Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

We are experiencing performance issues with fetching schema/table/columns info on Alteryx Designer when using Vertica DB.

From the troubleshoot with Alteryx support, the query hitting "odbc_columns" is contributing to the performance issue. Vertica DBA suggests to use "columns" instead of "odbc_columns". Submitting this request to change the query.

Refer to case 00551930 for more info.

Hi - 

We are using the new(ish) Anaplan connector tools; in particular, the "Anaplan Output" tool (send data TO Anaplan).

The issue that I'm having is that the Anaplan Output Tool only accepts a CSV file.  This means that I must run one workflow to create the CSV file, then another workflow to read the CSV file and feed the Anaplan Output Tool.

If it were possible to have an output anchor on the Output tool that would simply pass the CSV records through to the Anaplan Output tool, the workflows would be drastically simplified.

Thanks,

Mark Chappell

Alteryx really needs to show a results window for the InDB processes.  It is like we are creating blindly without it.  Work arounds are too much of a hassle.

Current:

Currently in Result window we have datacleanse, fileter and sort functionality which makes life easier.

We dont have column Rename and Data type change functionality. In order to do that we need to drag a tool for the same for Rename of column.

Expectaion:

Result Tool should be capable enough to Rename column and Data type.

It will save a lot of time ,

By default output always print Headers as shown in item 1 below, I am looking to print item 2 as Header.  Item 3 is my output.

I tried item 4 below, doesn’t work.

Please consider this in your future releases.  It saves lot of time as the Outputs can contain hundreds of fields and output files are shared with User community who understands the Field description much more than Field name.  For example SAP Field-KUNNR does not mean nothing to a User than its description 'Customer'.

A check box on the Output Tool should able to toggle the selection between Field or its Description.

You might argue that the Rename column can be used, agree it would be difficult to manually type in hundreds of fields.  As an alternative you can provide automatic Rename population with Description.

Hi 

Sometimes when your using a filter you want to let everything pass through. Which means you have to remove the filter or go around it.

In stead of beeing able to out comment your filter. And the filter tool see's that as no filter.

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/BigQuery-Input-Error/td-p/440641

The BigQuery Input Tool utilizes the TableData.List JSON API method to pull data from Google Big Query. Per Google here:

• You cannot use the TableDataList JSON API method to retrieve data from a view. For more information, see Tabledata: list.

This is not a current supported functionality of the tool. You can post this on our product ideas page to see if it can be implemented in future product. For now, I would recommend pulling the data from the original table itself in BigQuery. 

I need to be able query tables and views.  Not sure I know how to use tableDataList JSON API.

The look of the canvas is important. Being able to toggle between viewing classic icons (as seen throughout this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJwgYYP_xlA), to the extent available, and current icons would provide users with more variety. As a secondary benefit (when toggled to show the classic icons), users would be able to differentiate between the tools that are not classic (i.e., the newer tools that don't have an older design) and the classic tools.

Thank you very much.

Hi,

The imputation tool allows exchange of numbers. It would be great if we are given the option to impute string values and NULL value too

The Input Data and Text Input Tools are visually distinct, so it's easy to see when a workflow is inputting live (File) or static (Text) data.

The Macro Input tool has the same appearance whether it's inputting a File or Text data, so you have to open the tool configuration to see whether it's inputting live (File) or static (Text) data. It would be great if there was a way to visually distinguish these two cases, perhaps even separating the macro tool into two tools, one for Files and one for Text.

The current Export Workflow user experience is extremely frustrating and it sometimes takes me several attempts to export the workflow with all of the correct assets. Some ideas for improving the UX:

• Allow the width of the window to be expanded or maximized. I often have many assets that start with the same folder structure name and I have to scroll to the right for each one to decide whether to check or uncheck it. 

•  Have a display option for "Group asset by Type" (e.g., Input, Output, Macro). I typically only package up my workflows with the embedded macros, not the Inputs or Outputs. (This is especially important during development and testing, when interim yxdb's are saved to facilitate QC and trouble-shooting.) I would like an easy way to "Check all Macros" without having to go through the list one-by-one. I may have over 100 assets; with the current UX, it's really hard to get all the right assets checked.

• Add an option to filter the display to see only the assets that have been checked. 
• Add a way to copy the asset list (checked and/or unchecked) to the clipboard. This would allow us to confirm that all of the assets needed are included BEFORE EXPORTING. 
• Add an option Select All or Deselect All 

On the SELECT object - add a column "Value if Null".  This would work like a COALESCE in SQL.  For string fields, an empty string or "" would need to be an available option.

Debugging could be dramatically simplified if each canvas object had the ability to be disabled/enabled.  If disabled, the workflow would still pass through the object, but the object itself would be ignored.

The find and replace tool currently does not run row by row, and finds anything in the find column, and replaces it with anything in the replace column. I was under the impression and designed my workflow to use this as a row by row find and replace, not entire columns. 

A simple fix would be to allow users to group by RecordID, which should also speed up the find / replace tool for larger data sets I would imagine.

What I am going to do in the meantime is use Regex to replace the word out.

Thanks!

It would be nice if the fields which are selected for the Unique tool can be easily visible. (by way of grouping selected fields etc)

The issue is that if a few out of many fields are selected to be considered for Unique, it is hard to review/check which are the fields that have been selected in the Unique Tool configuration.

Here's an example. It is difficult to see all the fields which have been selected. (There are 7 fields selected in this example.)

I the current Output Data Tool, choosing a bulk Loader option, say for Teradata, the tool automatically requests the first column to be the primary index. That is absolutely incorrect, especially on Teradata because of how it might be configured. My Teradata Management team notifies me that the created table, whether in a temp space or not, becomes very lopsided and doesn't distribute the "amps" appropriately. 

They recommend that instead of that, I should specify "NO PRIMARY INDEX" but that is not an option in the Output Tool. 

The Output tool does not allow any database specific tweaks that might actually make things more efficient.

Additionally, when using the Bulk Loader, if the POST SQL uses the table created by the bulk loading, I get an error message that the data load is not yet complete. 

It would be very useful if the POST SQL is executed only and only after the bulk data is actually loaded and complete, not probably just cached by Teradata or any database engine to be committed. 

Furthermore, if I wanted either the POST SQL or some such way to return data or status or output, I cannot do so in the current Output Tool. 

It would be very helpful if there was a way to allow that. 

All the other data types get basic filters but time doesn't get any besides a NULL check:

If i draw a line that crosses the pacific ocean, the path is split in half, and connected by a line that goes over the Atlantic..

This isn't just cosmetic.. if i intersect this object with another polygon, it will show that the two objects interact even though they should not.. The only way i can fix this is to manually divide my polyline into two objects where they cross the pacific ocean.

Please fix this.

Hello all,

EDIT : stupid me : it's an excel limitation in output, not an alteryx limitation :( Can you please delete this idea ?
I had to convert some string into dates and I get this error message (both with select tool and DateTime tool) :

ConvError: Output Data (10): Invalid date value encountered - earliest date supported is 12/31/1899  error in field: DateMatch  record number: 37399

This is way too early. Just think to birthdate or  geological/archeological data !

Also : other products such as Tableau supports earlier dates!

Hope to see that changed that soon.

Best regards,

Simon