Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Perhaps a little niche but it's something I come across quite a lot so thought I'd throw this out there as a quick QoL suggestion!

Currently when developing apps and such, we often just show results to end users via a Browse tool. However, when this output is a large table of data or a map for example, the initial results window doesn't scale out and we can often only see a tiny edge. To add to this, if we do want to resize the initial results window, we have to manually drag this as there is no maximise option like in other interfaces. Below is a quick example of what I mean.

App runs and produces this output:

The actual data/results within:

To get this second image, I have had to manually click and drag the outer edges of the Browse window, due to the lack of a maximise button. I'm aware that we can click to pop this out to a new window that does have a maximise option, but this feels like an unnecessary additional step.

So the idea here is fairly simple. Either a) increase the default size of the results window, and/or b) add a maximise button to Browse outputs.

Cheers,

Nathan

Hello!
I appreciate this is a very underused element of Alteryx Functionality, however, I have noticed a few issues with the description of fields. 

Firstly, if you set a description on a field within a select tool:

And then attempt to clear the description later in the workflow (in another select tool), you cannot. When you delete the description, it will clear back to the original value (in this case, 'test'):

This can be easily recreated, and can be more applicable to yxdb outputs that contain the description of fields. In that scenario, you cannot go back to the previous select tool and remove the description. The closest you can come to easily clearing the description is replacing it with a space ' '.

As a secondary issue, as current the score tool removes field descriptions and overrides the source. For example if I open the Score tool example workflow, and add a select tool/description:

You can see the meta data going into the score tool:

But unfortunately the output of the tool looks like:

Showing that it has completely removes the descriptions, and also replaced all of the 'source' information. My suggestion for this would be that it would not replace the source information or descriptions.

Thirdly - and quite a niche issue, but an int64 field specifically will break when the description differs between the data and the model.

Again, easy to recreate within the Ccore tool example workflow. Apply a Select tool to both streams, setting 'First_Years' to an int64. Within the bottom stream (the model creation), set a description, in this case, 'test':

Make sure to leave the top streams description blank.

Run the workflow, observe the error:
Error: Score (106): Score: The variable testFirst_Years is missing from the input data stream.
Interestingly, it seems to be using the description as part of the name within the Score tool, which is causing issue when the descriptions differ. My suggestion for this would be that it would not utilise descriptions at all.

Kind Regards,

Owen

Hello!
Currently when you share a workflow that contains a Directory tool, it will instantly fail if you do not setup the directory tool to point at a similar folder structure. This is expected, but can make it painful to share workflows between multiple users, especially when a shared network drive and dynamic paths cannot be used. 

What I propose as an addition to Alteryx Designer would be the option to 'convert to yxdb' / 'cache and replace' any tools that are at the start of a workflow, similar to the cache and run workflow option:

What i expect this to do is to containerise the tools previously used, and create a new file within a temporary location, and replace the containerised tool connection with a new data input to that file:

Why this would be fantastic, is that it would allow me to now export the workflow, including the file that has been created:

and I could then share that with a colleague.

Kind Regards,

Owen

Idea removed, regex will do the job. 

Apologies if this has been suggested already - did a search and didn't see anything similar.

This is a quality of life/UX idea. The search functionality in the results pane essentially does a 'contains' search on all of the columns (see below screenshots for the filter inserted by the 'apply data manipulations button). As I build workflows and profile the data, it'd be helpful if I could click one or more columns and limit the search bar to just those fields.

Right now, depending on the dataset I could get rows returned by the search due to the search term appearing in columns that aren't relevant. To workaround this I could add select tools to limit the columns or do more robust filters in a filter tool, but having it built in would be very helpful.

I have found a few examples in which the formatting options can be more finely tuned when editing the XML of a workflow but is not allowed by the user interface.

Border widths are just one example. The smallest border width is 1px, whereas if you edit the XML to "0.5" and save, you will get more narrow borders.

When searching for a workflow in the application we severely struggle with being able to locate the workflows we need. The same thing happens when searching in the gallery.  The information entered that will pull up a workflow doesn't seem to search across the workflow name nor does it seem to use any regular search engine function e.g. "search term" will return all and only results that contain exactly those parameters.  

Example:

WF Name:  "Magic_Workflow_business_purpose"

We can search for

• Magic
• Workflow
• business
• purpose
• Magic_Workflow_business_purpose

For THIS particular workflow, let's say only the search term of "business" works. 

It seems to be completely inconsistent. We've had MANY circumstances where NO entered search parameters return the desired results and we find ourselves having to sort all workflows by name and slowly scroll through (waiting for more to load) until we locate the named workflow. Out of all the amazing things Alteryx can do, if we can't find the work we've developed in it, we can't use it.

Thank you!  

Regards, MAKpfe

User should get an Alert that file is open when using Input Tool.  Currently Alteryx just clocks when attempting to use an open file in an Input Tool.  

There is an irony in asking for what is essentially the Alteryx version of 'Formula Wizard' from Excel

As great as the guides have been in the community, the Batch Macro is one of most difficult to repeat and explain.

It would be great for users to have a prompt that recognises a Directory input of excel files and at the point of adding a Macro, having a series of prompts at each stage help build out the desired result (whether that be returning all sheets or specific sheets).

It would further highlight one the great features & key enablers of Alteryx 

Hello all,

So, right now, we have two very separated products : Alteryx Designer and Alteryx Designer Cloud. But what if you want to go from Alteryx Designer on your desktop to the cloud ?

well, you will have to rewrite every single workflow because you can't publish or import your current workflow on Alteryx Designer Cloud. You cannot  export Designer Cloud workflow to Alteryx Designer on Desktop either.

This is a huge limitation on cloud implementation and sells and the ONLY product I know that's not compatible between on-premise and cloud.

Please Alteryx, this is a no-brainer situation if you want to convince your customers !

Best regards,

Simon

Hello all,

As of today, we can easily copy or duplicate a table with in-database tool.This is really useful when you want to have data in development environment coming from production environment.

But can we for real ?

Short answer : no, we can't do it in these cases :
-partitions

-statistics
-index

-any constraints such as primary-foreign keys

But even if these ideas would be implemented, this means manually setting these parameters.

So my proposition is simply a "clone table"' tool that would clone the table from the show create table statement and just allow to specify the destination path (base.table)

Best regards,

Simon

Hi all!

Based on the title, here's some background information: SHAPLEY Values

Currently, one way of doing so is to utilize the Python tool to write out the script and install the package. However, this will require running Alteryx as an administrator in order to successfully load, test, and run the script. The problem is, a substantial number of companies do not grant such privileges to their Alteryx teams to run as administrator fully as it will always require admin credentials to log in to even open Alteryx after closing it.

I am aware that there is a macro covering SHAP but I've recently tested it and it did not work as intended, plus it covers non-categorical values as determinants only, thereby requiring a conversion of categorical variables into numeric categories or binary categories. 

It will be nice to have a built in Alteryx ML tool that does this analysis and produces a graph akin to a heat map that showcases the values like below:

By doing so, it adds more value to the ML suite and actually helps convince companies to get it.

Otherwise teams will just use Python and be done with it, leaving only Alteryx as the clean-up ETL tool. It leaves much to be desired, and can leave some teams hanging.

I hope for some consideration on this - thank you.

Hi Team,

As a Low vision person, I am able to work on Dark Background and White foreground (Dark theme).

I won't find the feature, kindly upgrade for the same. I tried the suggestions in google as work with Palette option,

in my case that's not much help. and also kindly make Alteryx as much as accessible.

Thanks & Regards

Rameshchandra 

When I work I typically have 2 to 3 screens at my desk, or an oversized single screen. Being able to take the results window and float it on to my second monitor is great as it allows me to view more canvas and more data results in one setup. However the results window will not maximize or dock to my second window, would be great for it to have this Windows feature. 

Add the ability in the select records tool to use formulas not just record numbers. 

There is no tool that exists that outputs all records that are duplicates (those sharing the selected values with at least one other record) and also outputs the records that are not duplicates (those not sharing the selected values with at least one other record).

The Unique Tool is not sufficient.  It only provides the first record of a unique duplicate group along with any non-duplicates and then provides a secondary output that only contains the additional records of a duplicate group.  Sometimes you only care about the duplicates and want to quickly see what differs between the unique groups.

For example, if there are 4 records with the City of Austin and I am looking for duplicates on City I want to see all 4 records with Austin in the output so I can quickly compare additional fields to see what might differ, or if they are all indeed truly duplicates.

Many of today's APIs, like MS Graph, won't or can't return more than a few hundred rows of JSON data. Usually, the metadata returned will include a complete URL for the NEXT set of data.

Example:  https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/devices?$count=true&$top=999&$filter=(startswith(operatingSystem,'W...') or startswith(operatingSystem,'Mac')) and (approximateLastSignInDateTime ge 2022-09-25T12:00:00Z)

This will require that the "Encode URL" checkbox in the download tool be checked, and the metadata "nextLevel" output will have the same URL plus a $skiptoken=xxxxx value.  That "nextLevel" url is what you need to get the next set of rows.

The only way to do this effectively is an Iterative Macro . 

Now, your download tool is "encode URL" checked, BUT the next url in the metadata is already URL Encoded . . . so it will break, badly, when using the nextLevel metadata value as the iterative item.

So, long story short, we need to DECODE the url in the nextLevel metadata before it reaches the Iterative Output point . . . but no such tool exists.

I've made a little macro to decode a url, but I am no expert. Running the url through a Find Replace tool against a table of ASCII replacements pulled from w3school.com probably isn't a good answer.

We need a proper tool from Alteryx!

Someone suggested I use the Formula UrlEncode ability . . .

Unfortunately, the Formula UrlEncode does NOT work. It encodes things based upon a straight ASCII conversion table, and therefore it encodes things like ? and $ when it should not.  Whoever is responsible for that code in the formula tool needs to re-visit it.

Base URL: https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/devices?$count=true&$top=999&$filter=(startswith(operatingSystem,'W...') or startswith(operatingSystem,'Mac')) and (approximateLastSignInDateTime ge 2022-09-25T12:00:00Z)

Correct Encoding: 

Hello all,

Like many softwares in the market,  Alteryx uses third-party components developed by other teams/providers/entities. This is a good thing since it means standard features for a very low price. However, these components are very regurarly upgraded (usually several times a year) while Alteryx doesn't upgrade it... this leads to lack of features, performance issues, bugs let uncorrected or worse, safety failures.

Among these third-party components :

- CURL (behind Download tool for API) : on Alteryx 7.15 (2006) while the current release is 8.0 (2023)
- Active Query Builder (behind Visual Query Builder) : several years behind

- R : on Alteryx 4.1.3 (march 2022)  while the next is 4.3 (april 2023)
- Python : on Alteryx 3.8.5 (2020) whil the current is 3.10 (april 2023)
-etc, etc....
-

of course, you can't upgrade each time but once a year seems a minimum...

Best regards,

Simon

Add ability to name the columns for the text to column fields tool.