Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Hello all,

As specified in the title, this idea is to distinguish between Append Prefix/Suffix to File and to Table on the Output Data Tool.


For most files (csv...), the table name does not really exist. However, for at least Excel files, if you choose this option, the result will be one sheet by suffix and the only option to have one file by suffix will be to change entire file path.

Best regards,

Simon

We will not be enabling DCM for the time being (see https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Ideas/Enable-auto-complete-predictive-typi...).  

But, when you do not enable DCM, you get an annoying pop up every time you open Designer that says "DCM toggle is not enabled". 

Please give us the ability to turn this pop up off.

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!

I can be picky about how my workflows are laid out.  Oftentimes, the connector between tools has a "mind of its own" as to what direction it goes and how it crosses other objects.  I'd like to see the ability to control the connector lines with "elbows" that can be positioned in custom locations and directions, like an MS Visio diagram. Alternatively, add a simple "pin" tool could be added to the canvas and it's only function is to take in and send out a connector line by defining the input and output location.  The input and output locations could be defined angularly/radial in degrees, for example.  Image attached below of existing workflow with a "troublesome" connector and the concept of "elbows" and "pins" added as an alternate control mechanism.  Both would be great!  :)

Hello all,

Here the issue : when you have a lot of tables, the Visual Query Builder can be very slow. On my Hive Database, with hundreds of tables, I have the result after 15 minutes and most of the time, it crashes, which is clearly unusable.

I can change the default interface in the Visual Query Builder tool but for changing this setting, I need to load all the tables in the VQB tool.

I would like to set that in User Settings to set it BEFORE opening the Visual Query Builder.

Best regards,

Simon

In a similar vein to the forthcoming enhancement of being able to disable a specific output tool, my idea is to have the inverse where you can globally disable all outputs and then enable specific ones only. This should help reduce the number of clicks required/avoid workarounds using containers to obtain this functionality and allow users to be very specific in which outputs run and don't run as required.

This is a QoL-request, and I love me some QoL-updates!

While I'm developing I often need the output of a workflow as input for the next phase of my development. For example: an API run returns job location, status, and authentication ids. I want to use these in a new workflow to start experimenting what'll work best. Because of the experimenting part, I always do this in a new workflow and not cache and continue in my main flow.

Writing a temporary output file always feels like unnescesary steps, and tbh I don't want to write a file for a step that'll be gone before it reaches production. Esp if there is sensitive information in it.

Thanks.

In the RecordID tool,  provide additional options for the creation of the ID, specifically allow for the ID to 'Intervals'. 

For example, Record ID every 10, meaning instead of creating an ID of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 .... you could create an interval of your choosing, the most obvious would by 10 or 100  thus your ID's would then be 10, 20, 30, 40 ....  or  100, 200, 300, 400, 500 ... etc. 

As per a recent discussion (https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Geopackages-Can-Alteryx-Open-GeoPackag...), please add the GeoPackage datatype to the Input tool.

For reference, the open-source project ogr2ogr has this functionality. (https://gdal.org/programs/ogr2ogr.html)

Thanks!

1. TEXT TO COLUMN TOOL : Check Mark  for “Output/No-Output” next  to  “OUTPUT ROOT NAME”  

Most of the time I don't want/need the column that I parsed. Provide a check box for if you want the root column output. 

Hello all,

As you may know, Alteryx use the Active Query Builder component. However this component itself evolves with cool new features :
https://www.activequerybuilder.com/blog/2018-04-28-much-faster-visual-sql-query-building-in-the-new-...

You can also try the online demo

https://www.activequerybuilder.com/

Best regards,

Simon

Problem: In certain workflows, it becomes necessary to arrange columns in a specific order for the output. While achieving the desired order for a fixed number of columns is feasible using the select tool, difficulties arise when dealing with dynamic outputs that introduce new columns during each workflow run.

Example: Consider the following scenario: the INPUT data for the select tool includes a set of Question/Answer columns. However, with every run of the workflow, new columns of this type are introduced. The challenge is to ensure that Question N and Answer N columns are grouped together in the OUTPUT dynamically. Unfortunately, this task is not easily accomplished using the current capabilities of Alteryx.

INPUT:

DESIRED OUTPUT:

With Python/Pandas, this problem can be easily resolved by assigning index values to each column and then sorting the columns based on the assigned index:

So, based on the Python solution, if Alteryx could do the same, it would be great. I personally think that if the Dynamic Rename tool could held the Index Info, and the select tool could also held the Sort option, this would work.

Dynamic Rename: Already can hold Description info, could hold Index Info.

Select tool: Could sort by index and hold this info when the workflow is saved.

Hope this all make sense.

Thanks.

This is a feature request based on my comment submitted here: Email Tool: Format "From" field to accommodate "Di... - Alteryx Community

It would be great to provide an option in the Designer Email Tool to allow us to specify a "Display Name" when sending emails.  The "Display Name" is a common part of the email specs listed here: RFC2822 - Section 3.4 (Address Specification) 

The email gateway/service that I'm using will send emails, but the "From" line will reflect only the email address.

For example, it will show an email as being from "john.smith@example.com" where I would love for it to show up as from "Smith, John".  This would make emails appear like other internal company emails in our company Outlook clients, and in general provides more useful flexibility for the Email tool. 

Many other email clients support using Display Name, but it appears that Alteryx currently doesn't.

The format of an email address with Display Name is something like "Smith, John" <john.smith@example.com> (with or without the quotes).

The Sharepoint file tools are certainly a step in the right direction, but it would be great to enhance the files types that it is possible to write to sharepoint from Alteryx.

The format missing that I think is probably most in demand is pdf. If we're using the Alteryx reporting suite to create PDF reports, it would be awesome to have an easy way to output these to Sharepoint.

https://help.alteryx.com/20213/designer/sharepoint-files-output-tool

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Public-Community-Gallery/Sharepoint-Files-Tool/ta-p/877903

Checkbox ability to ‘not’ output the original column on a text to columns tool

Our company has a need to link a new data source in Athena.  We have been able to establish a connection using the input functionality however the connection is so slow it is unusable.  We need to have Alteryx build an In Database option for Athena to allow us to link our data lake to Alteryx.  

How about a “Temporarily Disable Tool” feature where the tool is disabled?  Just the same as the "Disable All Tools that Write Output" but would only apply to the specific tool you select.   But, Instead of having to delete or cut the tool and connect around (as this can be tedious)!  The feature could be applied to various preparation tools (and potentially more) to help save time.

For example, there are occasions when I might have a filter applied and would want to temporarily disable the tool only to see all results.  This has been the case when I have wanted to include hospital wards (by temporarily disabling the tool) I was filtering out to review in the summarized totals.

The specific tool could have the same hashed marking as the "Disable All Tools that Write Output".   The "Temporarily Disable Tool" feature could be listed when the specific tool is right clicked on.   - The workflow could also prompt to show that the user has a tool "disabled" to highlight to the user.

Edit: Spelling

Hey all,

At present, if you have an existing canvas and you want to move to a DCM Connection - you are asked something like "this will reset all of your connection details - are you sure".    If you have complex queries; or pre+post SQL - then you first have to copy all of this out into Notepad before you can convert to DCM and then reconfigure it all again.

However, if you are not using DCM you can change data sources when you go into Workflow Dependancies without losing your queries etc.

Could we revisit the user experience of changing to or from a DCM connection to eliminate this "start from scratch" phenomenon - if you are converging from an existing SQL ODBC or ODB or SSVB connection to a SQL connection via DCM then it should allow you to make this conversion without losing your current configuration; and the same for any other database type.

cc: @mbarone 

Hello all,

In help, we can read that :
https://help.alteryx.com/current/designer/write-data-db-tool

Update/Delete is currently only supported for SQL Server ODBC connections.

 I don't know about you but SQL Server is well used in transactional workload but in analytics... well... I have only used once in several dozens of context !

Maybe it would be cool to make it work on many more database?

Best regards,

Simon