Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

The Directory tool should also retrieve the author/creator name of a file along with an audit trail of anyone that made changes to the file. The audit trail option may need to be a different preparation tool but the information would be useful.

Providing detailed information about inputs, outputs, data sources and assumptions provides useful information to us that may not always be obvious within a workflow, especially one with many tools used. While the comment tool is useful, and I enjoy the customization options, I think some updates to the annotation tool would be useful.

One improvement I would like to see is the ability to summarize and download all annotations to a PDF document; color coding the annotations according to the tool used would also be helpful. Having this information readily available for presentation purposes or for enterprise-wide users of workflows would be beneficial. 

If this is already possible, please let me know!

The Find Nearest tool allows setting a distance in units of miles and kilometers. It would be incredibly convenient to specify units of feet or meters also. I find that in most instances, 1 mile is vastly large for the analysis I am working on and I have to include additional logic to confirm incorrect matching is not occurring.

When opening the File Open dialog in Designer for loading a file from the Gallery, the default location inside the Gallery is set to "All Locations". 

In most of the cases, a developer does not want to work on a workflow produced by a random other person having stored a workflow in the Gallery but on his own workflows. Thus, the default should be "My Private Studio".

Please apply the change to open the file open dialog with "My Private Studio" selected.

Hey team,

I like the profiling function in the browser. Unfortunately, there is not built-in export function. Would it be possible to implement a function to export the profiling results into excel and PDF?

Thanks,

Christoph

I have been creating tools that access API data that needs a valid token that does expire.  I use iterative macros because I sometimes need to do offsets and loop around but I also need to confirm that the token is still valid and there is a limit of how many time you can generate a token on a run so I don't want to regenerate the token on each loop.  I sometimes can use the filter tool to accomplish this goal but I have to do some weird place holder stuff so it does not error if no data is coming through.  A nice to have would be if you could have it configure like you do the radio button input to say if value is YES then keep this part of the workflow on if value is "NO" then turn off this sections.

Hi, I have been using different tools for some time now and now I started using Alteryx. It would be better if you can provide a feature to select particular components of workflow and on clicking Run, only selected components gets executed. It would save lots of config  time and resources. In case none is selected, the workflow shall execute all tools/functions as it is currently running.  I am open to test these features, if approved by Alteryx Team.

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.

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.

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!

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.  😀

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

Writing to XLSB Files using Delete and Append does not behave properly.

Alteryx currently is having an issue with writing to an XLSB file using the Delete and append option with Take the file/table name From field.

Issue:

• Old data gets deleted, and new data is added but on the wrong row.
• New data is added after location where old data was originally.
• This output error for XLSB files only shows when using Take the file/table name From field. Static paths are fine.

Workaround:

Create a Batch macro to simulate the Take the file/table name From field function without actually using it.

Example of Issue:

I received a "string variable switched type" error on the filter tool performing a basic filter on the value column of "is not empty" after a transpose tool.  The value column is datatype of  V_String 255.  So even though the values are null, blank, number, text, it is all string as per the data type column flowing in.  When switching from basic to custom with formula: IsEmpty([value]) same error.   BUT, when using the Formula Tool to generate a new column for true/false there is no error. Also the Fitler Tool works as expected with IsNull on this dataset.

Please look into the isEmpty code in the Filter tool so that it behaves correctly.

Please note that pre-splitting the data with the isEmpty flag column using the formula tool, applying IsEmpty Basic Filter  to the True and To the False both worked without incident.  

What would be nice is if there is an error in the filter tool that it would output those to it's own stream.  Something like - True (T), False (F), Error (E).

Alteryx is great for for forecasting but it would be useful if we could use it for back casting (predicting historically). Might have fewer use cases than forecasting but would still be useful.