Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

hello!
Currently when using any spatial data or tool, by default, i have to select a reference base map each time:

This can be confusing for new users - as they may not realise within the browse tool (and other spatial tools) that you have to select this, especially with it being such a small setting at the top of the browse tool.

 

Now this can be solved by going into the User Settings, and changing this in the default settings:

 

However as mentioned, for new users this really isn't clear, and can be a roadblock in development. It would be fantastic if Alteryx defaulted the reference base map to Alteryx Light (or, any of them, other than [None]) to make these tools useable out of the box.

 

 

Thanks,
TheOC

Hello there!

Currently the email tool has the following configuration:

It is a fairly easy tool to use - however one part that I would like to be improved is testing the SMTP settings - similar to how it is done on the Alteryx Server. It would be awesome to have a button as part of this page, that would send a test email, and return true/display to the user that the email sent correctly. This would stop the need to setup dummy data and a dummy output to test a connection before rolling the email tool out into a live environment/use-case.

 

I imagine something along these lines for this functionality:

Clicking test (and passing):

Clicking test (and failing):

Thanks,
TheOC

 

Hello!

Currently, the Visual Layout tool (as opposed to the Layout tool) is in a Beta version and has been since I have been using Alteryx. 

I think it's a fantastic tool for (as in the name) visually laying out your reporting tools. I find the original layout tool difficult to use without great attention to detail, and it can cost a lot of time when building report-based workflows.

It would be great to get the Visual Layout tool out of Beta, similar to a lot of the other Laboratory tools (https://help.alteryx.com/20221/designer/laboratory), and increase confidence in using the tool. It is currently hard to suggest using the tool to Alteryx users, as 'BETA' creates apprehension of bugs and unstable functionality.

 

Thanks,
TheOC

Hello!

This is along the same lines as my other thread:
https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Ideas/Allow-For-Drag-and-Drop-in-The-Interface-Des...

I love building Analytic Apps, and i wish it was just a little bit quicker to do.

Currently when adding an element from the dropdown to the interface designer:

 

it will always be added to the bottom of the interface:

And requires moving manually. It would be great if depending on where you have selected on the interface, the element is created. For instance, i would like to select one of my elements:

Hit add - Label:

And the label be created under my element:

Thanks,
TheOC

Hello!

As many of you know, i'm a big fan of Alteryx Apps. However, one of the most painful parts of Alteryx Apps is moving around elements in the Interface Designer. Currently when you have many elements in your interface designer:

And add a new element from the dropdown, or through a new tool:

 

It is added to the bottom of the interface. Moving it to the top is currently done with the arrows, however this is very slow, especially when you have many interface elements:

Currently (with 9 radio buttons) it takes 18 clicks (each taking a couple of seconds due to delay between movements) to move it, because it moves between each step:

It would be fantastic if we could drag and drop the elements of the interface to where we like, for speed of development and ease of use.

 

Thanks,

TheOC 

Autofield is useful in the creation of a workflow.  Autofield consumes energy otherwise.  The AutoField functionality could Automagically have a convert to SELECT functionality so that once the ideal metadata is constructed that a SELECT tool could replace the AutoField.  Typically, when I autofield, I add a SELECT tool and then remove the autofield.

 

Another use case for Autofield is after reading in a CSV or after text to columns.  Having a smart option for parsing avoids the need to use this particular tool. 

 

Again, it is useful to have, just not useful to run on each workflow execution.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

It is my understanding that hidden in each yxdb is metadata.  The following use case is common:

 

As an Alteryx Developer/Designer I want to know the source of a yxdb.  

 

Ideally, I would know as much about the workflow (name, path, workflow version, AYX version, userid) as possible.

 

It would be awesome to be construct a workflow that would allow me to search the metadata of yxdb's on my client computers quickly.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

We've got your metadata.  Suppose the "SELECT COLUMNT TO SPLIT" question is considered by Alteryx and this happens:

 

• A field is selected because it contains similar \W (regex for non-word characters) patterns in the data (e.g. count of delimiters in the field are roughly equal).
• The delimiter (MODE delimiter or BEST) is defaulted
• Split # of columns = MODE count + 1

If a user updates the Field/Delimiter, the metadata could suggest the right Number of columns based upon the delimiter.

 

This all belongs in the automagically idea bank.  It saves me the time of counting delimiters or trial and error counts.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

The JOIN tool could use some love.  Let's consider merging the JOIN and UNION functions into a single tool.  Instead of strictly L, J, and R outputs, we could have an option to allow for all standard SQL joins:

 

• Cross Join (Warning!!!)
• Inner Join (boring)
• Left Outer Join (saves time configuring Union)
• Right Outer Join (saves time ...)
• Full Outer Join (saves time ...)

Being able to JOIN on case-insensitive values is a big bonus (resisted urge to BOLD and change font size).

Being able to JOIN on date-range is often requested.

Being able to JOIN on numeric-range is often requested.

 

If we are combining tools, getting UNIQUE on L or R (or both) inputs would also save time.  Most JOIN errors are because the incoming (R) data contains duplicates by KEY.

 

cheers,

 

Mark

 

Hi @NicoleJ 

Hi Community Microsoft wil deprecate basic Authentication, so users will need OAuth2 to be included in the email tool. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/clients-and-mobile-in-exchange-online/deprecation-of-basic... Microsoft is removing the ability to use Basic authentication in Exchange Online for Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), POP, IMAP, Remote PowerShell, Exchange Web Services (EWS), Offline Address Book (OAB), Outlook for Windows, and Mac. This change will be efective on October 1, 2022. Best regards, JP

The Find/Replace Tool in the Join tools is set to "Find Any Part of Field".

 

However, 99% of time, I select the "Entire Field", hence would like there to be a way to have the Entire Field checked as my standard box filled in.

 

It would be nice if Alteryx knew which field is most likely what I will use, based on always checking that box, or for none of them to be selected, to make sure I will select the correct one.

 

Most of the times when I have a mistake its because of this tool and it being set to "Any Part of Field" and I missed to change it.

 

Would imagine most people use this tool to find an exact match?

Alteryx is very quick already but it world be useful to know the computational cost of different approaches to building a workflow using a lot of data. This would make it easier to know if your optimization to the workflow is working as expected and also which tools in particular are doing the work best. Other software such as Power BI has a performance analysis section which breaks down how each action impacted performance. 

It would be great to get a similar breakdown of how long each tool is taking to run in the results window. 

 

@NicoleJ recently asked a question about what default save options that we might want to apply to when we save to SERVER.  I'll answer for both SERVER and to DESIGNER here as ideas.

 

SERVER:  When I save a workflow to the server, I'd like to have Alteryx automagically do the following:

 

1.  Respect my CANCEL RUNNING WORKFLOW on ERROR default setting.
2. Respect my SHOW MACRO MESSAGES default setting.
3. Respect my Enable Performace Profiling default setting (OFF should be recommended).
4. Respect my AMP Engine Compatibility Mode setting (if AMP is turned on).
5. Modify any non-relative path dependencies to UNC.
6. Respect my DISABLE All TOOLS that WRITE Output default setting.
7. USE GLOBAL Default for Temporary Files

 

If any settings or rules (e.g. dependencies) don't match default, please WARN me or give option to reset automagically.

 

For DESIGNER saves, please do the same as SERVER plus:

1.  Respect my DISABLE ALL BROWSE TOOLS setting.

If anyone wants to chime in with more settings, please do so.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

Hello --

 

Many times, I want to summarize data by grouping it, but to really reduce the number of rows, some data needs to be concatenated.

 

The problem is that some data that is group is repeated and concatenating the data will double, triple, or give a large field of concatenated data.

 

As an example:

Name                                         State

A	New York
A	New York
A	New Jersey
B	Florida
B	Florida
B	Florida

 

The above, if we concatenate by State would look like:

A	New York, New York, New Jersey
B	Florida, Florida, Florida

 

What I propose is a new option called Concatenate Unique so I would get:

A	New York, New Jersey
B	Florida

 

This would prevent us from having to use a Regex formula to make the column unique.

 

Thanks,

Seth

The Interactive Chart configure window cannot be resized.  I'm using a single, large monitor, and this window occupies the entire monitor so that I am forced to switch between windows to see other applications.  Most of the space used by the configure window is wasted white space.  Please update this to allow this window to be resized.

 

I'm using a 32:9 monitor running at 5120x1440, and the attached screenshot shows the size of the configure window on this monitor - 4986x1286.

Hi

 

The native email tool is great up to a certain volume, but at high volume it makes more sense to use sendgrid to take advantage of its features like deliverability etc

 

Would be great if there was a ready-made connector tool for SendGrid

 

Thanks

Cross tab automatically alphabetizes the column headers this can be a little awkward when unioning on column position later on. Would be nice to have this as an optional feature through a tick box on the tool.

 

 

When we rename a field in canvas it breaks a lot of formulas or config on tools like select tool or unique tool or summarize tool. If designer can automatically update these new field names in all the further tools if will save us a lot of time.

 

Thanks,

Sanju

We waste a lot of time to search a field to join it in join or to deselect it select or to summarize in summarize. This mainly happens when we have long list of fields.

 

As search bar to find the field on top of any of these tools will be really helpful. 

 

Specially, for join tool if we can type the field name while joining would really help. 

 

Thank you,

Sanju