Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Can you look at improving the table tool? something to look at:

1.  background/alternate color off or none so we don't have any fill color in Excel
2. Table header alignment option vertical AND horizontal - different from row alignment.
3. make it dynamic for rules - so if _currentfieldname contains 'percent' then back ground color =yellow, if contains 'Rank' then green etc. Split between header & data. I know it could be accomplished with a macro and xml but that's a tedious process and having it in the tool just makes sense.

Thanks!

simon

I have a process that joins 3 data sets to identify a specific group of data and apply certain ruling. From this created file, I need to extract the data (not the headings) from specific columns and insert into an already existing template. The template has formatting that needs to remain in order for it to function. 

Is this possible? 

Hello All,

We are new to Alteryx and we could see that the Supported Data Sources from IBM are of below :

• IBM DB2
• IBM Netezza/Pure Data Systems
• IBM SPSS

How about adding IBM Sterling to this?

We want Alteryx to support connection with IBM Sterling OMS which will help the Business requirements

Can anyone post some suggestions on this? How we can connect to Sterling?

Thanks,

Praveen C

I propose an update to the Join Tool to allow users to select "Only right" or "only left" fields after a join.  I like the options you have there currently (e.g., select highlighted fields), it would just be nice to add these options to it. 

I’m writing about a short-coming I see in the Publish to Tableau Server Tool v2.0 (PTTS).  I work in a development environment where we use different Tableau servers (i.e. development, test, production) to support product development.  One of the shortcomings of PTTS is that once the Tableau server information you are connecting to is entered, validated, and the tool is configured, you can no longer ‘see’ which Tableau server/site the tool is publishing to.  I think this piece of information is quite important.  I know I can always us the “Disconnect” button in the tool and re-enter the information so I know which server it is pointing to, but this defeats the purpose of entering that information in the tool in the first place.

Please consider an enhancement to the tool so we developers know at a glance where (server/site) the tool is publishing.  Project and Data source names are helpful, but in a development cycle, all Tableau servers may have the same Project and Data source names across all environments.

I've attached examples of the tool options when being defined and once the tool is configured – notice server URL and Site are aren’t displayed in the tool once it has been configured.

Extend the Gallery, so that you can pass a set of parameters to Analytic Apps changing both look and feel as well as feedback of the App, i.e. allow to call the App "Add Two Numbers" without borders and jumping direct to the question page.

https://gallery.alteryx.com/#!app/Add-two-numbers/5cc704bb826fd31188cf8ad8/run?header=N&sidebar=N&di...

sidebar=Y|N     allows to hide sidebar (home, districts,...)

header = Y|N   allows to hide header line

questions = Y|N    skip question page (only if no questions are available)

direct = Y|N       directly starts App (i.e. directly jumps to the question page)

Idea:

As a method of deploying preprocessing and ML models it would be awesome to be able to convert a workflow to java... 

Rationale:

models are needed to be deployed into Complex event processes or decision systems. Even for SAS there is a need to implement the datastep algorithms and procs to run in JVM.

Quickwin:

It is possible to convert a workflow into a PMML file and then use JMML package to convert that to Java. Yet the full workflow with all preprocessing alternatives and a series of ML methods may not be captured fully.

Competitor example:

For SAS case here is a similar solution: http://www.dullesresearch.com/carolina-features/

If a macro or tool is missing in a workflow, all configuration and connections of said tool is broken, and if you save, all previous configurations and connections are lost.

I am proposing all connections and configurations of these tools are instead 'frozen'; all connections and configuration are saved but not editable (with the exception of deleting them). This would allow collaboration with users who do not have the tool/macro.

Additionally, functionality to be able to manually point towards another tool and maintain the connections/configurations (in case you have the same macro versioned or named differently) would be nice.

There are currently two different types of select tools. The dynamic select tool and the normal select tool. In my opinion there should only be 1 tool and it should be a mix of these two tools.

First the select tool is great because I can select the exact fields that I want, and I can pass new fields through using the "unknown" field. The dynamic select tool is also great because I can write formulas that dynamically select fields. Why not have one tool that does both?

In my mind, it would just look like the select tool, but then on the "unknown" field, I can click on it and configure it. It would basically just open the dynamic select tool interface where I can write formula's etc that select the unknown fields that I am willing to pass through.

For example.. clients add new fields to our data integrations all the time. A lot of the time I dont want these new fields to pass through automatically. But we also do reporting, and reporting could include column headers that are dates (ie sales may 18, sales june 18, etc). As new months appear in our sales data, new columns are added to our reports. I should have the capability to hardcode the fields I want to pass through and then write a formula for the remaining "unknown" fields. In this example I would check mark the fields I know I want, then write a formula that says if the unknown field starts with "sales" then pass it through.

Yes there are workarounds for this type of functionality (such as I could do a dynamic select tool and use the formula function to type in the name of EVERY field that I want to "hardcode"), but that would take a long time if I am trying to pass 10+ fields through.

We extensively use the AWESOME functionality of SharePoint List Input and SharePoint List Output tools.  They're great!  BUT... they require valid credentials to pull back the valid list and view values.  Not normally an issue until you go to share your workflow.  If you strip out your credentials from Alteryx the List and view fields go blank, do it from the xml and when the person you share it with opens it up the fields go blank and you have to count on that user selecting the proper list and view.  

I propose to have these tools load valid lists and views only upon pressing a button or running the macro in initial configuration state.  

Found this https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/SharePoint-Passwords/td-p/17182

and we could use a macro tool but every implementation still requires storing a valid username and password to avoid the error and the list id which I imagine the sharepoint API requires and which is why the tool behaves the way it does is not easily obvious to most ppl.

Idea:

In forecasting and in commercial/sme risk scoring there is a need for trying vast number of algebraic equations which is a very cumbersome prosess. Let's add symbolic regression as a new competitive capability.

Rationale:

Summations, ratios, power transforms and all combinations of a like are needed to be tested as new variables for a forecasting or prediction model. Doing this by hand manually is a though and long business... And there is always a possibility for one to skip a valuable combination.

Symbolic regression is a novel techinique for automatically generating algebraic equations with use of genetic programming, 
In every evolution a variable is selected checked if the equation is discriminatitive of the target variable at hand. In every next step frequently observed variables will be selected more likely.

SR comparison with linear regression neural nets and random forests

Benefit for clients:

This method produces variables mainly with nonlinear relationships. It is a technique that will help in corporate/commercial/sme risk modelling, such that powerful risk models are generated from a hort list of B/S and P/L based algebraic equations.
There is potential use cases in algorithmic trading as well...

There are 3 very interesting world problems solved with symbolic regression here.

A very relevant thesis by sean Wouter is attached as a pdf document for your reading pleasure...

R side of things:

I've found Rgp package for genetic programming, here is a link.

Competition:

I haven't seen something similar in SAS, SPSS but there is this; http://www.nutonian.com/products/eureqa/

Also there is Bruce Ratner's page

Is it possible to add some color coding to the InDB tool.  I am building out models InDB and I end up with a sea of navy blue icons.  Maybe they could generally correspond to the other tools.   For example the summary would be orange.  Etc  Formula Lime Green.

My proposal is to create a new support at Alteryx team level according to provided picture with Alteryx toolbox logo for example in the same philosophy

Move the location of missing fields in the select tool to the top to alert user that field names may have changed in the import source.

The Find Tool (View>Find or Ctrl+F) does a great job of finding text in a workflow.  The window displayed by the Find Tool includes each tool # and the Name from each tool's Annotation tab.

Please consider displaying this additional data in the window of the Find Tool:

- Annotation text for tools

- Caption for containers  (like the right-click Zoom functionality has)

Since Containers don't have a "Name" field like tools do, displaying the Caption for a container would be helpful.

See this thread: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Change-Serch-Results/m-p/388604

Integrate matchit SQL with Alteryx

http://matchitsql.com/

Currently I am unable to use Alteryx's spatial calculations in completing required reporting for CMS.  Its unfortunate, because in my mind Alteryx is a superior approach allowing for customization and seamless integration with varied data sources used within our company.

You might ask, why don't you just use actual driving distance?  The datasets that we are measuring are enormous. +60M member files are being compared to 70K providers.  Alteryx is missing a huge opportunity to get into this market.

Reference

https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Prescription-Drug-Coverage/PrescriptionDrugCovContra/downloads/hsd_meth...

Travel Distance to Providers and Facilities

The second component of the review process tests the percentage of beneficiaries resident in a given county with access to a particular specialty type within the maximum travel distance. For a given county and specialty type, CMS uses the geographic coordinates for the associated providers or facilities and the geographic coordinates for the beneficiaries resident in the county and calculates the travel distance between them. The travel distance is calculated using a formula to determine the estimated driving distance (miles) between the latitude and longitude coordinates and provides an average for the total beneficiaries in the given county

I am currently building workflows on unfamiliar data and using the filter tool on text fields regularly on a large excel file.

As there is no dropdown on the right hand side of the filter tool I find myself needing to open excel and use it's dropdown functionality to find the right text to filter on. I know I could use the summarise tool but each time I run the workflow it takes many seconds to complete before it is populated. It is quicker to use Excel. I am surprised this has not been requested before.

Posting this idea after searching the community postings and then submitting a question to confirm:

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Function-to-convert-to-from-HEX-encode...

I could invest the time into creating a macro to do what I need, or per @MichaelF suggestion a custom formula. However, the functionality already exists in the Blob Convert tool, so I'm suggesting that Alteryx provides that existing functionality to customers in a Formula.

I checked the Conversion formulas:

https://help.alteryx.com/2019.1/Reference/Functions.htm

And found other users talking about making a macro to do this:

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Hex-to-ASCII-Conversion/m-p/344126

Could Alteryx add a new Conversion formula to convert a field to/from HEX/Base64 formats similar to the current Code Page conversion functions?

Thanks,

Cameron