Passing a Text Box variable to a Select Tool

[robertfishel]

Hello Alteryx fans!  This one seems simple, but so far I have been unable to get it to work.  I am trying to pass the value a user enters in a Text Box tool to a Select Tool so that it can be used later on in my workflow.  Same thing with a Drop Down tool.  I don't see my variable names in my Select Tool field list.  Here is a sample of my workflow.  Thank you!

[ChrisHe · Accepted solution]

Hey @robertfishel,

This is definitely a common thing I see people trying to accomplish in Alteryx and it's a little bit more complicated than you  might expect.  For the Text Box option, the only thing you'd need to change is swapping out the Select Tool for a Dynamic Select.  I've attached a sample workflow for that here.

For the dropdown, there are a couple of other things to consider as the Drop-Down would need to read the metadata of the fields at runtime in order to display them for an end user to pick.  If the purpose of your app includes someone selecting their own file to input, then you can have the drop-down be fed fields directly from that File Browse interface tool (I've also attached an example of this).

If the fields aren't being generated from a user-inputted file then your main option is to create a chained app, where the first writes the file names to a file and then the second uses that file and will therefore have the field names at run time.  The options for doing that have been covered in this thread here.

Hope this is helpful!

Best,

Chris

[robertfishel]

ChrisHe, first off, thanks for your help.  I have read, and re-read, and re-read your comments.  I cannot get the first part (the Text Box tool) to work, let alone trying the second part.  As it stands, when I try to use the Dynamic Input tool right after my Input tool, the next step in my workflow (a Data cleanse) doesn't see any of the fields from my first Input.  Any ideas?

 

[ChrisHe]

Hey @robertfishel,

What is your goal with that Dynamic Select? The example from your screenshot has a text box editing the dynamic select tool which would only allow someone to enter the name of a field and have that one field pass along to the next tool. Can you take a step back and explain to me what you're trying to accomplish with that text box interface tool? Do you want rows filtered to where only a certain username is present or something different?

[robertfishel]

I am trying to ask the user to type their username, which would then populate a new (empty column) called Requestor.  This data set, would then go through the rest of my workflow.

[ChrisHe · Accepted solution]

In that case the easiest approach is most likely to create a new column called Requester with a formula tool.  You can then have the text box just update the string value for that new column.  Take a look at this workflow.

-Chris

[robertfishel]

We have progress!!  Now the text box → action tool → formula tool is working as you suggested.  So can I not do the same thing using an dropdown tool with a list of values already typed into it?  Then connect that to a action tool → formula tool?

[ChrisHe]

You absolutely can.  You can use the section titled "Manually Set Values" at this link to see the proper format. Glad this was helpful!

-Chris

[robertfishel]

So Chris, I have not given up on this (and I've been working on other projects at the same time), but I am unable to get my Dropdown Tool → Action Tool → Formula Tool to work within the rest of my workflow.  I checked and checked my settings.  Here is a "snippet" of the portion of my workflow with these tools:

What am I doing wrong?

[robertfishel]

For the benefit of others, I eventually got my workflow up and running by copying and pasting from the example file that ChrisHe sent me.  When I tried replicate his logic, using tools found in my workflow file, I was getting an error.  However, when I copied the exact tools from his workflow and pasted them into my workflow, it worked.  I swear I had all of the settings configured properly on my first attempt, but was not getting my workflow to work.  Another co-worker has reported similar issues.  I am wondering if there are version issues, or something else is going on behind the scenes and not obvious to the end user?  Anyway, thank you for your advice ChrisHe.