Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

When the name of a field is changed early in a workflow, all corresponding tools that use the renamed field should have the option to auto update the field name. This way I don't have to manully update the name of each effected field. 

Hello,

There are several dozens of data sources... maybe it would be useful to have a search in it?

Best regards,

Simon

for iterative macro, generally it had 2 anchors, one if it is for iterative, and it normally no output (whether got error or not)

it good to have option to remove this anchor when using it in workflow. 

so other user no need to identify which one is the True output and which one is just iteration.

additional, if this can apply to input anchor.
(i just built one macro where i don't need the start input, but the input need to be iterate input)

Hi there

My idea is to have an option to copy and paste a tools configuration to a different tool of the same type somewhere else on the canvas.

Example:

Say I have four summarise tools dealing with four different data streams, I envision a 'Copy Tool Configuration' option after right clicking on a tool and then a 'Paste Tool Configuration" which can be applied across the multiple instances of the summarise tool by overwriting. This would preserve the tools anchors incoming and outgoing connections.

Benefit:

This would increase the speed of developing workflows. Naturally this would be significantly quicker than copy and pasting tools, and then re-wiring anchors. Additionally, this would potentially reduce human error when iteratively developing workflows.

Regards - Rhys Cooper

Hello,

As of today, there are only few packages that are embedded with Alteryx Python tool. However :
1/Python becomes more and more popular. We will use this tool intensively in the next years
2/Python is based on existing packages. This is the force of the language
3/On Alteryx, adding a package is not that easy : you need to have admin rights and if you want your colleagues to open your workflow, it also means that he has to install it himself. In corporate environments, it means loosing time, several days on a project.

Personnaly, I would Polars, DuckDB.. that are way faster than Panda.

To increase Performance on some old Buissness Logic, i am trying to switch an existing system to In-DB tools. This has given me a lot of headache because there is no Multi-Field Formular Tool in the In-DB section. It is a very tedious job to run through every workflow to manually set the same regex for a table with more than 20 Fields. 

I have had the idea to implement such a tool myself but i think this could be helpful for other developers in Alteryx Desktop too, so i am bringing this up here.

The Idea is to have a similar approach to the new Multi-Formular Tool like the other already existing Tool in Preperation. 

A client just asked me if there was an easy way to convert regular Containers to Control Containers - unfortunately we have to delete the old container and readd the tools into the new Control Container.

What if we could just right click on the regular Container and say "Convert to Control Container"? Or even vice versa?!

Hello,

A lot of tools that use R Macro (and not only preductive) are clearly outdated in several terms :
1/the R package
2/the presentation of the macro
3/the tools used

E.g. : the MB_Inspect

Ugly but wait there is more :

Also ; the UI doesn't help that much with field types.

Best regards,

Simon

Hi everyone! I have been trying to find a way to do this without creating a new idea, but I have decided to make it an official 'Idea' to see if there is anyone else that might appreciate a feature like this (or has found there own way to do it!)

Do your workflows look like this...

but you wish they could look like this?

Well... they can with your help!

Okay, I might be crazy...but its worth a shot.

While I understand this is an extremely niche issue, in my experience, it can become very difficult to trace the data through unmanaged lines in large workflows. I think it will be great to cable manage canvas lines so workflows are easier to follow. Heck, while I am already at it, I think it we should all start calling these canvas lines cables... They don't carry electricity, but they sure do carry data!

Here is an example I created in Alteryx using select tools and containers:

Currently when a unique tool is used, and a field is removed upstream then the workflow fails to move forward. If you have one or two unique fields being used then it is no big deal, but when you have a very complex workflow then you have to click into each one of those tools in order to update. This can be very problematic and creates a lot of time following all the branches that is connected after the 1st unique tool is used. My suggestion is to make this a warning instead of a fail or have an option to select fail or warning like the union tool is setup. This way people can decide how they want this tool to react when fields are removed. 

Dear Alteryx, 

One day, when I pass from this life to the next I'll get to see and know everything!  Loving data, one of my first forays into the infinite knowledge pool will be to quantify the time lost/mistakes made because excel defaults big numbers like customer identifiers to scientific notation.  My second foray will be to discover the time lost/mistakes made due to 

Unexpanded Mouse Wheel Drop Down Interaction

Riveting right?  What is this?  It's super simple, someone (not just Alteryx) had the brilliant idea that the mouse wheel should not just be used to scroll the page, but drop down menus as well.  What happens when both the page and the drop down menu exist, sometimes disaster but more often annoyance.  Case in point, configuring an input tool.

See the two scenarios below, my input is perfectly configured, I'll just flick my scroll wheel to see what row I decided to start loading from 

Happy Path, cursor not over drop down = I'll scroll down for you ↓

Sad Path, cursor happened to hover the dropdown sometimes on the way down from a legit scroll = what you didn't want Microsoft Excel Legacy format?

And you better believe Alteryx LOVES having it's input file format value changed in rapid succession., hold please...

Scroll wheels should scroll, but not for drop down menus unless the dropdown has been expanded.

Oh and +1 for mouse horizontal scrolling support please.

The TO field (and I assume other fields) in the Email tool seem to have a 254 character limit - this should be increased heavily as there are many distribution lists that will go above this character limit!

• Solved: Email tool recipients list truncating emails - Alteryx Community
• Solved: Email Widget: Cut off all the emails in the "To" r... - Alteryx Community
• Re: Email Address Truncated in the "To" Field - Alteryx Community

A distribution list works but is not ideal. Thumbs up if you like this idea!

Similar to the setting that you have in many individual tools  (join, append, select, et al) where you can go to options and choose to "forget missing fields" it would be nice where you could go to options for the entire flow and "forget missing fields".

This would remove the headache that you have with large flows where you make a change(s) then have to go back through each and every tool to "forget" within that tool. Yes you could still do it individually, but if you chose, you could also do it universally for the entire flow all at once to all the 'missing fields'. 

Hi! I noticed that there is currently no way to use the debug function when working on an analytic app workflow that contains control containers. I'm running 2024.1 and I use the debug feature in my workflows that currently do not have control containers for me to troubleshoot when data changes in a dynamic workflow. Currently, when running in test mode, I have no way to review the data step by step in the flow when selected dynamically through the interface apps. I can only view the final output and make tweaks. 

The idea behind encrypting or locking a workflow is good for users to maintain the workflow as designed. 

However, when a user reaches a level of maturity equivalent to that of the builder or more, or even when changes are required - the current practice is to keep a locked and unlocked version of the workflow so that it allows for a change in the future. 

It would be much simpler if we can have the power to lock and unlock workflows with a password. Users can then maintain and keep the passwords so that they can continue with the workflow. 

Not everybody is on Server yet so this feature is very helpful for control before Server migration. Otherwise it’s just password protecting a folder containing the workflow package, then re-locking a new save file each time a change is made or when someone new takes over on prem. 

Currently if I have a connection between two tools as per the example below:

I can drag and drop a new tool on the connection between these tools to add it in:

And designer updates the connections nicely, however if I select multiple tools and try and collectively drop them inbetween, on a connection then it won't allow me to do this, and will move the connection out of the way so it doesn't cause an overlap.

Therefore as a QoL improvement it would be great if there was a multi-drop option on connections between tools.

Hello,

A lot of time, when you have a dataset, you want to know if there is a group of fields that works together. That can help to normalize (like de-joining) your data model for dataviz, performance issue or simplify your analysis.

Exemple

order_id item_id label model_id length color amount

Here, we could split the table in three :
-order

order_id item_id model_id amount

-model

model_id length color

-item

item_id label

The tool would take :
-a dataframe in entry
-configuration : ability to select fields.
-output : a table with the recap of groups

<style> </style>

field group field remaining fields

Very important : the non-selected fields (like here, amount), are in the result but all in the "remaining" group.

Algo steps:
1/pre-groups : count distinct of each fields. goal : optimization of algo, to avoid to calculate all pairs
fields that has the same count distinct than the number of rows are automatically excluded and sent to the remaining group
fields that have have the same count distinct are set in the same pre-group

2/ for each group, for each pair of fields,
let's do a distinct of value of the pair
like here

item_id label

if in this table, the count distinct of each field is equal to the number of rows, it's a "pair-group"

here, for the model, you will have
-model_id,length
-model_id,color
-length,color

3/Since a field can only belong to one group, it means model_id,length,color which would first (or second) group, then item_id and label

If a field does not belong to a group, he goes to "remaining group" at the end

in the remaining group, you can add a link to the other group since you don't know which field is the key.

<style> </style>

field group field remaining fields

Best regards,

Simon

PS : I have in mind an evolution with links between non-remaining table (like here, the model could be linked to the item as an option)

The idea is quite simple. I am sure a lot of Alteryx enthusiasts use containers frequently. These can also be color coded for better overview and readability of your workflows. However, while connections between tools can be named, they cannot be colored. 

Therefore, this idea is very simple. Adding an option to color these connections. This would allow for even more readability of workflows. Especially if a workflow contains multiple separate streams of data, this could help to navigate and keep track of how and where data is flowing.

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.