Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Right now in order to pass a parameter to pre/Post SQL we need to make a macro as a work around.

It would be really great if this was a native capability for the output tool so we don't have to replicate all the output too fields as macro inputs

Please add support for windows authentication to the download tool.  I know there's a workaround but that involves using curl and the run command tool.  The run command tool is awful and should be avoided at all costs, so please improve the download tool so I can use internal APIs.

 

The CrossValidation tool in Alteryx requires that if a union of models is passed in, then all models to be compared must be induced on the same set of predictors. Why is that necessary -- isn't it only comparing prediction performance for the plots, but doing predictions separately? Tool runs fine when I remove that requirement. Theoretically, model performance can be compared using nested cross-validation to choose a set of predictors in a deeper level, and then to assess the model in an upper level. So I don't immediately see an argument for enforcing this requirement.

 

This is the code in question:

if (!areIdentical(mvars1, mvars2)){
        errorMsg <- paste("Models", modelNames[i] , "and", modelNames[i + 1],
                          "were created using different predictor variables.")
        stopMsg <- "Please ensure all models were created using the same predictors."
      }

As an aside, why does the CV tool still require Logistic Regression v1.0 instead of v1.1?

 

And please please please can we get the Model Comparison tool built in to Alteryx, and upgraded to accept v1.1 logistic regression and other things that don't pass `the.formula`. Essential for teaching predictive analytics using Alteryx.

 

Hi,

 

I wasted a good old chunk of time dealing with non-breaking spaces, and Alteryx could be improved by handling this automatically.

 

A space is a space, right?  Nope, there are spaces (ASCII value decimal 32) and there are non-breaking spaces (ASCII value decimal 160).  They look the same, but have slightly different behaviour in certain circumstances, like when text is auto-wrapped.

 

The DataCleansing tool cleans spaces, but leaves non-breaking spaces.

The Data Grid puts a warning on cells with leading or trailing spaces, but remains silent for non-breaking spaces.

 

I was trying to match two strings, that looked identical.  I had DataCleansed my cells, and the grid was showing me nothing wrong with the data.  In desperation, I copied the two data cells that I expected to match to a text editor (Textpad), and then examined the binary ASCII values of the data.  One cell had a trailing non-breaking space, and that caused the failure to match.

 

This was hard to find.  For someone less hopelessly nerdy, it would be practically impossible. 

 

As a small change, it might be really useful for Alteryx to include non-breaking spaces in it's definition of "space", such that DataCleansing tool removes it, and the Data Grid flags up the cell as having a leading or trailing space.

 

You could pick up non-breaking spaces from HTML, or from Excel.  I think mine came from a SQL script but I am not sure how it was there.  They are out there, and they will bite.

It would be lovely if the Image tool supports GIFs when using the .PCXML and HTML options in the render tool.  Understandably, it would use it's .PNG format when using other render options, such as PDF etc.

Hi,

 

i recently started working on Alteryx and would like to ask if its possible to have preview of data when using In database tools working with db tables.

I have to invest more time on seeing the result using browse tools which again slows bit the performance on queries just to see the results.Also each step you have to add browse tool.

 

I have worked heavily on powerbi and see this as prime need as in PBI you can work on the visible data itself and figure it out right away how the transformations are working.if preview feature with cache options are given i guess that would be a big booster for Alteryx users.

 

Thanks,

Brij

We have 'CountDistinct' and 'Concatenate' options within Summarize tool. 

But 'Concatenate' displays all the instances of value for a Grouped field, this might include lot of duplicates.

It would be great to have an option like 'ConcatDistinct'.

 

For example - 

 

Group by 'Branch' and 'ConcatDistinct' Customer should result as Figure 1 instead of Figure 2 - 

Figure 1-

 

Figure 2-

 

While this is achievable in different ways currently with a set of tools, but it gets tedious when number of fields is large from which distinct values are to be captured. 

 

Thank you,

Rohan.

It seems Alteryx does not have option to add metadata while adding the S3 object using S3 data connector. It has to be done using REST API calls via download tool or via javascript tool. As S3 is widely used now to store large files it would be handy to be add the functionality to add or extract metadata via S3 connectors.

It will also be useful if S3 connectors accept a field name in the object name instead of hardcoding the name or path.

Hey Community,

 

How many times do you need to follow a Text to Columns tool with a data cleanse tool? For me it seems almost every time

 

Wouldn't it be great if Alteryx could incorporate some of the data cleanse functionality into the the Text to Columns?

 

If you agree VOTE NOW!

 

@LordNeilLord

Part time Tableau, Part Time Alteryx. Full Time Awesome

The "Open Example" feature that has been implemented for many tools helps new users quickly learn how to exploit Alteryx.  I would like to see Alteryx make further investments in this area and in particular I would like to see enhanced and organized documentation for functions with more and better examples.  I would encourage Alteryx to engage its ACE community and the other advanced users who are active in the Community to contribute to this effort. 

Looks like several users are losing floating panes when they go from dual monitors to one when undocking from a workstation: 

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Setup-Configuration/How-to-recover-results-screen-when-going-from-d...

I've got six workflows up on my screen now and must reboot. I would like the option to save the workspace and reopen all flows at once.

Cheers,
Mark

In some corporate instances that I have encountered, browsing to the internet is not supported. What I've also seen is private instances of wiki media and yammer. Perhaps we could extend the browse to support these types of instances.

Cheers,
Mark

 

 

Random forest doesn't go well with missing values and create gibberish error results for Alteryx users.

 

Here are two quick options better to add the new version;

1) na.omit, which omits the cases form your data when tere a re missing values... you loose some observations though...

 

na.action=na.omit

 

2) na.roughfixreplaces missing values with mean for continuous and mode for categorical variables

 

na.action=na.roughfix

Best

 

We are big fans of the In-Database Tools and use them A LOT to speed up workflows that are dealing with large record counts, joins etc.

This is all fine, within the constraints of the database language, but an annoyance is that the workflow is harder to read, and looks messy and complicated.

 

A potential solution would be to have the bottom half of the icon all blue as is, but the top half to show the originaling palette for that tool.

ie  Connect In-DB - Green/Dark Blue

Filter In-DB - Light Blue/Dark Blue

Join In-DB - Purple/Dark Blue

 

etc.

 

in-DB workflows would then look as cool as they are !

 

Thanks

dan

Hi,

A lot of companies now are deploying on both AWS and Microsoft Azure.

Alteryx supports AWS S3 object storage out of the box, it would be important to support Microsoft Azure blob as part of the native Alteryx product as well. 

Cheers,

Adrian

This would allow for a couple of things:

 

Set fiscal year for datasource to a new default.

 

Allow for specific filters on the .tde (We use this for row level security with our datasources).

 

Thanks

You should at least have the option to output datetime in a datetime datatype from the DateTimeNow component.  Currently it outputs a string so you have to use another component to parse the datetime to datetime datatype.

I often use the formula component to change the data type of a column, e.g. convert a string to a datetime.  What I normally have to do is create a new column and then use a select to drop the old column.  I would like to be able to do all of this in 1 operation, i.e. make the greyed out 'Data Type' active so I could choose to convert to data type datetime.  Would also be useful to rename the existing column in this operation too.