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Lock Workflow To prevent accidental changes to tool settings

Jason_
7 - Meteor

Does anyone know if it is possible to locak a workflow so that tool settings can not be changed unless the workflow is unlocked again?

 

I have read this article: https://help.alteryx.com/20213/designer/lock-your-workflow, but it is not quite what I am looking for.

 

The intention here is not to lock out a workflow so that only the original creator can unlock it. Anybody should be able to unlock and change the workflow when intentionally needing to do so. This is just to prevent accidental changes. Here is a good use case:

 

I was recently demoing a workflow that I am passing on to a colleague. When doing so, I accidently changed one of the fields in a sort by tool which caused some havoc. To prevent this in future, I'd like to be able to lock my completed workflows, and pass them on in the locked state. If future requirements change, then the current owner should be able to unlock and make the changes required.

 

Thanks in advance for any answers.

11 REPLIES 11
danilang
19 - Altair
19 - Altair

hi @Jason_ 

 

There is no way to lock a workflow from within Alteryx so that it can be unlocked and edited.  The Lock workflow option (Encrypt workflow in previous versions) is a one way operation.  Once a workflow is Locked(encrypted) it can't be edited, or even viewed, by anyone, not even the original owner.  The License option only allows you to specify who can Run the workflow. 

 

As work arounds you can 

 

- Set the workflow file to read only in Windows.  This will stop users from accidentally saving changes that they make to a workflow.   It doesn't stop users from opening it, making changes and running the changed workflow, so read-only files can still change prod data.  But using this method would have stopped your sorting change example from being passed on to the next user.  The read only flag can be inadvertently be reset though, by copying the file to an ftp site, or other methods. 

 

-Have a hybrid approach where you lock workflows and keep an editable copy in a secure location, preferably with check-in/check-out auditing.  Users will run the locked version, unless they specifically need to make changes/debug, etc. In this case they modify the secure version and create a new locked version when done. 

 

-Use Alteryx server, where you can define permissions levels so most users will only be able to run workflows, but authors can change and upload new workflows. 

 

Dan

Jason_
7 - Meteor

Thanks @danilang.

 

This is so far the best solution. It will prevent users accidently changing and overwriting a workflow without intention. I will be making use of it as a best option for now; however, it is far from ideal. This will not stop a user accidently changing a setting then running a workflow since workflows don't need to be saved before running.

 

I think this would be a very useful feature, and will make a suggestion to add the functionality. Here is another use case:

Assume a large complex workflow needs a change, but the user is not absolutely sure where and needs to review tool settings on a few tools before finding the one they want to change. While doing this, they could accidently change a setting somewhere introducing a new bug. If the tools were locked for editing while reviewing, then unlocked once the correct tool was identified,  this scenario would be preventable.

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