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Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

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There is duplicated action in the table tool to force the user decide the decimal places.

 

In the normal situation, all the data preparation process has been completed prior to the Table tool, we just want to leverage on this tool to format the header or incorporate conditional formatting. However, once the Table tool is connected and we have to re-configure the decimal places for all the numeric columns, the column names will be varied from year to year and it brings additional manual intervention to the workflow.

 

We recommend to provide flexibility for us to take the original upstream data source without changing the underlying data set.

Lack of tools in Alteryx to extract data from True PDF. The current set of tools (Computer Vision) only allow us to extract data from images which is not ideal for True PDF documents in terms of accuracy.

Due to different file formats whether it is .xlsb or any other formats, sometimes it requires end user to install additional drivers/engine.

 

Some of these driver installations require installations of outdated software e.g. Microsoft Access 2013 (Microsoft Access Database Engine 2013), which poses unnecessary security risk.

 

Therefore we recommend that in the future version should take note and incorporate such drivers into the installation package so that there is no need to install them separately.

Background:
Currently Anaplan Input and Output tool only supports basic authentication and 
does not have option to connect using CA Certificate Authentication.
 
Reason:
Drawback of basic authentication is that critical information (email and password) is easily accessible.
If unauthorized person retrieves the credentials, he can access all of Anaplan interface and functionality.
 
Using CA Certification authentication adds a layer of security as no critical information is stored.
If certificate information is retrieved, the unauthorized person can only trigger APIs and has no access to other parts of Anaplan interface and functionality
 
Wishlist:
We hope that the Anaplan tools can be enhanced to have CA Certificate Authentication so
as to provide added security to transfer data between Alteryx and Anaplan.

Now : when you double click on the part of a field name text field (Formula, Filter, etc.) it selects only the word you double clicked.

 

Idea : It would be easier if a double click would select the entire field name with brackets for copy-pasting as an example.

0 Likes

Love the new Sharepoint Files Input tool. Significant improvement over previous options! 

 

A suggestion that could improve the impact of the tool:

 

File Download Only

 

Current state: The tool performs two actions simultaneously: 1) downloading the file (csv/xlsx/yxdb) AND 2) reads the file into the data stream. When processing the supported file types, this is very convenient! However, the beauty of Alteryx is being able to read in raw data from almost any file type (pdf/zip/doc/xml/txt/json/etc) and process the data myself. Being limited to only officially sanctioned file types greatly diminishes the impact of the tool. 

 

Suggestion: Allow the user to 1) specify a filepath, 2) download the selected file(s) to that destination, and 3) optionally use a dynamic input tool to process the file. 

 

hello,

version 2021.4 does not allow workflows to run if any of their input files are open.... would be great to have an option for the input tool that switches on/off the ability to read from open files. Some of my input files have frequent data changes and i tend to keep them open while testing/simulating results

 

Thank you,

abdou 

Issue

 

Whenever a Summarize tool is used, it renames the output field (e.g., sales becomes SUM_sales or AVG_sales).  

 

Proposal

 

I think a reasonable compromise is to by default not rename fields in the Summarize Tool, but to include an option (in the tool, or in global settings) to allow for renaming.

 

Rationale

 

I have yet to come across a use case where automatic renaming of aggregated fields is desirable. What I have come across is the annoyance to rename the fields back to what they were with a Dynamic Rename tool, and sometimes having to do this multiple times (e.g., converting back a SUM_SUM_SUM_sales back to sales). Additionally, automatic field renaming causes workflow errors when workflows are later modified by adding/removing a Summarize tool (e.g., if you later add a Summarize tool, all downstream steps will expect the "sales" field and not know to use the "Sum_sales field). 

 

Automatic Renaming feels very much like historic Excel with Pivot Tables field renaming and not reflective of modern code-based workflow best practices.

 

I appreciate you considering this improvement.

0 Likes

Don't know if someone else already flagged this... however if you click on a tool link in the result window, while the workflow is running, the window doesn't go back to the "main view" until the workflow stops.

It's fine if the workflow takes a few minutes to run, but if you are trying to debug a heavy workflow and you click by mistake on a tool link halfway through... it's a bit annoying that you can't see the output messages until the end

It would be oh so nice to be able to copy a container's properties and paste those formatting options onto other containers.  It could be accomplished through a Paint Brush icon on CTRL-Copy and Right Click to paste format.  either way it would save setting the Color (multi-step select), Margin, transparency.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

0 Likes

i would like to have a tool to verify whether the columns are exist or not.

 

if all exist then pass

else return error and indicate the filename and column missing in error message.

 

it happen when we using server. the user come back with the missing variable.

but do not know what file are missing that columns.

Pang_Hee_Choy_0-1648448994672.png

so if possible, we may have error message like, column "Status" not exist in "Data.xlsx|||Sheet1".

 

Suggestion Config:  similar to rename tool, but express is error message

Pang_Hee_Choy_1-1648450357193.png

 

0 Likes

So this is a minor thing, but could we get an option to name log files output to something aside from 'Alteryx_Log_TUVXXYZ_1'? It would be really useful to have the name of the workflow appended onto the log instead of having to sift through them manually or clear the destination folder every time I want to check one specific workflow. I know there's probably ways around this, but having something in the interface would be an elegant solution if possible.

 

Thanks! Love y'alls software to death!

Hi Team,

 

Download tool is not updated their encryption policy. This stool still support SHA-1 but as per the organization requirements they want higher encryption mechanism. As in my case we are using SFTP connection and we want to download the data but my SFTP server using SHA-2 encryption due to which we not able to configure the workflow. 

Please upgrade the Download tool for better experience in alteryx.

 

Regards,

Kaustubh 

The Image Input and Image Template tools in the Computer Vision category do not accept relative path names.  This makes it difficult to write a workflow in a test environment and then run it in the operating environment.  (Someone in the operating environment has to diddle with the Image Input path name, and the Image Template seems to require a complete re-training to spot the areas needed for scanning.)

 

ALSO the drop-down choices for "the most accurate option for what product component this enhancement would effect (sic)" does not offer the correct option of "Computer Vision".

0 Likes

Allow the Macro input tool to answer a question for other interface tools. Example if I want to open and run a container I cannot automate this. It can only be done with a human interface tool. Interface tools are not able to be updated dynamically. This issue hinders full automation with Alteryx server. Yes there are workarounds which lead to a big Ol Mess and creating errors leads to missed true errors. This option would remove many issues with automation.

When packaging a workflow, or uploading to a Server environment the ability to manage the assets which need to be included is critical, particularly in more complex solutions which may have numerous dependencies. 

 

The asset management display should be modified to present two column with the first showing just the file name and extension of the asset, and the second column can then show the full path of the asset. This easy change would would prevent the need for scrolling left and right to see the file name when longer paths are utilized. 

 

An alternative approach would be to allow the window to be resizable so the user could see everything without the need to scroll.

 

The ability to filter/sort the assets by type would also be useful with the following categories: Macros (.yxmc), Data Files (supported file types from file input screen), Other Assets.

I'm plotting ship's routes on a map by using the Poly-Build tool to create a Sequence Polyline, the source field is a daily snapshot of a ship's position, the sequence is the date. This works well until the ship goes off the map, i.e heading west in the North Pacific to Japan.  Rather than wrapping the line around the world, it draws an ugly line across the map:

 

spainn_0-1648051649989.png

 

I've seen some super clever WFs on here where people have manipulated coordinates to stop this happening, but rather than me having to do that (and probably getting it wrong), could you make the Poly-Build tool map sensitive?

 

 

Hello,
Recently I have been working with directory tools to pick up specific files based on where the workflow is running from. 

For an example to help illustrate my idea/fix, I have a folder on my desktop called 'Idea', I have a simple workflow and a couple csv files:

TheOC_0-1647965537747.png



I have my directory tool setup pointing at this folder - to pick up all three csv files:

TheOC_1-1647965572216.png

 

 

Now i want to make the path relative. Currently the workflow is saved within this folder, so in order to pick up all files in this location, as expected i would want the directory to be changed to "." (for reference, https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/tools/supplement/pathnames-explained-absolute-relative-u... ).

To make the paths relative, I use Options --> Advanced Options --> Workflow Dependencies

TheOC_2-1647965758754.png

I can then see my paths/dependencies:

TheOC_3-1647965802353.png



And hit 'all relative':

TheOC_4-1647965813130.png



It has changed to '.' as required, great. However when i hit okay and try to run the workflow:

TheOC_5-1647965845398.png



In order to get this to work, i have to add a "/" to the "." - making it "./".

 

This may seem like a small pain, however if a user does not understand relative paths, its not clear the difference between "./" and "." .

 

My suggestion would be either:
1) Directory tools with relative paths to the location are set to "./" 

2) MakeCleanPath() function (backend of the tool) is changed to allow for relative paths to the same location using "." .

 

Cheers,
TheOC

Hello,

I would like to allow my Gallery User to select the fields in my in database workflow, just like we can do in-memory. As of today, it's just impossible to do that.


Best regards,

Simon

Hi!

 

Can you please add a tool that stops the flow? And I don't mean the "Cancel running worfklow on error" option.

Today you can stop the flow on error with the message tool, but there's not all errors you want to stop for.

 

Eg. I can use 'Block until done' activity to check if there's files in a specific folder, and if not I want to stop the flow from reading any more inputs.

 

Today I have to make workarounds, it would be much appreciated to have a easy stop-if tool!

This could be an option on the message tool (a check box, like the Transient option).

 

Cheers,

EJ

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