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DSN-less connections for InDB

Currently the InDB tools require to select a DSN that is defined on your computer.

 

This makes any workflow which uses a DSN incredibly painful to deploy to the server, since the DSN needs to be created on every worker node and for a large server environment this can  mean creating DSN entries on 6+ worker nodes in prod plus prod server plus dev/UAT environment plus dev/UAT worker nodes.

 

Could we please change the InDB tools to default to DSN-less connections, where the connection persists the connection details in-line so that it can deploy to the server without a DSN setup (since all connection details are contained within the connection string)?

 

Thank you

Sean

CC: @rijuthav @jithinmony @HengHe @RajK @ydmuley @revathi @Deeksha @MPistone @Ari_Fuller @Arianna_Fuller @JoshKushner @samnelson @avinashbonu @Sunder_Sriram @Rahul_Thakur @Rahul_Singh

20 Comments
JoshKushner
12 - Quasar

Couldn't agree more. This is extremely important for us as the DSN restricts our ability to share and productionize any canvas with an In-DB tool.

JoshKushner
12 - Quasar

A solution to share and publish files with In-DB connections is to embed an .indbc file in the canvas.

Thanks to @Claje for the insight!

 

That being said, I still very much support this idea as the ability to use a DSN-less connection is more intuitive.

 

How to Create an Alteryx In-DB Connection File

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Knowledge-Base/How-To-Create-an-Alteryx-In-DB-Conn...

KylieF
Alteryx Community Team
Alteryx Community Team
Status changed to: New Idea

Hi @SeanAdams !

 

I've moved this idea to the Designer Idea board, however I wanted to provide some clarification on why this idea was moved. While the logic and benefit for this idea is based in our Server product, the InDB tools are rooted in our Designer, and thus managed by our Designer development team. So to make sure the correct team can see and can update your idea it's been moved to the correct board.

 

Thank you for contributing to the Community!

KylieF
Alteryx Community Team
Alteryx Community Team
Status changed to: Under Review

Thank you for posting to the Alteryx Community! This idea is currently being reviewed by the Alteryx Development Team for a possible future release. While this review process can take some time, we’ll do our best to keep you up to date on the status of this idea.

bora_perusic
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)
Status changed to: Ongoing

Thank you for the feedback! We are currently working on redesigning the way Alteryx handles and stores data connections and credentials to a more user friendly method, similar to a credential manager. As this is a fairly large undertaking, fully implementing this feature may take some time, however we do hope to have this available in a 2020 Alteryx release.

SeanAdams
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

Thank you Bora - let me know if we can contribute to this discussion as the design emerges.

 

For example:

- All of our canvasses need to live on a server

- So - any AKA or DSN that is stored on the client have to be un-done as the canvas is promoted to UAT server; and then checked again as they are moved to Prod server.

- The current connection tools for ODBC make it quite difficult to create an embedded data string, compared to the old method and the OleDB method which immediately resolves out to a clear connection string which can be published directly to the server.

 

Thanks Bora!

 

bora_perusic
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

Thanks, Sean, we will reach out, on the ACEs Slack. 

The primary goal is to handle and synchronize credentials and connections better, for both normal and in-db tools. 

From your last post I am not sure whether you want to use the same connection on Dev - UAT - Prod (these are only Alteryx servers), or whether you want to change the connections (because you have different UAT x Prod data sources). The latter, while we keep that request / feature in mind for the future development, will not be easily supported in the initial versions. What should be supported is using the same connection in different environments.

 

Karam
8 - Asteroid

Hi @bora_perusic , is there any update when this idea is likely to be implemented?

 

Many Thanks,

Karam

KylieF
Alteryx Community Team
Alteryx Community Team

Hi @Karam !

 

Unfortunately due to the nature of how big this idea is and how many parts of the product it impacts we're unable to provide an update at this time. However we'll be sure to update this idea once we have more information to share.

TestUser
5 - Atom

@SeanAdams  Do we have ETA by when can we expect this feature to be available in GA?