Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Hello Alteryx Dev Gurus - 

I made an event to email me when there was an error at run time.  But I did not populate the 'To' field.  (I know!)  The process borked soft and shows as an error in the results queue when a customer noticed there was no data.  This is one of the simple ones.  

Thanks!

A very simple idea, the same principle as the existing filter but there is only one output (true) and there is an on / off button. This could gives users the opportunity to put in a "what-if" gateway into their workflow. 

For example, your stakeholder has asked you to use 'all the data'. Whilst building the workflow, you notice that excluding 2016 data gives you a more accurate / representative end result. However, it is not necessarily your decision to exclude the 2016 data. You put in the Valve Filter tool:

Valve Filter On = Excludes the 2016 data.

Valve Filter Off = Allows all data to go through.

You are able to turn the filter on and off, run the workflow and see / demo different end results (instead of using a traditional filter and creating a separate workflow or a duplicated arm of a workflow).

Until your workflow is complete, you do not always know the full impact of the parameters / decisions you make along the way. The Valve Filter could give users more flexibility.

I still see that companies are expecting BI professionals to write SQL queries manually despite Alteryx giving complete solution. Idea is to spread value add of Alteryx in Indian market and global companies

When opening a saved workflow in Designer, the python tool does and jupyter notebook do not load, and instead displays a "404: Not Found" error.  This is resolved by refreshing the meta-data (or running the workflow).  But the message is confusing and would ideally be handled differently. 

Add an option to the tree tool generate custom lists similar to the list box.  When building apps for teams to use and we need them to select from either a product or store hierarchy it would greatly simplify the process if the tree tool could generate a custom list of the lowest level of the hierarchy that we could feed into a sql pull in the dynamic input tool.  On top making the workflow cleaner, I think it would make the user interface a lot cleaner, instead of a giant lists of stores/departments etc. they could drill down to the relevant area much faster.

Currently, the Open Recent (from the File toolbar) generates a list of the 10 most recent workflows opened in Alteryx Designer.  It would be useful to show even more (20-25?) workflows through this method as there is enough open space on the screen to do so.

It would be great to have the ability to use a word file as a template and create a pdf as the output which can be emailed to a list of emails through alteryx.

I like how the Multi-Row and Multi-Field tools have a variable tab to help the user know the proper syntax for building their formulas such as Row-1, Row+0, and Row+1.  That said, it would be nice if the user could change the Expression manually to point to different rows.  You don't necessarily need all of these variables listed, but if the user could change to [Row-2:Fieldname] so that the formula could look two or more rows up/down.  I have a report where I want to divide one row up by the value two rows up.  I have to use a workaround where this would make it much easier.

Additionally, it would be nice if the Multi-Field tool could accept Multi-Row functions mixed with the Current Field function... such as [Row-1:_CurrentField_]

I understand these are two requests, but the ask is similar...simply that the syntax is understood in both and more versatile.

I recently updated my Redshift ODBC driver and encountered a "Primary Key required for Update option" from the Output Data tool. This is a workflow that had been running fine prior to the driver update.  Further testing confirmed that driver version up to and including 1.4.4.1001  worked fine, but later versions including the current version 1.4.8.1000 all had the same issue.  

I opened Case #00311304, and was informed that the latest validated version is 1.3.7.1000, which is quite old and no longer available for download.  

I am creating this idea to request that it is now necessary to make sure Alteryx is 100% compatible with the latest Redshift ODBC drivers. 

The Multi-Field formula tool has three really powerful features that it supports:

[_CurrentField_]

[_CurrentFieldName_]

[_CurrentFieldType_]

These are really powerful within Multi-Field formulas because they allow for a dynamic process to apply across multiple fields.

However, they would also be very helpful in regular formulas and Multi-Row formulas, for code transportability.

A basic example:  I have a Longitude field that is a string.  I need to set it to a value of 0 if there is a null value.

My formula today:

IF ISNULL([Longitude]) THEN 0 ELSE [Longitude] ENDIF

Now lets say I want to use the same formula somewhere else, but for Latitude instead.

 That formula looks like:

IF ISNULL([Latitude]) THEN 0 ELSE [Latitude] ENDIF

If I could use [_CurrentField_] instead, that would allow me to instead write both formulas as:

IF ISNULL([_CurrentField_]) THEN 0 ELSE [_CurrentField_] ENDIF

This code can easily be copied for any field that requires replacing Nulls with 0s, and doesn't require refactoring to use a Multi-Field formula instead.

This also means that if I later change my field name, the code will remain consistent.  This not only speeds up development time and flexibility, but more readily allows for validation that the existing code has not changed.

Right now the Directory tool; Input tool; Output tool all do implied credentialing (for input and output it's implied for file-based data-sources).    This implied credentialing is not obvious because most people working on the desktop want the designer to pass on their own credentials as they access a file.

This is a significant data-leakage risk since an canvas running on the server can access the full content of EVERY network share that has any input files that are used in Alteryx canvasses.    

Please can you add explicit credentialing to all input and output tools in Alteryx, especially the Directory tool; Input tool (for files) and output tool (for files).    That way, teams will be able to use a teamID to access secure content, and the cross-team leakage risk on the designer and server can be closed out.

Many thanks

Sean

+  @Hemanth @marydest24 @Shreyasi @Sotoll @Kosi @revathi @Bethanyturner012  

When reading a SharePoint list with the Input Tool, it does not bring in any columns that are set as "Managed Metadata". Can the tool be updated to include these?

I am using 2 or 3 displays set up to be more productive with most of my work. If only we can have snap-on features in Alteryx that support for the windows to be able to snap on multiple displays, not just floating. 

The problem with floating windows is they are not correctly aligned for the full-frame and some require custom resizing. to make it worse, some floating windows interchange in their resolution due to multiple resolutions of the display and the non-snap floating windows (configuration, results etc.)

I am always checking for some view (browse tools) and editing other tools. When moving around to editing other tools, the view will disappear with other selection. If there are features when we can have multiple views (result) as a reference and compare them together.

It would be great if in the metadata we can have example of data inside

I use the cleanse tool a lot to remove extra spaces before and after my data.  Since most of my work is done in-DB, I have to datastream out, cleanse, and then datastream back in.  Would love to see an In-DB Cleanse tool added.