left value="False" />
        </Annotation>
        <Dependencies>
          <Implicit />
        </Dependencies>
        <MetaInfo connection="Output">
          <RecordInfo />
        </MetaInfo>
      </Properties>
      <EngineSettings EngineDll="AlteryxBasePluginsEngine.dll" EngineDllEntryPoint="AlteryxDbFileInput" />
    </Node>

Please also note that this idea differs from another idea I posted (link above) named Dynamic Tool Configuration Change While the Workflow is Running in that the configuration is updated while the WF/App is actually running and for example the Text to Columns tool in the second CC is dynamically changed using the output of a tool in the first CC, unlike selecting an input file and clicking Refresh Metadata from the App Interface before the workflow is run.

Attached is a screenshot and an analytic app to better demonstrate the idea.

Thanks for reading.

Not sure if API/SDK is the appropriate portion of the product that this enhancement would pertain to, but I thought that it was the most fitting option available.

I understand this is a long shot and would probably never happen, but I think it would be super cool if Alteryx had tools for blockchain development and web3 interaction.

The blockchain space is a complicated space, and every blockchain is a little bit different. So I am not sure exactly sure what this would even look like. But I imagine tools like connect wallet, query events, write transactions or other common blockchain actions.

I think as the blockchain space continues to grow, there is going to be an continued increase in interest in developing blockchain applications including companies that want to use blockchain.

With the state the blockchain industry is in at the moment, I am sure most people reading this would think its crazy, but if the blockchain industry does prevail in the long term, which I think it will, this could definitely be something to keep on the radar.

Think big!

RSA Encrypt data within the workflow prior to sending to an external API, and decrypt response.

It would be fantastic if there was auto-formatting for the Formula Tool (and even other tools, possibly).  The auto-formatting would function similar to Python PEP-8 style, either 4 spaces or an indent on each new line.  This could also be expanded to modify the existing autocomplete functionality of an IF statement with appropriate formatting.

Auto-Complete Current State Example:

IF c THEN t ELSE f ENDIF

Proposed Example:

IF c

    THEN t

    ELSE f

ENDIF

This would dramatically increase readability for lengthy nested IF statements or other complicated functions within the Formula tool.  It would also save a tremendous amount of time when we have to go back and format those functions later.

Dear Alteryx Solution Architects,

When we were implimenting analytics solution for goverment clinet in UAE, we came across a sititation in which, It requires validation of supporting documents for data quality issues.While working on this challenge we have arrived at the conclution that Alteryx has some limittaion in incorporating attchments to workflows.

I would like alteryx to come up with something to overcome this issue.

1. There should be some tool or technique to incorporate multiple attchments (I know  limitted feature of attchment is there in Alteryx but its not great)

2. There should be an option to visualize attachment in Results window if its possible, It will be grat value add.

Thanks

Ajin

Creation of a gradient based background which correspond to where records drop throughout the workflow to identify issues or potential anomalies based on the initial dataflow. It could also certain tools flash when the record counts are 0 for example filter tools, joins, unions etc. 

Sometimes there are hundreds or even thousands of tools in very complex workflows so it would be helpful to track the data lineage. 

It would also be nice to have a tool that summarizes the number of records per each input and how many make their way in to the final tool/output or browse. 

The gradient can be adjusted based on the threshold and it could be added to connections in this case the red indicates there's been 0 records and the filter tool could flash or glow

Hello there

I'd like to suggest if we can add some metrics near the results area that would show the user the the Count of Unique, total count, SUM and etc of the selected records in the results area, to avoid copying selected records and pasting to excel to get these metrics

It's a small enhancement but could improve the user experience when investigating the data and trying to do some validation immediately rather than pasting to excel or adding other tools to get the answer.

Thanks 

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.

My team always run into the issue that two people running two workflow at the same but those workflow using the same excel flat file, then it clash into each other. 

I want Alteryx to develop a feature to allow read only capability to a input excel, that way two workflow use the same input file will not clash into each other, it's very good for running workflow in parallel, this way really increase our efficiency. 

I know this feature is not easy to achieve, we have had chat with Alteryx team before. 

I am opening to alternative solution to this problem. 

Thanks! 

There are currently many encoding options (see also: Input Tool Has Limited Varieties of Code Pages) that are available for use with Alteryx Designer (https://help.alteryx.com/2018.2/CodePages.htm), however only a certain number of them can be directly accessed from the interface. Providing the user an option to enable all possible encoding options (from User Settings) for the applicable tools could eliminate the need for building an analytic app just to pass the output encoding parameter to i.e. the Input/Output/Run Command tools.

One case this could be useful is when there are file/folder names with non-English characters and a Run Command tool is used to execute an operation regarding moving something from/to the folder, where the only option is to use an OEM encoding to be able to correctly pass the file/folder name information, otherwise the characters are not read correctly by CMD.

There are certain constants available for use with the tools supporting formula, WorkflowFileName being one of them. This makes it possible to i.e. capture the date information in the workflow name using RegEx to dynamically filter a field by this information (especially useful in Analytic Apps).

Based on this example, I think it would be useful to make it possible for the users to use the container's name as a constant (such as CurrentContainerName), especially when it is necessary to add a hardcoded value to several tools and update the values i.e. periodically or client-based. This would also make it easier to track the hardcoded values used in the tools.

A new type of Browse tool which can dynamically be renamed through a field could be helpful for the cases where Analytic Apps display output results in Browse tabs. It could both help create the name of the Browse tab dynamically and create multiple Browse tabs automatically.