Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Similar to being able change the parameters of a tool using the interface tools, it could be very useful if Alteryx Designer had an option where the configuration of a tool can be modified by another tool's output (which can only consist of one row & column and may include line breaks/tab characters, only first row is used if there are multiple rows) while the workflow is running, therefore reducing the need to chain multiple apps.

This feature could be made possible as the "Control Containers" feature is now implemented, and it could work like below:

Suppose you need to write to a database and may need to specify a Pre-SQL statement or Query that needs to be dynamically changed by the result of a previous tool in the workflow.

In this case, as the configuration of a tool in the next container needs to be changed by the result of a previous formula, there would need to be an additional icon below the tools, indicating that the tool's result can be used for configuration change.

This icon which will appear below the tools will only be visible once at least one Control Container and an Action tool is added to the workflow, and will automatically be removed if all the control containers are removed from the workflow. User can change the configuration of the destination tool using an action tool, which must be connected to a tool in a container that will be run after the one it is contained in has finished running, as a tool (or several tools) that is contained in the next CC in the workflow needs to be dynamically modified before the container it is contained in is activated.

If a formula tool containing multiple formula fields is added to the action tool, the user will see all the formula outputs similar to connections (i.e. [#1], [#2]...) that can be used as a parameter.

The screenshot below demonstrates the idea, but please note that this is a change where adding an action tool may not mean that this workflow will need to become either a macro or an analytic app, so a new workflow type may or may not have to be defined, such as "Dynamic Configuration Workflow (YXDW)". Analytic Apps and Macros which utilize this feature could still be built without having to define a new workflow type.

I would like to see the same functionalitly that the Output Tool has in the Render tool.  In the Output Tool, you can specify the Excel Worksheet along with the Sheet Name that you want to output too.  Meaning Same Worksheet, different tab:

     C:Output FilesExample_Worksheet.xlsx|Report_1
     C:Output FilesExample_Worksheet.xlsx|Report_2

This functionality is not currently available in the Render Tool and would be very useful and cut out some manual operations on the back end that requires us to copy/paste from one file to another.

I tried using the Section Break technique that was offered as a suggestion, but it did not perform what I needed.

Love the functionality to create filters on the Calgary database but it would be nice to be able to select the columns you wanted returned. There are times where you only want a couple columns but the input tool will return all columns creating a larger dataset then required. You can add a select right after the input but this is after the entire dataset has been loaded into memory. Combining the two would make the Calgary input tool behave more like a database then a standard "dumb" input source. 

I'd love to have a shortcut (like Ctrl+I) that opens the Insert Macro feature, saving the time of right-clicking, and scrolling down on the menu (Note: Once you spent a "little time" using Designer, this menu can be a very long one, and the mouse wheel doesn't work on it).

When working with .flat files, the actual Data file selection (Option #5) is a text input field.

Can we have a File Selection control here?

I think it's going to be easier than writing the whole path for a file.

Thanks!

Hello,

In my company, we have our personal account (let's say myorganization\saubert) and, if we have the right to, a LOCAL admin account (eg : .\adminsaubert) to make install of sofware, etc...

So, the license is on my personal account

Now, I want to access the System settings :

And then  I have this very friendly message :

If i click on "OK", it opens the License manager.
If I click on "Cancel", it closes the windows and I'm unable to change my system settings.

I think changing these system settings shouldn't require a license.

Best regards,

Simon

Add an option to the tree tool generate custom lists similar to the list box.  When building apps for teams to use and we need them to select from either a product or store hierarchy it would greatly simplify the process if the tree tool could generate a custom list of the lowest level of the hierarchy that we could feed into a sql pull in the dynamic input tool.  On top making the workflow cleaner, I think it would make the user interface a lot cleaner, instead of a giant lists of stores/departments etc. they could drill down to the relevant area much faster.

I was thinking that if I add a Text box to my app -- there is an option to add Default Text. It would be nice to make that a little more dynamic.

Here is my use case. I want to put the current year in as default text to then use it in a filter tool. It would be great to be able to put a formal in that always get the current year -- but allows a user to overwrite it if they want to do another year. The way I envision it could be:

DateTImeYear(Datetimenow) would show 2020 by default, but a user could overwrite it to say 2019 instead.

Another example is folder structure. If a department is consistent with their folder structure where only a year change:

'C:\Tax\Returns\' + str(DateTImeYear(Datetimenow) would show C:\Tax\Returns\2020. Next year it would show 2021...etc.

Thanks,

Seth

I totally get that we want to use a local disk drive for TempDirectory.

Let us override Alteryx (currently Alteryx overrides the user override) and choose a network directory.  If the local temp drive is full, let the user choose.

Cheers,

Mark

Hi Alteryx Team,

My work is to create Output from Alteryx and upload the Output file into Tibco Spotfire. So i want a system in which Alteryx output directly goes in to the Tibco Spotfire and update Tibco Spotfire in every 6 hours.
So do you have any plan to connect the Alteryx with Tibco Spotfire? This is will help me to automate the project.
If not pls think on these concept for future use.

Right now the Directory tool; Input tool; Output tool all do implied credentialing (for input and output it's implied for file-based data-sources).    This implied credentialing is not obvious because most people working on the desktop want the designer to pass on their own credentials as they access a file.

This is a significant data-leakage risk since an canvas running on the server can access the full content of EVERY network share that has any input files that are used in Alteryx canvasses.    

Please can you add explicit credentialing to all input and output tools in Alteryx, especially the Directory tool; Input tool (for files) and output tool (for files).    That way, teams will be able to use a teamID to access secure content, and the cross-team leakage risk on the designer and server can be closed out.

Many thanks

Sean

+  @Hemanth @marydest24 @Shreyasi @Sotoll @Kosi @revathi @Bethanyturner012  

I know that incoming and outgoing connections can be wired and wireless, and that they will highlight when one clicks on a tool. However, it would be very useful to be able to highlight a particular connector in a particular colour (selected from a palette, perhaps, from the drop down window, or from the configuration). This would be especially useful when there are many connectors originating from a single tool.

Thanks

For performance, it would be great if designers could mark Batch Macros safe for parallel execution. E.g. the macro will not dead-lock itself accessing inputs / outputs. 

Either Alteryx would run all iterations simultaneously, or to what available resources permit.

My use case here is a rule table (DMN) which execution against a data set, each rule needs to be executed against each row. The rules are expressed as formulas and are joined through the Dynamic Replace tool.

However we need to check whether inputs match multiple rules these may violate the matching process, so I run each rule through the batch macro to find matches. Once all matches are processed then validation on the matching occurs.

The input could be 30k rows, and there are about 80 rules which my Alteryx takes about five minutes to execute.

During the design phase, we make some experimentations and create tables with Alteryx.

But, sometimes, after this phase or after a mistake, we need to drop those tables.

We know that it's possible to write a drop table statement in Pre-SQL or Post-SQL but it requires SQL skills and it could be done only if you write in a table.

It will be great if we could drop a table directly in the Query builder of the Input tool by making a right click on the table in the discovery tree.

Extension : It also be great to have the same thing in the HDFS browse.

We store valuable data in our MS Teams sites (which are sharepoint folders behind the scenes). Currently, there is no way to connect to sharepoint directly (only if I sync sharepoint to my local drive, which is problematic and doesn't work on Alteryx server).

My recommendation is to have a sharepoint connector which works on both the desktop and server.

Thanks!

Some tools have lots of messages that appear in the message log. For stable workflows, would be great to have an option to suppress the messages so that fewer appear or are hidden entirely or only display a message if an error occurs.

For example, I have a workflow that uses a few AutoField tools. This adds as many as 40-50 rows to the message log that becomes 100 lines long. It makes it difficult for me to locate messages I do need within the log when I run my workflow.

Enable Gallery Server Connections as Input for In-DB Tools. Currently, we can only create file connections, and we'd like to centralize all connections to our Gallery Connections.

I would like to suggest 2 small changes to make working with Interface tools easier:

1) Let a user change the name of Question Constants from the workflow tab. For example, I would love the ability to change the names of my list boxes below. Currently, I can click in the name box and write new names in, but it doesn't stick.

2) Let the user add the value on the Interface tools under the Annotation tab. Currently, I drop an interface tool on, change the name on the annotation tab, and then have to go the the workflow tab to setup a value. It would be easier if the value box was also on the annotation tab: