Ability to Capture UserID of Running User Within Workflow

[elsastark]

Would like to be able to reference the UserID of the person running the workflow within the workflow itself, usually for authentication purposes.

For example, we use the Publish to Tableau Server tool. The main developer will embed their password in the tool and then publish it to Gallery. We are wanting to authenticate if the person running the workflow on Gallery can actually publish to Tableau Server before publishing, not just the person who published the workflow in the first place. 

Another example is that we are needing to upload data to our data lake through APIs and need to pass in user information of who is publishing to that package through Alteryx, and check that they can indeed publish there. 

Basically, we need to have logic within the workflow that is referencing who is running the workflow. 

We understand that this would most likely only be supported when workflows are run on Gallery, as there isn't a UserID tied to someone when running on a local machine. 

[smoosh]

On a local machine this can be done already. Try using this formula, and it will output the username:

GetEnvironmentVariable("username")

More detail / examples here: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Knowledge-Base/How-To-Reference-Windows-User-Paths...

[elsastark]

Thanks @smoosh - We are looking for a solution that will work with Gallery. 

The closest solution we have right now is: 

• Capture the user clicking Run on Gallery by using the __cloud:UserId trick
• Having the workflow published with the credential settings "User must specify their own credentials"
• Inside of an encrypted macro, using the whoami function with a Command tool to identify the RunAs User of Alteryx
• If whoami and the __cloud:userID are the same person, then we allow the next steps otherwise we stop the run