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Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

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Not sure what detail needs to be added.  This is obviously a widely used RDBMS.

Could we please change the Interactive Chart tool, to:

  • recognize when upstream types have changed and reconfigure (in the case of numerical types marked as string)
  • For line charts - sort the values in order of the X value

 

Sample Flow - derivation of challenge 201:

IMG0-Flow.png

 

Issue 1:

- The first interactive chart on this flow has no sorting at all performed by the charting tool - this may be due to the fact that the X & Y axes are in string fields.   Generally line charts would attempt to sort both the axes and the values (where the values should order according to the X axis).   Please can you add a default sort anyway?

 

Img1-NoSorting.png

 

Issue 2:

- If you then change the data types on these fields to be numeric - the charting tool still does not sort them until you reconfigure the tool manually
- REquest: please can you get the tool to remember the data types, so that it can prompt you; or even better just reconfigure?

(image looks identical after retyping the fields)

Img1-NoSorting.png

 

 

Issue 3:

- When you do a manual reconfigure of the tool after changing the types - the axes are sorted, but the values are not - so you end up with a chart that crosses back and forth.   Generally line charts are ordered in the order of the X Axis for the values

- Request: Please sort values on the line chart automatically in order of the X value?

 

Img2-AxesSortedButNotValues.png

 

NOTE: Finally got the outcome needed by forcing the sort before the interactive chart tool

 

 

Img3-ExpectedOutcomeAfterSorting.png

I've always wondered why the Data Cleansing tool has the option to convert nulls to blanks, but not convert blanks/empty cells to null.

 

I'm sure it's debatable given different approaches, but we always look to convert blank/empty data strings to NULL. Currently I have to do an extra cleansing step via a formula tool anytime I want to clean up these blanks.

Would like to see a connector (similar to existing AWS S3 connectors) for Google Cloud storage.  I need to download data from the Developer Play console, and they provide a mechanism for accessing the csv data files directly:

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6135870

 

If we had a Input data connector to browse and select CSV files from Google Cloud (either specifically or dynamically), that would make it much easier than running it via a Python script

I am bringing this over from this post.

 

It would be really cool to have a workflow that you could configure to your server that we could schedule to pull down the new Cass updates and install them. Since they have to be reinstalled every two months, it would help to manage that.

 

I think that the data updates are set up with an FTP site, Cass could be done essentially the same way. Download it there and then use the command module to run the install? I may be over simplifying the process but it seems like this is something that Alteryx could tackle.

In order to speed up our workflows (which are very heavily tied to databases and DB queries) it would be valuable to be able to inspect the actual queries which were run against the SQL server so that we can index to optimize these queries directly in SQL Enterprise Manager (or the same on any DB platform - we have the same problem on DB2)

 

The idea would be to have a simple screen where I can run the workflow with a SQL profiling turned on, and then capture the output of either the entire workflow (grouped by connection so that I can tune one database with only the queries that apply) or a specific component on the canvas.

 

I appreciate that this is not something that would be required by a fair population of your users - but I'm sure that this will be helpful for any enterprise / corporate customers.

 

Thank you

Sean

 

I would love to see Alteryx add an indicator whenever a number being displayed is being truncated. For example, this picture is currently confusing:

 

Capture.PNG

 

 

The displayed numbers should all be equal according to their displayed value, but in reality a different number is being stored in the background. I would propose something like this:

Untitled.png

1) Any number that is being truncated when displayed would have that red triangle in the upper right corner. This already happens when a formula tool result is truncated, but I would like for it to be displayed on all data.

2) Clicking on the cell would show the actual value, not the truncated value. This would be great when debugging.

 

I understand that numbers are more complex than meets the eye, and I think that changes like this would help alleviate some of the mystery (like why 2 of my numbers above aren't equal).

It is just a bit of annoyance, really. I'd like to see the option of inputting a hexcode of color and/or a screen color picker in the color dialog. At the moment, you have to change R, G, B separately or play around with the cursor to find the right color.

The color dialog is relevant for the documentation purposes but also reporting tools and I'm sure it would make life easier to some people, especially when branding colours are important.

 

 

image.png

Hello,

It appears that Alteryx does not accept .svg (or other vector image format) for icons (I think to custom macro icons), image in comment, etc...

I think that would be a great idea, especially to manage web integration and support of different resolutions.
here an example of a svg logo I made :
Logo_BD_Market_vectoriel.svg

As you can see you can zoom in/out without loose quality.

 

For reference, here is long blog post about why SVG is great : https://bumpsetcreative.com/10-reasons-the-image-format-svg-is-rocking-the-internet/

 

To sum it up :

1) SVGs are widely supported

 

2) SVGs are speedy

 

3) SVGs scale perfectly

 

 

4) SVGs are high resolution

 

5) SVGs can be styled through CSS

 

6) SVGs can be animated

 

7) SVGs can be rearranged easily

 

😎 SVGs support transparency

 

9) SVGs are great for readability

 

10) SVGs stand out

If I set an Excel file mask under the "arbitrary" configuration of the File Browse Tool on the desktop version, Alteryx will not prompt for worksheet selection. If I save that same configuration to the server, then the file mask is ignored (the users can select any file) and Alteryx will then prompt for a worksheet selection. Please set it where the environments have consistent behavior.

 

Prompting for a worksheet should be an option that the developer can turn off.

It would be nice to be able to set a default date for the Date Interface tool.

Props to @KaneG for the workaround ( http://community.alteryx.com/t5/Publishing-Gallery/Set-Default-Date-for-Date-Interface-Tool/m-p/3573... But I'd like to see something built in to the tool rather than use a workaround every time as the standard.  Plus, I enjoy the uniform look of having two date inputs.

Just as a side note while we're on the topic of the Date Interface tool; it is really misleading the way "Today" stays outlined even after you click on a different date.  I always second guess if it took my click or not.

 

Ok the time has come to expand functionality in the record ID tool. I would like the ability to restart the counter based on a field (e.g zip code). You can do it quickly in Tableau (see image) so why not have this functionality readily available in Alteryx? Sure, you can already do it in Alteryx - the long way - with the generate rows tool, look at previous/active row with certain condition and do +1 or something like that.

Having a simple restart counter in Record ID tool just makes sense. It's intuitve to have it there, and it's easier to use than generate rows tool. IMHO also easy to develop by Alteryx and +1 for Alteryx in gartner magic quadrant! 

 

 

RecordID2.JPG

Google has recently introduced the concept of Team Drives.
 
 
Team Drives are shared spaces where teams can easily store, search, and access their files anywhere, from any device.
Unlike files in My Drive, files in a Team Drive belong to the team instead of an individual. Even if members leave, the files stay exactly where they are so your team can continue to share information and get work done.
I cannot see the files through the Google Sheets Input tool. I only see files in My Drive.
 
How do I access Google Sheets placed into Team Drives? Thanks in advance.
 
Response from Alteryx Support:
 

Hi Chris,

This is not supported with the current tool. The way that we pull the list of sheets only will pull the personal sheets that the user owns, even if a user creates a sheet in the Team Drive, the owner is not that user but the Team Drive. There are additional parameters that need to be added in order to pull the team drive sheets a user has access to, and we would need to use a different api (Drive API vs Sheets API) for the pull.

Please add this as a suggestion for a future enhancement on our idea center.
https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Ideas/idb-p/product-ideas

Thank you.


--
Angela Ogle | Customer Support Engineer

I sometimes find that a workflow would be more efficient if I swapped the order of a couple tools. It would be cool if we could select 2 tools and then right-click or something to swap them.

It would be nice to have the ability to automatically generate twbx files from a master Tableau workbook so that end users can open the file in Tableau reader.  For example, if I were creating separate CSV files with my data for each state I would similarly want to create them as a ready to consume twbx file with Tableau Reader.

I have been going back and forth between output tool and render tool. The render tool works well when you want formatting. It's also great when you don't want an output created (when rec count=0) while output tool always generates a file regardless if there are records present or not. Output tool works well when you have a lot of fields but then you cannot easily control styling.

My issue is that I have a render tool connected to table tool. In the table tool everything looks neat; there's no wrapped text and no unnecessary white space (auto column width not necessary). However, with the render output, you don't know what to expect. Especially, when you have a lot of fields (30+) data gets truncated and column width is forcibly narrowed due to paper dimensions used in render tool. I skip letter and tabloid formats and now I have to mess with custom paper width (e.g.50) to get my reports looking right and when you have dynamic fields, this is not ideal. 

Would it be possible to make the paper size/width automatic in the render tool just like in the table and layout tool? Then this tool also doesn't negate what layout/table tools do so well.

 

 

The Input Tool reads Excel however many dashboards require multiple people to update a spreadsheet. Excel is too much of a hassle to share and update. Being able to read directly from a Google Spreadsheet would allow easy multiuser access to updating spreadsheets for dashboards.

Please add Google Spreadsheets to be an option in the Input Tool.

Tim
In the ‘Report – Table’ tool I would like to be able to force headings to multiple lines. For example If I have a heading such as “Catchment (%)” or “Spend (£)”, I would like there to be an easy way to make the (%) / (£) move to the second line when I have fixed width columns.
 

 

When posting an alteryx job to the gallery; or packaging them for transport - any deep dependancies are lost (I think that we start to have trouble once you're 3 levels deep).

 

For example - you have a canvas; which uses macros; which in turn have macros; which in turn have macros.

 

this is not as uncommon as it may sound on the surface - due to the current lack of flow-of-control support in Alteryx; we need to wrap all of our ETL jobs in Batch Macros to force them to run in a specific order.   Within these ETL jobs, it's common to decompose for lookups; master data management; etc.

 

Is this something that the team is currently looking into fixing - this does cause quite a bit of pain when deploying to the gallery because the jobs need to be manually stitched together and packaging does not carry the full working solution?

 

 

 

CC:  @rijuthav@jithinmony@HengHe@RajK@ydmuley@revathi@Deeksha@MPistone@Ari_Fuller@Arianna_Fuller@JoshKushner@samN@avinashbonu@Sunder_Sriram@Rahul_Thakur@Rahul_Singh

I really like the Tool Container. I also really like to have neat and tidy modules. Sometimes though, the two are in conflict because the Tool Container automatically sizes itself so I end up playing around with tool placement to get my containers the same.

Could you please add the option to make the Tool Container a sizeable object (like the Explorer Box) or give width and height value boxes in the tool properties?

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