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Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

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It would be great if there was a way to convert datatypes within the Table Reporting tool.  The specific example that sparked this idea is calculating percentages so they are shown in the report with the decimal place moved over.  Today, within the formula tool I need to calculate the percentage and then multiply it by 100 in order for it to display the way I'd like in the report.  However, if I need to leverage this percentage for another formula I most likely will have to divide the percentage I calculated first by 100 before I continue my calculation.

 

It would be nice to not have to multiply by 100 to move the decimal place over 2 spots and instead use the table tool to convert the number into a percentage we're all used to seeing.  I'm thinking something similar to excel where you can click percentage, currency, etc to convert your number.

We don't have Server.  Sometimes it's easy to share a workflow the old fashioned way - just email a copy of it or drop it in a shared folder somewhere.  When doing that, if the target user doesn't have a given alias on their machine, they'll have issues getting the workflow to run.

 

So, it would be helpful if saving a workflow could save the aliases along with the actual connection information.  Likewise, it would then be nice if someone opening the workflow could add the aliases found therein to their own list of aliases.

 

Granted, there may be difficulties - this is great for connections using integrated authentication, but not so much for userid/password connections. Perhaps (if implemented) it could be limited along these lines.

 

Would it be possible to change the default setting of writing to a tde output to "overwrite file" rather than the "create new file" setting? Writing to a yxdb automatically overwrites the old file, but for some reason we have to manually make that change for writing to a tde output. Can't tell you how many times I run a module and have it error out at the end because it can't create a new file when it's already been run once before!

 

Thanks!

When viewing spatial data in the browse tool, the colors that show a selected feature from a non-selected one are too similar. If you are zoomed out and have lots of small features, it's nearly impossible to tell which spatial feature you have selected.

 

Would be a great option to give the user the ability to specify the border and/or fill color for selected features. This would really help them stand out more. The custom option would also be nice so we can choose a color that is consistent with other GIS softwares we may use.

 

As an example, I attached a pic where I have 3 records selected but takes some scanning to find where they are in the "map".

 

selection_colors.PNG

 

Thanks

 

As I understand SFTP support is planned to be included in the next release (10.5). Is there plans to support PKI based authentication also?

 

This would be handy as lots of companies are moving files around with 3rd parties and sometimes internally also and to automate these processes would be very helpful. Also, some company policies would prevent using only Username/Password for authentication. 

 

Anybody else have this requirement? Comments? 

 

I'd like to see some added configuration in the Chart tool to allow more space for the chart legend so that the names of elements don't have to be truncated.  The only way to eliminate truncation right now is to decrease the font size and/or increase the width of the table which also in effect reduces the font size.  This is specifically an issue in "Stacked Column" or similar charts.

Very confusing.

 

DateTimeFormat

- Format sting - %y is 2-digit year, %Y is a 4-digit year.   How about yy or yyyy.   Much easier to remember and consistent with other tools like Excel.

 

DateTimeDiff

- Format string - 'year' but above function year is referenced as %y ??   Too easy to mix this up.

 

 

Also, documentation is limited.  Give a separate page for each function and an overview to discuss date handling.

 

The Field Summary tool is a very useful addition for quickly creating data dictionaries and analysing data sets. However it ignores Boolean data types and seems to raise a strange Conversion Error about 'DATETIMEDIFF1: "" is not a valid DateTime' - with no indication it doesn't like Boolean field types. (Note I'm guessing this error is about the Boolean data types as there's no other indication of an issue and actual DateTime fields are making it through the tool problem free.)

 

Using the Field Summary tool will actually give the wrong message about the contents of files with many fields as it just ignores those of a data type it doesn't like.

 

The only way to get a view on all fields in the table is using the Field Info tool, which is also very useful, however it should be unnecessary to 'left join' (in the SQL sense) between Field Info and Field Summary to get a reliable overview of the file being analysed.

 

Therefore can the Field Summary tool be altered to at least acknowledge the existence of all data types in the file?

I have run into an issue where the progress does not show the proper number of records after certain pieces in my workflow. It was explained to me that this is because there is only a certain amount of "cashed" data and therefore the number is basd off of that. If I put a browse in I can see the data properly.

 

For my team and me, this is actually a great inconvenience. We have grown to rely on the counts that appear after each tool. The point of the "show progress" is so that I do not have to insert a browse after everything I do so that it takes up less space on my computer. I would like to see the actual number appear again. I don't see why this changed in the first place.

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. 

Issue: When I use any of the Multi-Field Formula tool, I lose the variable names in the field description. This is a problem when I'm working with demographic data because the name of the variable is often something like PCT0010005. The user friendly name is in the field description metadata.

Solution: Please have the Multi-Field Formula tool behave as the Formula tool does by persisting the field Description values.

Thanks!

John Hollingsworth

When creating an Annalytic App, in the Actions tab, when creating an action, have the window display the actions in numerical order.  

Often when we need to use the Filter tool and select the Custom filter option, it requires us to write conditions such as "IF", "OR" and so on.

 

Was hoping if some suggestions or hints could be embedded in the custom filter for those of us who have no experience even in basic coding.

 

 

Under options/restore defaults, it would be nice if the canvass could be reset (I sometimes lose windows), but the favorites be left intact.

Thanks!
Susan

 

I have a very large geospatial point dataset (~950GB) .  When I do a spatial match on this dataset to a small polygon, the entire large geospatial point dataset has to be read into the tool so that the geospatial query can be performed.  I suspect that the geospatial query could be significantly speed up of the geospatial data could be indexed (referenced) to a grid (or multiple grids) so that the geoquery could identify the general area of overlap, then extract the data for just that area before performing the precise geoquery.  I believe Oracle used (uses) this method of storing and referencing geospatial data.

I see the mention of VR but has anyone talked about touch screen capabilities with Alteryx?  Would make even the tough projects more fun!

I would like the ability to adjust the sort order of the tools displayed in the actions tab when creating a Macro, or at least have it conform to some sort order that can be easily identified. I can't currently make sense of this sort order which makes it hard to find the tool I’m looking for.

Hi is it possible to add sheet names (to spreedsheet files) to the output of a file directory tool

 

Hi Maveryx Community,
 
Wouldn't it be great to introduce a new feature that allows running another analytic app on error? I sometimes encounter situations where the workflow has two standard inputs, and the user has to pick the correct one, otherwise the process breaks. And I don't only mean two files with different formats, I mean files with same extension, but different structure (for example: one file has a given column, the other one does not, but they are both standard inputs). What if we had the possibility to run another app if the first one errored? This way, we could include conditional logic with test tools or message tools, and based on the file format, for example, error the workflow on purpose so that the second app gets summoned. If there is no error in the first part, it means the input was fine, and we don't need to call the second app that handles alternate inputs. I know situations like this can usually be solved by some workaround, but having this feature would make some workflows very clever.
 
Best Regards,
Szymon Czuszek

Please update the Render tool to allow users to name the Excel sheet for the output. Alteryx currently errors when using same naming convention that works in normal Output tool.

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