Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

I have no idea how many people are using the .Net API to build custom tools, but found an issue with its assembly scanning.

It doesnt pick up classes implementing IPlugin in an abstract base class. Can be worked around by moving the interface onto the concrete implementation but think it should pick up any concrete class implementing the IPlugIn regardless of whether on the class itself or a base class.

I can see that the Venn diagram is very nice for a new user to understand the Join tool (which is a super-great tool by the way).  But I would like to be able to close up the Venn diagram to give more room to see the variables listed below.

Thanks!
Susan

Under options/restore defaults, it would be nice if the canvass could be reset (I sometimes lose windows), but the favorites be left intact.

Thanks!
Susan

I have a very large geospatial point dataset (~950GB) .  When I do a spatial match on this dataset to a small polygon, the entire large geospatial point dataset has to be read into the tool so that the geospatial query can be performed.  I suspect that the geospatial query could be significantly speed up of the geospatial data could be indexed (referenced) to a grid (or multiple grids) so that the geoquery could identify the general area of overlap, then extract the data for just that area before performing the precise geoquery.  I believe Oracle used (uses) this method of storing and referencing geospatial data.

Hi,

So I was working on a project which uses the "Download" tool. I needed to measure precisely the response time for each record so I set up a "timestamp" value using the DateTimeNow() function before the actual download. After download was complete, i tried to measure the response time by using the DateTimeDiff() function. However, using this method, i was not able to get a precise (up to a millisecond) performance reading since the DateTime format gets rounded to a second. 

It would be great to have a way of precisly measure the time taken for each record to go through a tool or a set of tool and having that value be a part of the output file

This is not a terribly important thing, but in the formula tool, the nitty gritty details of the Expression almost never fit into the annotation space. It would be nice if the annotation by default just contained the names of the variables being derived.  So, e.g. if I'm deriving "CalcVar1", "CalcVar2", "CalcVar3" and so forth, the default annotation would just be:

This gives a much cleaner (by default) canvas.  The same concept applies to the MultiRow and MultiField Formula tools, perhaps others.  Just a thought and obviously not very important.  Thanks.

I see the mention of VR but has anyone talked about touch screen capabilities with Alteryx?  Would make even the tough projects more fun!

I find the concept of Batch and/or Iterative macros, when done specifically for the simple purpose of iteration, to be a fair bit of overhead. If we could extract the fundamental qualities of a loop and get that into an "Iteration Tool," it could become a well-used tool from the pallette.

Implementation Ideas:

• Assume that the iteration is over the rows of a given input data set.
• For the "body of the loop" allow multiple expressions, each of which iteratively assigns the i'th position of a given variable (which could be either existing or derived just like the Formula tool and it's expression).
• Allow referencing of the loop index variable from within expressions

An example problem this could solve is from: http://community.alteryx.com/t5/Data-Preparation-Blending/Looping-and-dynamically-changing-output/m-....  As discussed therein, the concept of "row dependent iteration" makes this difficult to solve with standard tools.

If the input data set from that example were sent into the proposed Iteration Tool... it would automatically loop over the dataset rows; and three expressions could be supplied in the Tool configuration to solve the problem:

VarE:   IF [i] > 1 THEN VarF[i-1] + VarG[i-1] ELSE VarE ENDIF
VarF:   VarA + VarB
VarG:   VarC + VarD

For implementation purposes, this would be logically equivalent to:

VarE[i]:   IF [i] > 1 THEN VarF[i-1] + VarG[i-1] ELSE VarE[i] ENDIF
VarF[i]:   VarA[i] + VarB[i]
VarG[i]:   VarC[i] + VarD[i]

 (so, basically, the i'th row is assumed unless otherwise provided in the expression syntax).

I hope this isn't too outlandish - I've tried to think through how this could be accomplished (1) as a tool that is not too fiendishly difficult for Alteryx to implement and (2) which would also be easy for us, the end users, to utilize.  Thanks!

Our Alteryx users query a number of different data sources.  Some of these include external servers outside our control.

To avoid any issues regarding locking, we use the Read Uncommitted function as part of the Data Input tool as part of our baseline design, probably 95% of the time or more.

It would be very beneficial for our organization if there was a way for us to set this option to be checked by default, so that it was one less thing users needed to remember when configuring a quick data pull.

There is a need when visualizing in-Database workflows to be able to visualize sorted data. This sorting could be done 1 of 2 ways: In a browse tool, or as a stand-alone Sort tool. Either would address the need. Without such a tool being present, the only way to sort the data is to "Data Stream Out" and then visualize the data in Alteryx. However, this process violates the premise of the usefulness of the in-DB toolkit, which is to keep your data in-DB and process using the DB engine. Streaming out big data in order to add a sort is not efficient.

Granted, the in-DB processing doesn't care whether data is sorted or not. However, when attempting to find extreme values after an aggregation, or when trying to identify something as simple as whether null values are present in a field, then a sort becomes extremely useful, and a necessary tool for human consumption of data (regardless of the database's processing needs).

Thanks very much for hearing my idea!

DELETE from Source_Data Where ID in

SELECT ID from My_Temp_Table where FLAG = 'Y'

.... 

Essentially, I want to update a DB table with either an update or with the deletion of rows.  I can't delete all of the data.  My work around will be to create/insert into a table the keys that i want to delete and try to use a input/output tool with SQL that performs the delete.  Any other suggestions are welcome, but a tool is best.

Thanks,

Mark

When moving external data into the database, the underlying SQL looks like:

CREATE GLOBAL TEMPORARY  TABLE "AYX16020836880b41e08246b59ee8c"

...

My client would like to add a prefix to the table as:

CREATE GLOBAL TEMPORARY  TABLE MMMM999_DM_USER."AYX16020836880b41e08246b59ee8c"

where MMMM999_DM_USER is supplied in the configuration.

A service account  automatically sets the current session to something like MMMM999 (alter session set curent schema=MMMM999;)

I've seen several posts and questions concerning NULL dates.  Is 09/31/2010 a valid date?  I know that 02/29/206 isn't valid and that 02/00/2006 isn't either, but I really don't like finding out about these in conversion warning messages.

I might suggest a function that returns True or False on the date check and let the user configure appropriate rules to rethink the attempted date prior to committing the field to the date data type.

Cheers,

Mark

If you have a complex SQL query with a number of dynamic substitutions (e.g. Update WHERE Clause, Replace a Specific String), it would be nice to be able to optionally ouput the SQL that is being executed. This would be particuarly useful for debugging.

Hello

My problem: I've used the download-tool to download a 40mb XML. Parsing the DonwloadData-field containing this XML results in about 6600 records. The XML-Parse Tool passes the orginal DownloadData field to each record, resulting in quite a bit of memory usage:

XML-Parsing Problem

Suggestion: An option in the XML-parse Tool to not pass the parsed field in its output. 

Marco

As a MicroStrategy customer it would be nice if Alteryx would support output for either the .mstr file format or better direct creation and publication of the iCUBE, intelligent cube format on their server solution. This would be similar to the existing features of writing a twbx or  TDE file extract and publish to Tableau server.

Opposite if the Input connector could read from an intelligence cube on the MSTR iServer as datasource that would be great as well.

Below a link to their SOA webservices documentation to pull data into applications, perhaps an option.

Data as a Service

Would love a tool where I could do Weighted Averages etc.

Ideally be able to write: SUM(Price * Volume) / SUM(Volume) and it would work.

When a custom (bespoke for @Chrislove) macro is created, I would like the option to create an annotation that goes along with the tool.  This is entirely cosmetic, but might help users to recognize the macro.

Thanks,

Mark

I've seen this question before and have run into it myself.  I'd like to see a new tool that would allow a developer (of a workflow) to choose a path of logic based upon criteria known only during the execution of a module.

If LEFT INPUT Count of records < 10,000 THEN Path1 (e.g. use a calgary join)

ELSE Path 2 (e.g. use a standard join)

endif

Thanks,

Mark