Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

I think it would be a nice feature if a user were able to export the list of tools and annotations in a way to use as the foundation of a process memo (or simply listed sequentially in an appendix). We're using Alteryx for tax data prep processes and documentation of the process is important.  So I believe getting the workflow into words would be a great addition.

I have several modules that need to run in sequence.   Can a ksh or some other program be used to string the modules together?  

So that if I have Step1.yxmd, Step2.yxmd and Step3.yxmd.  2 is dependent on 1, 3 is dependent on 2.  I want to tell it the jobs to run and then to wait until that module completes, then run the next.  


run Step1.yxmd
Wait

run Step2.yxmd
Wait

run Step3.yxmd
Wait


Or, if I have a group of modules that can run concurrently but subsequent jobs are dependent on all of them to finish, i can let all those jobs run and have the next step wait for those to complete to begin.  

run Step1A.yxmd
run Step1B.yxmd
run Step1C.yxmd
run Step1D.yxmd
Wait

run Step2.yxmd
Wait

run Step3.yxmd
Wait


I know this is very simplistic, but hoping it shows the need.  Also, we do have the scheduler set up to use, so if there is a way to set dependencies between modules within Scheduler, that might be helpful.  Just haven't found anything.  

Thanks!

It would be nice to have the ability to double click the top area of a container to either show or hide the container's objects. Only being able to show or hide containers using the arrow icon in the top right is quite cumbersome for large containers because it requires a lot of horizontal scrolling in order to change the desired view of the modules workflow.

Currently when I open and run an app in designer mode im unable to access any other modules while it runs.  It would be nice to be able to work on other modules while an app runs without opening a debug.

Seeing how we use browse to tools to help build out modules, but they slow down the modules because they write out temp files, it would be awesome to have a "record count" option similar to the input tool. This would allow us to see the data as it's flowing through the module without slowing it down.  Adding a sample tool before every browse would be fairly cumbersome. 

When building an expression (e.g. [Store Type] in ("Supermarket", "C-Store", "Gas Station") ) when the user selects the field variable, provide all the unique values in that field so user can double-click and add them to the expression, without having to look and see what values are in the table, what data type (shows quotes if string) and manually type the values, which can lead to errors.

This functionality is currently available in GIS programs such as ArcGIS and Quantum GIS (QGIS).

 

There is MD5 hashing capability,using MD5_ASCII(String) and MD5_UNICODE(String) found under string functions

it seems to be possible to encrypt/mask sensitive data...

 

BUT! using the following site it's child's play to decrypt MD5 --> https://hashkiller.co.uk/md5-decrypter.aspx

I entered password and encrypt it with MD5 giving me 5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99

Site gave me decrypted result in 131 m/s...

 

It may be wise to have;

SHA512_ASCII(String) and

SHA512_UNICODE(String)

 

Best

 

Altan Atabarut @Atabarezz

I've found that double-clicking in the expression builder results in varying behavior (possibly due to field names with spaces?)

 

It would be great if double-clicking a field selected everything from bracket to bracket inclusive, making it simpler to replace one field with another.

 

For instance:

 

Current:

IF [AVG AGE] >=5 THEN "Y" ELSE "N" ENDIF

 

Desired:

IF [AVG AGE] >=5 THEN "Y" ELSE "N" ENDIF

In some corporate instances that I have encountered, browsing to the internet is not supported. What I've also seen is private instances of wiki media and yammer. Perhaps we could extend the browse to support these types of instances.

Cheers,
Mark

Hello,

Right now you can write a file into sharepoint. However, sometimes, you just want to upload a file. There is already the ability to download (for Sharepoint input). I would like the same for uploading a file (based on an path or workflow dependancies).

Best regards,

Simon

Another seemingly minor one that would just make life a little easier and clean up workflows.  I often find myself renaming the Name/Value fields from a Transpose to be more descriptive.  Currently this requires a Select tool after each transpose, and it would be nice to put a couple of text boxes at the bottom of the transpose to rename Name/Value directly in the tool itself.

It would be really great if the formula tool could support statistical calculations.

I have tried calculating the binomial distribution and the beta function, but was unable to as there is no way to do 'factorial' or 'combinations'.

Perhaps the R tool could do this, but it would be really nice to do this in the formula tool.

I would like to be able to load large amounts of data into my MSSQL database using a faster interface.

In 24.1 the email tool was adjusted such that any error in the workflow prevents the email tool from sending any emails. Previously, if AMP was enabled, the email tool could still send emails even if the workflow contained an error, but this is no longer the case. There are many cases where this is not ideal, one example being:

In larger workflows, I have multiple data streams which, after a point, operate independently. Even if one stream errors, I would like emails to be sent from the other streams. I have tried nesting the email tool within multiple layers of macros, but if any of the parent or child workflows/macros contain an error, the email tool will not send any emails. 

I would like a checkbox option in the email tool or workflow configuration that will still allow emails to be sent if the workflow errors. Then, with the use of control containers, I will have full control over email distribution with errors. 

The Email tool does not send out e-mails after an error occurred in the workflow. Since this usually is a good thing, it sometimes would be helpful being able to send out e-mails also in case of errors.

In particular, I want to send out an e-mail with a detailed and formatted custom error message.

 

Thus, please add a check box "Also send mail in case of errors" which is off by default.

 

Side note: The Event "Send mail After Run With Errors" does not work for me because it is too inflexible. Just sending out the OutputLog is not helpful because the error message might be hidden after hundreds of rows.

 

To increase Performance on some old Buissness Logic, i am trying to switch an existing system to In-DB tools. This has given me a lot of headache because there is no Multi-Field Formular Tool in the In-DB section. It is a very tedious job to run through every workflow to manually set the same regex for a table with more than 20 Fields. 

 

I have had the idea to implement such a tool myself but i think this could be helpful for other developers in Alteryx Desktop too, so i am bringing this up here.

The Idea is to have a similar approach to the new Multi-Formular Tool like the other already existing Tool in Preperation. 

Hello,

As of today, DCM is great to store credentials. But once we want to dive deeper in technicity, like using macros or Applications, it's really bad. One of the things I hate is that we can't retrieve any informations from the DCM connection, just the id. Not good for logs, really bad for understanding and have some conditional logic related to connection type or name.

Here an example

Nice, I managed to retrieve an id but I have no idea of what it means : what kind of connection? what's name?

Best regards,

Simon

Hello,

Here is the proposal about an issue that I face frequently at work.

 

Problem Statement -

Frequent failure of workflows that have either been scheduled or run manually on server because the excel input file is sometimes open by another user or someone forgot to close the file before going out of office or some other reason. 

 

Proposed Solution - 

The Input/Dynamic Input tools to have the ability to read excel files even when it is open so that the workflows do not fail which will have a huge impact in terms of time savings and will avoid regular monitoring of the scheduled workflows.

 

 

Could you please assess the idea of reverse engineering existing SQL code (in special inside DataWarehouse's code, thousands of LOCs filled with SELECT and JOINS) and replace it with Alteryx widgets?

Doing this will accelerate penetration rate of Alteryx products in large companies and dismantle IBM Cognos and their cousins.