Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Hello all,

A few years ago, I asked for svg support in Alteryx (https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Ideas/svg-support-for-icon-comment-image-e... ). Now, there is Alteryx Designer Cloud with other icons... already in svg !




So I think it would be great to have an harmonization between designer and cloud.

Best regards,

Simon

Hey all,

I don't know about you, but I have always had trouble hovering the mouse over the Results window pane trying to get the resize icon to appear. It seems like you need surgeon level precision to find the icon! 😷

I love Designer and want to see it be the best it can possibly be. I feel like increasing the clickable/hovering area for this resize would be amazingly helpful! 

Just wanted to see if we could get some community momentum going in order to get some developer eyes on this issue. 🙂

 Please help by bumping/upvoting this thread!

 -K

Migrated this from another thread. Some folks tagged from the original post :)
@cpatrickwk @caltang @afellows @MRod @alexnajm @ericsmalley @MilindG @Prometheus @innovate20 

Hello all,

It's really frustrating to have an "alteryx field type" in In-Database Select. It doesn't even make sense since we're manipulating only data in SQL database where those types does not exist. What we should see is the SQL field type.

Best regards,

Simon

Hello all,

When using in-database, all you have in select or formula are the Alteryx field types (V_String, etc..).

However, since you're mostly writing in database, in the end, there is a conversion of Alteryx field types to real SQL field types (like varchar). But how is it done ? As of today, it's a total black box. Some documentation would be appreciated.

Best regards,

Simon

Hello,

Working on Dataiku DSS and there is a cool feature : they can tag tools, parts of a worklow.. and then emphasize the tools tagged.

Best regards,

Simon

Add the remove or add Prefix or Suffix Feature on the Summary Tool because this is where the prefix is added automatically by the Summary tool, so instead of adding a new select tool after the Summary tool to remove the prefix. why not to embed it with the summary tool it self. 

Hi is it possible to add sheet names (to spreedsheet files) to the output of a file directory tool

In the tools that embed the "Rename" option (Select, Append Fields, Join, Join Multiple), copying the new name will copy all the information of the field configuration : tick/untick, original field name, type, size, new name and description.

Renaming the field "Rename_Field"

In my opinion, it should copy only the new name. This would be useful, especially because when you change the name of a field, it isn't automatically changed in subsequent tools, so copying it to replace it in those tools is faster than retyping it every time.

Hello,

This is a popular feature on other tools, such as Talend (now Talaxie) : the ability to export the workflow as a vectorized screenshot in svg.

Why ? it helps to build documentation, svg being vectorized, it means the picture can be zoomed in without losing quality.

Of course, that would mean before that Alteryx use svg for icons as required here https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Ideas/svg-support-for-icon-comment-image-e...

Best regards

Simon

Everyone knows the importance of adding the appropriate controls and governance to your workflows - and often, this means including events that will generate notifications if a workflow is running with errors.

But who is the audience of that email? If it's not a developer, will that person know what they are reading and where to focus?

How about a developer that would like to customize the message that the end user will receive?

Porting some existing functionality from other tools in the Alteryx toolkit to the Events page could easily provide added flexibility to event generation:

1) Add a formatting bar to the tool like shown in the image below

-- Style changes

-- Alignment

-- Highlighting

-- Coloring

-- Images

2) Add a function bar to the tool like shown in the image below

-- Ability to view all available variables

-- Ability to apply formulas using variables

-- Ability to save formulas

What do you think? Give this post a thumbs up if you find the post helpful!

When I make the workflow, the font size on Result window is no problem.

But, when we show the contents of Results window on the presentation or online meeting, the font size is too small.

I want the function which is enlarge the font size. The important point is that the current font size is okay on making workflow and the large font size is only needed on showing to the another people on presentation or online meeting.

One more point to add, it would be helpful to be able to change the font size with Ctrl + mouse wheel.

Push the zoom button:

We all know and love the Comment tool. It's a staple of every workflow to give users an idea of the workflow in finer details. It's a powerful tool - it helps adds context to tools and containers, and it also serves as an image placeholder for us to style our workflows as aesthetically pleasing as possible.

Now, the gensis of this idea is inspired by this post and subsequent research question here.

The Comment Tool today allows you to:

• Write your text and provide context / documentation to your workflow
• Style its shape
• Style its font, colour, and background colour
• Align the text
• Put an image to your workflow

But it would provide way more functionality if it had the capabilities of another awesome Alteryx tool that is not so frequently mentioned... the Report Text Tool!

What's missing in the Comment tool that the Report Text tool has?

1. The ability to add active data records from the workflow to its text
2. Its wider range of styles which allows for more functionality such as with its Special Tags functions
3. Its ability to hyperlink
4. Text mode options!

Now, whilst I understand that the Report Text tool is just that, a tool that needs to be connected to the data to work, so too does the Comment tool (to a lesser extent).

It would be awesome to have the ability to connect the data to the Comment tool as it was a Control Container-like connector. It can also be just like the Report Text tool with an optional input, thereby making it like a normal Comment tool.

To visualize my point:

The benefits of doing so:

• Greater flexibility to the user
• Styles are endgame
• Users can use the comment box as a checksum or even a total count / checker to ensure everything is working as intended
• Makes the comment tool more powerful as a dynamic workflow documentation tool

I think it'll be a killer feature enhancement to the comment tool. Hoping to hear comments on this! 

Kindly like, share, and subscribe I mean comment your support. Thanks all! 😁

-caltang

Hello all,

We all have experienced these last years the now famous concept of hide/unhide password :
Here a few examples of it

I would like this exact principle everywhere we have a password on Alteryx.

Best regards,

Simon

Hello all,

Here the issue : I have a workflow in my One Drive folder



In that workflow, I use a macro that writes a file with a relative path (..\6_Big_Data\EN\.csv ) :




Strangely, it doesn't work and the error message seems to relate to a folder that doesn't exist (but also, not the one I have set)

ErrorLink: Output Data (1): https://community.alteryx.com/t5/*/*/ta-p/724327?utm_source=designer&utm_medium=resultsgrid|Cannot access the folder C:\Users\saubert\OneDrive - Business & Decision\Documents\B&D_Market\6_Big_Data\EN\.

I really would like that to work :)

Best regards,

Simon

I am working with complex workflows which use multiple files as input, located on network drives. Input tools are Input Data, Directory, Wildcard Input, Wildcard XLSX Input (from CReW macros).

Regularly, I experience very slow Designer when working on the workflows, and slow progress when running the tools mentioned above, especially when working from home. Switching off Auto Configure did not really help because I the column list sometimes does not converge even after pressing F5 multiple times, and when actively working on workflows, I have to press F5 all the time...

In order to speed up both working on workflows and running the workflows, I would like to propose a function "Cache all File Inputs" which loads and caches all file inputs at once. To achieve this state, I now have Cache and Run workflow once per every file input.

Hello all,

As of today, you can populate the Drop Down tool in the interface category with a query launched from a in-memory connection. I would really appreciate the ability to use instead an in-db connection.

Why ?
It means managing two connections instead of one, and finding ways to manage it on server for both of them, etc etc.. Simplicity is key.

Best regards,

Simon

I sometimes have to swap (change the order of) two tools in a flow. It is a bothersome task, especially when there are many connections around them. I would like to suggest two new features for such a situation. It would help if either could be realized.

Swap tools

Select two tools, right-click, and select "Swap" option. 

Move and connect around

Drag a tool holding down Alt key (or something) to move it from the stream and connect around. After that, we can drag and drop the tool to the right place.

The idea is to have a Run option, where the workflow runs everything up to the selected tool (Like the Cache functionality does).

You select the tool, hit Run Up and the workflows executes everything "before" the selected tool.

That'll make developing much easier, specially when dealing with big workflows and constant changing data.