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Alteryx Designer Desktop Discussions

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SOLVED

Collapsing ALL containers simultaneously

MsBindy
8 - Asteroid

Is there a way to collapse (or expand) all containers at the same time.  I have a ridiculously messy workflow with tons of containers and would like to be able to open and close them all quickly.

8 REPLIES 8
jdunkerley79
ACE Emeritus
ACE Emeritus

You can do it by editing the XML of the workflow replacing <Folded value="False" /> with <Folded value="True" /> but not sure of any way to do within designer.

MsBindy
8 - Asteroid

That's not in my skill set :)   But thanks for helping.

SeanAdams
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

Hey @MsBindy

 

the first time you look at things in XML it can be intimidating, but let me walk you through it.

 

  • go to the folder where you store the workflow
  • start up the windows application called Notepad (start/notepad)
  • Then open your alteryx flow with Notepad - you'll see a bunch of text with < and > type characters
    • it's worth you taking a look through this text - it's often quite human-readable - I found it to be less intimidating than it sounds
  • Then hit ctrl-H (shortcut key for replace), and do the text replace that @jdunkerley79 recommended above.

 

If you can get Notepad++ on your machine that will be even neater

 

Give it a try - understanding how to get into the XML behind an alteryx flow will open up a whole spectrum of possibilities for you.

MsBindy
8 - Asteroid

Thank you both.   Sorry for the delay,  I just finally got  a chance to try this out!

Bobe
7 - Meteor

Is there a similar process for enabling/disabling all containers? 

bbartlett
6 - Meteoroid

Way too often we will have complex workflows that might have dozens of containers and after opening many of them in the process of troubleshooting it makes cleanup very tedious.

 

This is a decent enough workaround but I think the 'collapse all containers' function needs to be added to Designer. My biggest objection is that opening the workflow as text has a much greater risk of workflow corruption through some random fat-finger typo.

 

Maybe in the submenu when right-clicking on any container?

Justin_SVU
7 - Meteor

I ran into this exact same issue today when making edits to a large workflow with 15 containers that house outputs I didn't want running. This is a mild annoyance, but an annoyance either way.

 

The solution I found is in adding a Condition Tool to your workflow that controls actions for your containers. Below is the link to the Action Tool help page and the snippet that directly references what I am talking about.

 

https://help.alteryx.com/current/Action.htm

 

Enable/Disable Container from Condition Tool

Updates the Tool Container Tool's Disable checkbox based on the connected Condition tool.

Use a Condition Tool when you want to account for a true and a false outcome.

Radio Button Tool -> Condition Tool (T)-> Action(
 

 

)-> Tool Container Tool (
 

 

)
CSchaeffer
5 - Atom

This was very helpful. Thank you. 

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