Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Request: Google Drive Output Tool to be able to set the maximum records per file and create multiple files

For the regular Alteryx Output Tool, we're able to set maximum records per file. This is helpful in a variety of ways - we use it as part of a workflow where the output gets uploaded into SalesForce and we can only load 5,000 records at a time. I also use this to split up large csv files to be under Excel's ~1M line limit so my teammates without Alteryx can open their reports and not lose data. 

The Google Drive Output does not have this ability to split based on the number of records. If I use the RecordID Tool plus a Filter, it crashes Alteryx due to a Bug with RecordID + GDrive Output (it's currently in Accepted Defect stage)

It would be very helpful to have this same functionality that we can with the regular Output Tool

Having the ability to specify columns to be "coalesced" (essentially filled in automatically when records aren't present) across all inputs of the Join Multiple tool would be very useful, and save lots of tedious setup. In fact, I avoid that tool if possible, currently, because of the extra steps necessary in maintaining key column integrity after the join.

In the screenshot below "RecordID" is present in all 4 inputs. When they are joined together, however, not every record is present in all inputs, therefore each of the 4 "RecordID" columns has nulls. We then have to go through an extra step to find the first "non-null" record ID, and put that in a new column (or in the first "RecordID" column).

This could be simply fixed by adding a menu to specify columns that should be coalesced, or auto-filled from other inputs if it's missing in the first one.

The columns in the menu could be based on the first input, and then alteryx would look for columns with the same name in all other inputs and complete the logic below, for instance:

If isnull([RecordID]) then

      if isnull([Input_#2_RecordID]) then

           if isnull([Input_#3_RecordID]) then

                    [Input_#4_RecordID]

           else [Input_#3_RecordID] endif

     else [Input_#2_RecordID] endif

else [RecordID] endif

I am trying to add additional functionality to my existing workflow.

We have a common workflow pushed to the Alteryx server and there will be multiple people running this workflow.

Every time the workflow is run, the expectation is that an automatic email should be sent to the person who has triggered it(and won't be sent to multiple other people).

Currently, we have it set up using the Email tool but I do not see an option to dynamically update this “To” field to automatically use the email of a person running the workflow on the server.

As far as I know, in the current version (Jan 2018) of Designer the presentation settings for the canvas are global and are set by the user in the Canvas settings tab of the User settings.  There appears to be no way to adjust canvas settings at the individual workflow level that would over-ride the global defaults.  (Please tell me if I am wrong).

I propose that the user defined global defaults be retained but that the workflow configuration window include a new tab where local settings can be set.  This tab should include a button that enables a user to reset all local settings to the global defaults. 

Hello all,

It will be great if there is an option to specify sql statement or delete based on condition in write In-DB tool. We have to delete all record even though when we are trying to delete and append only a subset of records. If it allows for "WHERE" statement atleast, it will be very much useful. I have a long post going on about this requirement in http://community.alteryx.com/t5/Data-Preparation-Blending/Is-there-a-way-to-do-a-delete-statement-in... .

Regards,

Jeeva.

I would like a new format option within the Designer function DateTimeFormat such that where a date is held in the database

e.g. 2023-01-01

DateTimeFormat([date],%o)

will return 1st not 1 or 01. 

Workarounds exist, but are fiddly given the different options....1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th.....

I am suggesting an addition to the Auto Field Tool.  Create an option that allows only auto sizing of the fields and does not change the field type.  A check box that says Auto Size Only.  The tool would recognize any fields that can be resized based on their incoming data field type and will not change the data type.  The resizing function is very helpful to maximize workflow performance, but I currently do not use it much because it guesses wrong on the data types.  This causes problems also when data inputs change.  Whereas setting to auto size only, it can streamline the data but let the user be confident the data types would not change. 

Thank You

I have tried to search for this Idea but not located one that is same or similar. 

When searching for tools to use rather than having to click in the search bar at the top, it would be nice just to click on a blank part of the canvas and start typing for the tool that you need, then a suggest tool list pops up and you just click on the one you want to it appear. 

Thanks

Dynamic macros that fetch the current version at every run time vs storing a static copy of the macro with the workflow at publish time are challenging to pull off using shared drives. 

This suggestion is to store dynamic macros in the gallery and secure their use with collections.

Right click + "Insert After" and Right click + "Paste After" should behave the same. In the picture below I show the two cases. Currently, the "Insert After" option inserts a tool between the selected tool and the tools after it. The "Paste After" creates a new branch with the pasted tool. I think the "Paste After" should behave the same as the "Insert After": paste the tool on the existing branches. In case we want to create a new branch, we will paste the tool and connect a new branch to it.

Sometimes the field names for an imported file are very unhelpful.  Consider the image below as an example.  Even though the AUTO FIELD tool has been applied to this imported CSV file it is still necessary to inpect the source data before assigning field names and descriptions. 

MY SUGGESTION:  insert a data preview column in the Configuration view between SIZE and RENAME.  This data preview column would show the first row of data but a scroll function would allow the user to advance to the next or previous record within this view.  This feature would enhance the productivity of analysts in the data preparation phase of their work.

Providing access to the Oracle Cloud for OTM would allow users to connect to the API's to deliver data sets from the Cloud and use it for workflow and other data management activities.

Quite often, I would love to be able to use Browse tools already while the workflow is still running, if that specific Browse tool has completed (green box around). This would help to debug and save a lot of time.

In this case, the lower Browse tool would be enabled already now.

I recently began working with chained analytic applications.  One of the things that I wanted to do was to take the values selected by the end user at each stage of the app and pass them further down in the application.  I was able to do this by dumping the selected values to Alteryx databases and then using drop downs to pull the data into subsequent apps.  However, I was wondering if there would be a better way of accomplishing this.  One reason is that, with my approach, I wind up with several additional drop downs in my interface--which I really don't want.  If there's a way around this, I'd love to hear it.  Alternately, if Alteryx could potentially support doing something like this in the future, I think it would be really helpful.

Hi,

I am working on a macro that has multiple listboxes and xml tree controls in it and the listbox controls have a feature in the top right to select all or none, effectively allowing you to clear any entries you had made and start fresh.  In the tree control, there is no such feature but it would be nice to have instead of having to remember and go through and find all the entries you had made to start fresh.

To the point of the macro interface, when developing and testing using the interface designer, you are able to 'reset' the interface using a button at the top of the left pane.  It would be nice if that was available in the macro interface at run time. And that would solve the issue with the tree control in one step.

Thanks,

Dan

Dear Alteryx Team !

When running an app the actual Analytic App Progress window is not very informative and can not help to know where do we stand in the process.

In order to improve that issue, it would be very nice to give the hand to developers to let them choosing which message should be display in the progress window.

Minimal need :

• At each macro step : A view of which macro is actually running with their corresponding iteration counter

Optimal need :

• Allowing to completely design and name the messages to display at each macro steps and iterations (free text + iteration counter + time estimation ...)

Many thanks

Arno

I would like to raise the idea of creating a feature that resolves the repetitive authentication problem between Alteryx and Snowflake

This is the same issue that was raised in the community forum on 11/6/18: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Discussions/ODBC-Connection-with-ExternalB...

Can a feature be added to store the authentication during the session and eliminate the popup browser?  The proposed solution eliminates the prompt for credentials; however, it does not eliminate the browser pops up. For the Input/Output function, this opens four new browser windows, one for each time Alteryx tests the connection. 

My Team Heavily rely on Dremio. 

It would be great for Alteryx team to add Dremio as a dedicated data source Input for Alteryx, it would be so much easier for us to configure and run things in the future. 

Thanks! 

Being able to specify a name for the FileName field in the Input Tool configuration would be helpful for cases where a field named FileName is already present in the input data and has a different purpose than the newly added FileName field. Instead of having to use Field Info and other tools to rename the last field into something else (i.e. AYX_FileName), this would be an easier approach.