Let User Select Input File and Use the File for Downstream Processing

[yoyoumysin]

It seems a very easy ask, but I don't seem to get a straightforward answer from Googling for a solution.  I know I must be missing something very fundamental, thus I'm posting my silly question here.  Thanks for helping.

I'm trying to prompt the user to select an .xlsx file to start a data transformation workflow.  This is a file of data dump on daily basis, thus the sheet name will be different each day.  I'm imagining once user select a file, then the Input tool will open this file and extract data from it for next steps in the flow.

Thanks.

[AngelosPachis]

Correct @yoyoumysin , you need a tool that will allow your user to define the input file that will be used in the workflow. That tool is called the File Browse tool and can be found in the Interface tool palette.

Once you bring that tool on your canvas, that will convert it into an app, so your users will be able to run the process without ever seeing your canvas. They will only be able to see your apps interface.

More on how to configure the tool can be found in the examples within alteryx, or the interactive lessons

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Interactive-Lessons/tkb-p/interactive-lessons/label-name/Creating%2... 

under the specifying inputs and outputs course.

Hope that helps,

Angelos

[MattBSlalom]

@AngelosPachis answer is correct if you truly want the user to select the file (as you said you did).

But I'd also like to mention that if it's just a matter of a file name change for a daily process, you might be better served by pointing a standard Input Data tool to a specific folder that will get the new file each day, and just replace the explicit file name ("C:\DailyFileFolder\FileABC_May_11_2021.xlsx") with a wildcard pattern match instead ("C:\DailyFileFolder\FileABC_*.xlsx").

This option will require no user interaction each day, assuming the folder location is consistent.