Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

The top screenshot shows the DateTime tool and the incoming string formats. It does not show examples. Please shows examples like the bottom screenshot. Thank you.

I have found that upgrading the Designer automatically overwrites the Alteryx service logon credentials.  Would be nice if you didn't have to remember to reset the service credentials every time you upgrade.

If you've ever had a massive workflow with many ins, outs, and tons of tools in-between, then you may have wanted to run just portions of the workflow for testing/development/troubleshooting. I know I have. I have a workflow that normally takes many hours to run in Designer due to the massive data volume. I was only interested in tracing a bug in one specific output and found myself deleting tools here and then, piecemeal, until I could be certain that only unrelated branches and tools were gone. I then ran the workflow and found the issue in less time. What I would have liked to have done is to right-click on the output tool and select from the context menu an option to "Disable unrelated" or even "Delete unrelated". I want to delete any tool that does not directly feed data into that output through any and all branches including Joins, Unions, etc. The same options should apply to right-clicking on any tool. Thank you.

The 'Make Grid' tool appears to occasionally scramble the order as shown by the 'Grid Names' I have highlighted. As its almost in order it gave a false sense of looking as though it was designed to be in 'GridName' order, so it was not obvious that it needed to be sorted. To make the tool more intuitive it may make sense to give the option to sort by 'GridName' or just do it by default.

Thanks,

Ira 

The current encryption methodology (MD5) used by EncryptPassword to connect to databases does not satisfy the FIPS 140-2 encryption standard that is required by the US Federal Government.  The FIPS 140-2 compliance standard requires that any hardware or software cryptographic module implements algorithms from an approved list.

More information on FIPS 140-2: https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/fips/140/2/final

I have a workflow that sends an email to ServiceNow to create tickets.  I have another workflow that runs after that one to pull the ticket numbers used for reporting.  I thought I could combine the 2 workflows using a Block Until Done and then Wait a Second set for 120 seconds but I have found that the Email tool "runs as the last tool in your workflow".

Is it possible to change the runtime so it runs when called on?

I would really like to see .dif files added as a file option to the output tool. Currently, I have to output as an excel file and then open the file and save as a .dif file format. Figure if Excel can save the file format, Alteryx should be able as well.

Thanks,

Canvas settings can be used for providing more clarity and clutter-free look of complex workflows. For example, using Auto Route Perpendicular (where connection lines between tools are straight lines and break at 90 degrees and using different colours can really help in understanding workflow faster to someone who is looking at it for the first time. 

I know this is very subjective, but these additional customization settings can increase clarity in complex workflows. Especially when sharing workflow with others. 

The find and replace feature is great. Unfortunately, I was unpleasantly surprised to learn the hard way that workflow events are outside of its reach. Please expand to include the entire workflow to act on everything opening the xml in notepad could find and replace. The following demonstrates the omission...

On left side I search for the string “v022”

Below that shows zero matches

In the open event box near the center, “v022” appears in the command box

The occurrence in event command box should appear as a match, but does not.

So while first and last make sense concat will crash the system. Here's a screen grab... Designer really doesn't like crosstab reporting tools set (accidentally) to concatenate 3 macros deep in a workflow. Just crashed 3 times before I tracked down the error on my system.

As a change to Designer UI in 2021.2, when in the filter box, I used to be able to use my mouse to Paste in the value and then hit enter/apply to apply the filter.  It's not working as of 2021.2.  Now, if I hit paste from my mouse, it just closes the Filter box and applies nothing.  It forces me to have to change between mouse and keyboard as that is the only way to paste a value into the filter value box (CTRL-V). 

This feels like another very tiny move in the wrong direction. These small UI changes cause 2 or 3 additional steps and slow the diagnostic/navigation process in moving around the Results Grid in the Browse Tool or at any point in the flow where the Results Grid is used.

Can mouse functionality be restored in 2021.2?

Related to submission: 

from  patrick_digan

Can we please have a Group By option added to Random % Sample tool? It would ease a lot of things!

It would be fantastic if the Detour tool worked outside for a Standard Workflow, and not just for Analytic Apps and Macros. I can think of many instances where this would be very useful.

Provide Desktop Automation with Workflow REST API to have the ability to start workflows from other corporate systems without expensive Server license in a small environment.

My request is to allow tool containers to be enabled or disabled through an action on a Batch macro, just as they are with a Standard macro. This issue was originally raised in Jan-2013. 

At that time @MargaritaW  of Alteryx responded "the tool containers can’t be enabled or disabled through an action on a batch macro, this works fine on a standard macro (this issue has bee added to our log for a fix as high priority)."

It is 8+ years later and I can't find the fix. Using the Detour tool was offered as a workaround, but that is not useful in many cases. Looking at Alteryx own tools developed with macros, Tool Container activation/de-activation is used much more frequently than the Detour tool.

For my particular use case, we receive sets of four files from multiple customers each week. Each file in the set has a different structure.

Requirement:

1. Process each file in a directory, one at a time.

2. Activate/utilize one Input tool based on the file type

3. Execute a file specific workflow 

Here is a link to the original issue that was marked as "solved". The Detour tool workaround does not constitute a solution.

Solved: Enable tool container in batch macro - Alteryx Community

Alteryx please follow through on this 8-year old high priority issue.

Thanks,
Ken

Hi All,

Issue: 

When input <List of Sheet Names>, Alteryx will assign data type and size accordingly.

Example: 

It become a problem, when input with multiple files with wildcard (Input file Book*xlsx).

It will be skipped due to "has a different schema than the 1st file in the set and will be skipped"

Solution:

Very simple, always same data type and size, like in formula tool. V_Wstring, with size 1073741823.

Hello,

I do not want to go to quick access and then to the downloads folder. Mostly we search on the community and download workflows as well as companying files. to reopen the files which are placed in the downloads folder i have to go there. 

to speed this up, please put a downloads folder quick link to the left bar:

thx

Dear Community,

could you please change the path processing of the alteryx app interface so that we can paste path links with quotation marks without getting an error by the alteryx app?

this would enhance workflow speed because one cannot save folder location for the interface to search for first when browsing files. it always begins at the pc level or something. 

so the workaround would be to just paste the file location path in the browser window of the interface, then pressing browse again to just scroll through the wished folder. 

this idea is not only for the purpose of the workaround but also for itself worth it. 

in windows one can easily copy file paths by holding down shift and right mouse click and the clicking on "copy path" . the copy is in the clipboard which i would like to pass to the alteryx app just like this without the necessity to remove the quotation marks as this costs time and is difficult when paths are long. 

thank you

Can we have a comparison tool in Alteryx as we have in Adobe Pro for PDF comparison.

It will be of a great help to multiple people across globe.