Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

I keep Connection Progress on "Show" by default. I find that the row count tooltips are crucial for spotting issues during development. Sometimes, the counts are huge and I have to mentally insert commas. Please give the option to add commas/decimals (based on US/EU standards) into the Connection Progress tooltips. Thank you.

A very simple idea, the same principle as the existing filter but there is only one output (true) and there is an on / off button. This could gives users the opportunity to put in a "what-if" gateway into their workflow. 

For example, your stakeholder has asked you to use 'all the data'. Whilst building the workflow, you notice that excluding 2016 data gives you a more accurate / representative end result. However, it is not necessarily your decision to exclude the 2016 data. You put in the Valve Filter tool:

Valve Filter On = Excludes the 2016 data.

Valve Filter Off = Allows all data to go through.

You are able to turn the filter on and off, run the workflow and see / demo different end results (instead of using a traditional filter and creating a separate workflow or a duplicated arm of a workflow).

Until your workflow is complete, you do not always know the full impact of the parameters / decisions you make along the way. The Valve Filter could give users more flexibility.

Is there a technical reason why you can't navigate the GUI while the module is running? There can't be because it works using Overview. Can you enable the scroll bars?

Having the ability to minimize the toolbar would allow more screen space.  Once minimized, the tools should display when you hover over the tool category tab.

I think the Cache and Run Workflow option is a good addition in Alteryx 2018.3 but I think it needs more work to be useful.

For example I build a simple workflow where each tool is fed in by one tool and is used by one tool. So you have a sequence of tools. A -> B --> C --> D -- > E

Say I build A -> B -> C and I put a Cache and Run Workflow option on C, it will run the workflow and cache the output out of C.

But if I build D and E onto it after that event and put the option Cache and Run Workflow on E, it will run the whole workflow ignoring the cache output from C.

Can it be changed where E's Cache and Run Workflow will respect C's Cache and Run Workflow?

Thanks,

Mathew

On the Reporting palette, the Map Legend Builder tool has an extra "the" in the tooltip. I have enclosed an image below. Full disclosure: it isn't a bug, it doesn't affect functionality, and it's trivial. This is version 2018.3.4.51585.

Do you have self diagnosed OCD?  Do you know why 59 could be a magic number in Alteryx?  After long bellyaching in these forums about distribute evenly (+1) and auto layout, and the clean my workflow features I suddenly realized, why not just snap to grid and make my grid size the size of an Alteryx tool?  Voila! only ...no.  Setting the grid size to 59 and snapping only intermittently works. There seem to be varying reference points used for the snap depending on the existence of containers, etc.  So my idea, maintain a single reference point for workflow snapping that should ensure everything snaps based on that point (aligns to the grid).

For those of you still wondering what I'm on about... note how the append tool is shifted.  Yes I know I can click and move it to align with the grid, but it gets cumbersome when dealing with many items in many containers.  One grid to rule them all.

Line UP!

Unless I'm missing the basics, I'm unable to scroll and pan during module runs.  I can zoom in and out, but not scroll or pan.
On large modules, I would love to be able to scroll to different areas to see progress/status of different key points in the process.
Guidance from the experts would be much appreciated!  Thanks!

Most of the times we end up having multiple new workflows open and would have to scram through every tab to identify the correct one. Also when we try to search on Auto saved workflows it appears as  New workflow -1,2,3 etc.

If there could be an option to temporarily name the workflow (like name sheets on excels) before we save,it would be easy and user friendly to identify the workflow as there are multiple iterations that we do before saving few workflows. 

AutoSave View

When opening an Excel workbook or Word document, the Microsoft start screen enables users to minimize or cancel opening. These would be convenient features to add to the Alteryx start screen. Because the Alteryx start screen appears in front of everything you have open, I feel the ability to minimize it would add a lot of value. Additionally, the ability to close it would be beneficial for those times when you accidentally click the wrong workflow, for example.

I want to check out which things downstream are receiving data from the true and false branches of this filter.

I could step through them one by one.

It would be much easier if I could simply select the tool and see directly which tools are connected to which output by colour, or line style.

We have a lot of workflows with a lot going on in them, as I'm sure a lot of you do.

Sometimes, the way that Alteryx draws the connections between tools is loopy, literally.

It would be very helpful if we could explicitly control how the connectors were routed, as this would allow us to prevent them from cutting across other complex areas of the workflow.

Also if we could bundle the connectors (think tying together a bunch of cables with a cable tie) so that things that were heading to the same part of the canvas could route there as a bundle.

So I just realized that if I click F2 I am brought to the annotation window in the configuration window. 

It would be great if I can click F3 to bring me back to the Configuration window! Often times I switch back between configuring and annotation a tool multiple times. 

‘]Thanks,

J

Part of the joy of using Alteryx is watching connections progress, tools turn green, and messages flow to the results window. As workflows are running, the messages provide crucial information for the developers/executors in real time. This UX is absent when running on the Gallery. It would be lovely to run a workflow on the Gallery and let it stream all those messages, and possibly even the canvas, to my Designer window in real time. I could even catch issues/problems and stop the workflow instead of waiting for it to finish on the Gallery and then diving into the log. Is it possible to have the same experience in Designer regardless of executing the workflow locally or in Gallery?

Because this is a desired feature in Designer, I decided to post in Designer Ideas rather than Server Ideas.

When attempting to save from Designer to Gallery the last step of the save is the validation step.  The validation step, as I understand it, checks to make sure there's a valid license on Gallery.  This counts as one of the processing "threads".  If your organization is constrained by the throughput on Gallery, this can cause delays. 

Our business only has the 2-thread service level for Alteryx Gallery.  Consequently, if someone is running long, drawn out workflows on Gallery, this can create delays in saving the file from Designer to Gallery.  It can also cause delays if there's a long "line" of workflows waiting to run.  I presume that the save attempt is put in line along with the other jobs on Gallery that have to run.  If this is the case, it could take a long time to complete the validation--tens of minutes or longer.  

That window being open keeps the user from being able to use Designer at all.  Very inefficient.  There should be a requirement that the user has both valid licenses on Designer and on Gallery before they can run anything on Gallery.  However, the validation of both of those is already accomplished by virtue of the fact that Designer checks for a license whenever the program loads.  Also, if Gallery checks for the license anytime the workflow runs, then the second half of this check is already accomplished and, therefore, renders the check when saving to Gallery unnecessary.  Please correct me if i'm wrong on this. 

Change #1) Please the validation of Gallery license when saving from Designer to Gallery.

Change #2) Please adjust Designer such that you can continue to edit workflows on the same session while other files are being saved to Gallery.

Change #3) If we can't get #1 or #2, please change the queueing process to put attempts to save to Gallery in the front of the line because they should take <1 second to validate the license while other workflows could take many minutes.

*This is an idea from @sayuri  from the Portuguese Community*

• Create a button to add any tool to all output anchors of selected tools (similar to “Add All Browses”)

It should be made more clear when a container is just closed versus inactive/deactivated. Maybe highlight the container header in pink or light red if it's just closed and not deactivated. I've seen others in my group make the mistake of assuming the container is inactive if they simply close it. The current switch is kind of subtle. 

When a user adds a column in the Formula tool, show the data type directly underneath the column name, not below the expression. It's important for the user to set the data type and then build the expression. Otherwise, the user neglects to and then minutes or hours later sees strange behaviour as a result of having the default V_WString. Make the data type prominent because it is important and part of the metadata.