Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

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.

When numerous formulae exist within a single formula object, being able to "Expand All / Collapse All" would be most welcomed.  :-)

Also - the ability to Disable/Enable a single formula in the formula object - also very nice to have.

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.

Currently both the formula and summarise tools round to 6.d.p for finance calculations such as IRR. People coming from Excel will be used to a higher precision then this. It would be great to up the precision in line with other platforms to 8.d.p +

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!

I wanted to understand the purpose of the Select Records Tool. The text explains the tool, but by adding the Record ID Tool the result is obvious and also connects to the record selection, not having to read the explanation first. At the same time, one gets to know the Record ID Tool.

Without the Record ID Tool

With the Record ID Tool

I was just responding to a post about the Make Columns tool, and I noticed that there is not an example workflow for this tool built into Designer. It is also missing from the Transform category, so I never think of it.

@peyton-louden @binuacs @Luke_C 

Hello,

In Formula tool beneficial will be implementation conditional formatting (similar like in Excel) allowing to change cell style (i.e. background color or bolding) based on specific rule. Currently such functionality is available in Table tool however it might be more convenient to use it in Formula tool and avoid Table tool.

Hello,

Enhancement of 'IN' functionality (ie. in Filter tool), so using range instead of citing particular values for example:
instead [ID] IN (1,2,3,52,53,54,100,101,102) something like that [ID] IN (1-3,52-54,100-102).

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.)

It'd be great to have all DCM connections available in the Data connections window.

And when Use Data connection Manager (DCM) is ticked, The screen defaults to DCM Connection list. 

The XML Parse tool has a checkbox to ignore errors and continue.  This idea works for all options that allow you to ignore errors.  It would be great if XML Parse had 2 outputs, 1 for successful records and another for the errored records.  This would make it much easier to identify and update (if necessary) errored records.

In my view this would make it more similar to other tools like Filter or Spatial Match where records that don't fit your criteria follow a different flow.

Thanks for considering

I would to suggest to add a configuration in the Block Until Done tool, which allow the user to prioritize the release of a data stream through multiple Block Until Done tools in the same module. 

In the example below, the objective is to update multiple sheets in a single Excel workbook. Each sheet is a different data stream, that cannot be unioned together, therefore making the filtering of a single stream feeding into multiple Block Until Done from that filter solution impossible.

What I would like to be able to do is have a configuration, where Block Until Done #2 will not allow the data stream to pass through until Block Until Done #1 is complete, Then Block Until Done #3 will not pass through the data stream until Block Until Done #2 is complete, and so forth through the all the Block Until Done instances. 

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. 

Today, I am able to take an excel file from a folder and drag it onto the canvas, which automatically creates an Input Data tool.

I would like to be able to drag an excel file right from outlook to do the same! 

Hello,

The release notes quality is not exactly at its best nowadays The 2022.1 releases notes available here https://help.alteryx.com/release-notes/designer/designer-20221-release-notes don't mention at least two cool new features :
-DCM for in-database connection.
-distinction between greenplum and postgresql, which is important for me as I post this as an idea : https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Ideas/Separate-entry-in-in-db-configuration-for-Po...

Note that the corresponding idea aren't also up to date.

It's cool to have new features, it's way better if you gives the full list.

Best regards,

Simon

i investigate a super messy and huge workflow, i have a hard time to trace back the data stream.

it only have around 5 wireless connection, some is easy to find, but some are connect to union..

if have a button to turn all connection back to wire, and better if have option for just solid for temp to show as solid line. it will helps alot.