Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

It would be super helpful if there were a way to

1. have an active list of all inputs/outputs that, if the links were changed, would update the connection for every occurance of that input/output in the workflow

2. a similar list of formulas that could could simply reference in a formula tool, so if you have to change the source formula, it's automatically updated in all the linked occurrances of that formula.

Currently we resort to using a manual create table script in redshift in order to define a distribution key and a sort key in redshift.

 

See below:

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift/latest/dg/tutorial-tuning-tables-distribution.html

 

It would be great to have functionality similar to the bulk loader for redshift whereby one can define distribution keys and sort keys as these actually improve the performance greatly with larger datasets

 

One of the common methods for generalization of different types of normal and beta distributions is triangular.

Though Alteryx doesn't have a function for this, even excel doesn't have this but

• SAS (randgen(x, "Triangle", c)) and
• Mathematica (TriangularDistribution[{min,max},c]) like tools include one.

Can we add something like randtriangular(min,mode,max)?

I have my solution attached, but this will ease the flow...

 

 

Best

I'd love the ability to Input an already-formatted Print Layout area within an Excel document, or a .PDF document in an effort to standardize reports needed on a regular basis.

Our department doesn't create everything that rolls into these reports, but we'd love the ability to incorporate external documents and save our company hours.

Is it possible to format an input tool to only look at the Print Area? If not, that capability would be wonderful.

Thanks!

 

It would be a timesaver for workflow documentation if macro metadata could be passed through to the workflow where the macro is deployed.  The image below suggests that the Description encased in the macro could be copied across to the corresponding Annotation panel.  I would also suggest that the Meta Info panel have a checkbox to control this new funtionality.

 

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".

 

 

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