Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Alteryx offers the ability to add new formulae (e.g. the Abacus addin) and new tools (e.g. the marketplace; custom macros etc) - which is a very valuable and valued way to extend the capability of the platform.

However - if you add a new function or tool that has the same name as an existing function / tool - this can lead to a confusing user experience (a namespace conflict)

Would it be possible to add capability to Alteryx to help work around this - two potential vectors are listed below:

- Check for name conflicts when loading tools or when loading Alteryx - and warn the user.   e.g. "The Coalesce function in package CORE Alteryx conflicts with the same function name in XXX package - this may cause mysterious behaviours"

- Potentially allow prefixes to address a function if there are same names - e.g. CoreAlteryx.Coalesce or Abacus.Coalesce - and if there is a function used in a function tool in a way that is ambiguous (e.g. "Coalesce") then give the user a simple dialog that allows them to pick which one they meant, and then Alteryx can self-cleanup.

cc: @JarrodT  @NicoleJ 

Hello,
Frequently when using the 'Show Field Map' option in a Macro Input I utilize an Action Tool with the 'Update Select with Reverse Field Map' action later in the workflow. When trying to use workflow debug to test the functionality of the macro, Designer throws an error stating the 'Action ReverseFieldMap: can't update from a macro input in an Analytic App.' This makes sense since there are no user supplied fields names in the input data stream to use for the reverse field mapping. However, this prevents me from using of the workflow debugger. The workaround is to manually delete the Action Tool prior to using the debugger. I can then test the macro to ensure the proper functionality. I don't expect the fields names to be anything other than those I supplied as Template Inputs to the Macro Input. This workaround is cumbersome especially if the workflow requires multiple reverse mapping actions. Not to mention I have to remember to undo the delete when updating the workflow after testing.

I suggest an automated process is needed to remove any Action Tools using the reverse field map action from a workflow when the debug workflow is being built for testing. If needed, maybe supply a prompt indicating they were removed. This would allow a smoother transition between macro development and debugging. 

Have Alteryx have different colored lines for the different paths that come in and go out from a tool like how Excel colors references in a formula.

Please allow disable or ignore conversion errors in SharePoint List Input. 

In SharePoint List Input I see the same conversion error about 10 times. Then....

"Conversion Error Limit Reached".

Can you simply show the error once or allow users to choose to ignore the error? (Union Tool allows users to ignore errors).

I am not using that SP column in my workflow. Meanwhile I have to show my workflow to a 3rd party within the company. SO annoying to see errors that do not apply to my workflow being shown.

Just like there is search bar for Select Tool, there should be one for Data Cleansing tool also.

Currently there are forecasting tools under time series (prediciting for the future). But can a back casting function/tool be added to predict historic data points.

Hello all,

The reasons why I would the cadence to be back to quarter release :

-for customers, a quarter cadence means waiting less time to profit of the Alteryx new features so more value

-quarter cadence is now an industry standard on data software.

-the new situation of special cadence creates a lot of frustration. And frustration is pretty bad in business.

-for partners, the new situation means less customer upgrade opportunities, so less cash but also less contacts with customers.

Best regards,

Simon

It would be neat to add a feature to the Output tool to allow grouping by rows, with all the data related to the group column viewable under a drop-down of the selected field. 

I've heard that this is possible with a power pivot but would be a nice feature in Alteryx.

Ex. A listing of all customers in a specific city -> Group by the "Neighborhood" column, the output should be a list of all neighborhoods in the city, with an option to drop down on each neighborhood to see its residents and their relevant data. 

Thanks!

Hello All,

I believe there needs to be a new tool added to Alteryx. I am frequently encountering cases where I will have 0 data point feeding a workflow stream that causes my workflows to fail. Because of this, I am having to put in fail safes to keep this from happening.

There should be a tool that if there is no records that are passing into it, anything after that tool will not fail.

For an example, within a workflow I am using a dynamic input that will pull a dynamic file. The file is not always there and the workflow should be able to run if that file is there or not. If the dynamic tool and other tools would process 0 records without failing this would also solve the issue. 

I would be nice to have a tool that will  block off the work stream if there are 0 records passing through the tool. 

I would like to suggest that right-click on the tab allows the user the ability to EDIT the workflow name/path and save updates by use of an ENTER key press.

Cheers,

Mark

My Backstory:

I am currently what you would call an "independent" data analyst.  I currently work for a major US based bank and I am trying to change roles to a data analytics role within said company.  Many of our data analytics teams use (or are migrating to) Alteryx.  I myself love the program.  I have now attained the Core certification.  As I have yet to be hired as a data analyst I am currently independently learning and building skills...but as of right now, it seems that data analytics is more of a hobby. 

Issue: 

I think there are a lot of people out there who are in my shoes.  They are either migrating to a data analytics role or are a former analyst just wanting to keep doing what they like doing or are freelancers.  Alteryx is an amazing tool.  But, the big issue is that we can get the free cert/license...but after a time...we will lose access at some point.  Unless we find an employer who can purchase the license for us.

How it Effects the parties involved: 

As stated above, I love Alteryx.  I would absolutely love to continue using it.  But, I am not in a place right now where my company is considering me for a data analytics role.  I also barely make enough to survive and would probably take me a lifetime to raise the funds for a full license on my own.  In the end, if i were to never get a data analytics role with my current employer or new employer that would be able to give me access...I would have to seriously think about abandoning the Alteryx system as a tool as I cannot spend $5000 on a what is currently a hobby.  After my learners license time is up...what do I do?

Now as for how it effects Alteryx...I would think that having people chose whether to use the software or not use the software because of financials wouldn't be the best option for business.

A Possible Fix:

A monthly subscription license.  You could have a lite version where the advanced tools are not usable.  Maybe even make a tiered subscription model.  For example, a Core subscription that has the core learner tools and maybe some of the other tools that would allow someone to do basic analysis.  Then a more advanced tier with more tools for a higher monthly rate.  And so on...

This would allow people such as myself the ability to continue to use Alteryx...and spread the good word about it to others.  It would also allow people to continue to truly master the software.  I imagine this could also make Alteryx more of a name brand within the data community...and bring it to the attention of other corporations who would then have a user base coming into the company WITH the more advanced skills to use the system built-in.  Rather than a company adopting software that they then have to train the users and going thru the growing pains of that.  Again, we would-be-monthly-subscribers wouldn't need all the fancy tools.

To wrap it all up, I love Alteryx.  I wish I was able to continue using it.  But, as I near my learner license end date, I have to think: how am I going to continue?  Do I just hope and pray I eventually find a department/company who will let me back into the cool kids club?  Do I look for something similar and move away from this simply because I have access?

I appreciate you taking the time to hear me out.  😀

Hello,

Working on Dataiku DSS and there is a cool feature : they can tag tools, parts of a worklow.. and then emphasize the tools tagged.

Best regards,

Simon

Problem statement - 

Currently we are storing our Alteryx data in .yxdb file format and whenever we want to fetch the data, the whole dataset first load into the memory and then we can able to apply filter tool afterwards to get the required subset of data from .yxdb which is completely waste of time and resources.

Solution - 

My idea is to introduce a YXDB SQL statement tool which can directly apply in a workflow to get the required dataset from .YXDB file, I hope this will reduce the overall runtime of workflow and user will get desired data in record time which improves the performance and reduce the memory consumption.

Hello all,

A few years ago, I asked for svg support in Alteryx (https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Ideas/svg-support-for-icon-comment-image-e... ). Now, there is Alteryx Designer Cloud with other icons... already in svg !




So I think it would be great to have an harmonization between designer and cloud.

Best regards,

Simon

Hello all,

We all know for sure that != is the Alteryx operator for inequality. However, I suggest the implementation of <> as an other operator for inequality. Why ?

<> is a very common operator in most languages/tools such as SQL, Qlik or Tableau. It's by far more intuitive than != and it will help interoperability and copy/paste of expression between tools or from/to in-database mode to/from in-memory mode.

Best regards,

Simon

I would love a tool to be created for looking up a value in a table based on a condition. It could be called "Lookup." One input to the tool would be the lookup list, the other is the main database. Inside the tool you could enter functions that can query the lookup table and return the results either as an overwrite of an existing field in the main DB or as a new field in the main DB, similar to the options in the Multi-Row Formula tool.

Here is a link to my post in Community that explains the problem. The solution, in a nutshell, was to create a Join (which resulted in millions of additional rows), run the conditional formula, then filter to get rid of the millions of rows that were created by the Join so only those that met the condition remained (the original database rows).

Here is the text of my Community post describing my project (slightly modified for clarity):

Table 1:  A list of Pay Dates (the lookup table)

Table 2:  Daily timekeeper data with Week Start and Week End Date fields.

The goal:  To find the Pay Date in Table 1 that is greater than the Week Start Date in Table 2 and no more than 13 days after the Week End Date in Table 2.

[Table 2: Week Start Date] < [Table 1: Pay Date]

and [Table 2: Week End Date] < [Table 1: Pay Date]

and DateTimeDiff([Table 1: Pay Date], [Table 2: Week End Date], 'Days') <= 13

There are many different flows I could use this type of tool for that would save time and simplify the flow.

Thanks!

Github support. push/pull your workflow code directly to/from a repo. I posit this is the single biggest feature misisng form Alteryx -and I'm be happy to blab on and on to the product team about how not having this is a huge miss.

Hi all,

Hope you are doing well! Recently I have come across a use case where I had to dynamically rename columns based on Field name ánd position. While I was able to come to a solution using a set of tools, it got me thinking: would it be possible to include the Fieldnumber function exactly like already has been done in the dynamic select tool (i.e. 'Select via a Formula - Column Position' example)?

For example, one would write: IF ([FieldNumber] = 1) OR ([FieldNumber] = 3) OR ([FieldNumber] = 7) THEN [_CurrentField_]+"_Code" ELSE  [_CurrentField_] ENDIF

Hello all,

We all have experienced these last years the now famous concept of hide/unhide password :
Here a few examples of it

I would like this exact principle everywhere we have a password on Alteryx.

Best regards,

Simon