Alteryx Designer Ideas

I love Workflow Meta info, especially the ability to put the Author, the search tags,the version, the description, etc...

But why can't we use it as Engine Constant? It doesn't seem very hard to implement and it would change life for development.

Directory Tool retrieves today a lot of information about a file. I must say I appreciate getting easily the size and the last write time.

But why not the owner? I have developped a macro with a powershell to do that but what a nightmare for a so little piece of information.

When selecting an Action in the Summary Tool - like Count.  The Output filed Name becomes Count.  It s/b Filed Name_Count so I don't have to rename all the Output Field Names with a more descriptive name.

When a tool container is disabled, I'd like the lines that are going into it to be different from "enabled" lines. 

They could be grey or dotted for example.

When working on a workflow and disabling containers, I find that the lines entering disabled containers become confusing or cluttering. It would be much simpler to focus my attention efficiently if lines that remain enabled could be distinguished quickly.

When we industrialize our workflows, we often use a parameter file with a command like :

AlteryxEngineCmd.exe MyAnalyticApp.yxwz AppValues.xml

I would like to have the parameter file path with its extension as an engine constant, like we have the workflow name.

The Data Sources page currently lists all the different data sources that Alteryx supports - however for an administrator it's almost impossible to ensure that their designer users have the drivers for these, or are on the right version.

As an early step - can we add 1 more field to this list which points to the downloader for the driver where applicable

https://help.alteryx.com/current/DataSources/SupportedDataSources.htm

The next step is to create a bundled driver pack that Admins can download once to cover all the relevant drivers needed for the data sources provided & supported.

cc: @revathi @AshwiniChezhiyan @LizaNemchynova

As simple as the title :

Just a Multi-Field Formula in-db. It's a nightmare to write sometime 50 or 100 times the same SQL formula and then maintain it.

Please.

Here is a 

We need either a customizable view/downloadable report and or a view like the License view with license and machine and user and account elements at the first level of report.

The license site (licenses.alteryx.com) is a step in the right direction but needs enhancement.  Now it offers 4 different views of what must be essentially the same data source in a file or DB table(s).  The problem is each view leaves out something important or requires you to drill down and lose your broader view across users or licenses.  Also these you be downloadable to support driving automation of internal functions.

1. License view gives good info on a license but you can't see who is associated with the seats or the machines they have it on.  A drill down only extends the information to show the order number, the rest of the data is the same basic info on the higher leve but only specific to that one license.
   1. If Alteryx made the license view customizable to allow users to include the account, order number, User name and other associated columns then you would not need 4 nearly static views.  You would only need the one view and let people choose which elements they want and save that report configuration.  
   2. Then the if you drill down into a user or account or other element you can use admin functions specific to the element, basically the specific functionality in the current drill downs.
2. Machine view shows you the machines and users but you have to drill into a user to see their licenses and i want to see that at the first level for all users/licenses to see who has what at a glance instead of pecking my way through 10 or 20 or more machines/users. 
   1. The request above (1.1) would/could eliminate the need for this and other views and you customize the view/report you want.
3. Account view shows a list of accounts which equate to purchase contracts or orders but nothing else unless you drill into a specific order.  On drill down you see the users associated but no license info.  Additionally on drill down you can't see if the same user also is allocated to another order.  If you click on a user it lops back to the account list but specific to the user...you are kind of in a loop at that point.
   1. Again the functionality in (1.1) would solve this
4. And finally the User View offers useful info and functionality specific to the user but you can't get to license or machine info.

To extend the conversation the online license site should also be the trigger and management mechanism to add or remove licenses.  Authorized license admins should be able to add seats to an existing account/license. this would trigger a confirmation email with bill for incremental prorated amount so all seats are co-terminus and truly interchangeable so as personnel change they can be reallocated without concern for which one terms next month or next year.

Additionally the Admin should be able to assign or re-assign any new or existing license seat to someone after adding their user data.  the system would then trigger an email to the user with the correct key to use based on that assignment.

And finally, at least in this idea submission, I want to have additional fields the admins can populate for site specific information such as department, budget center, region, etc.  This would allow an admin to see the rest of the data from internal perspectives like what licenses and seats are on what budget center.  this could be downloaded to integrate with and facilitate internal accounting and budgeting systems.  A department head can see who has what and what if any spare licenses are available in his area or budget center.  In the current mixed deployment of seats across an organization and across alteryx accounts if we can tie specific licenses and seats to a department or budget center we can reallocate spare licenses in other departments to another and keep account straight internally regardless of Alteryx account management.

We are a small shop growing from 2 initial licenses to roughly 20 users across 4 or 5 departments with each doing their own purchases but in the mix of orders and renewals and new licenses with 2018 upgrades we now have users shotgunned across all contracts in a tangle of associations with no clear view of which department's budget to hit for which licenses and how to allocate unused licenses or how best to incrementally add seats.  recently another department wanted to get 3 licenses and ended up on another departments budget center due to the confusion of licensing allocation as we look at this.  this is just one simple example but we are already seeing other teams poach unused licenses during personnel shifts and changes and budget arguments cropping up. 

Being small and seeing what I see i can imagine the issues of a large shop.

Finally, this submission is inspired by recent interaction with Alteryx Fulfillment team due to our own internal efforts to organize and clean up our licenses and contracts.  Fulfillment helped me out by generating a report with all the columns I wanted but missed one.  The original report took about a day from request to delivery.  I asked for the additional column and they said they could do it within a few days.  This is of course a one-off.  But one of the powerful aspects of Alteryx is quick turnaround...it will really take a few minutes to add the column but will take them days to get to it.  

One quick turnaround partial solution to most of this request would be to provide us, the Admins, a tool to extract the full set of correlated data.  Essentially take the report FulFillment has produced for me and make it an app or site feature that provides downloadable output.  We Admins download it and then add our own site specific columns like department and such and at least see and manage the licenses and seats from our own customized reporting.  When and if you do enhance per the request as a whole this could be kept or sunset according to what users want at the time. I expect this partial solution could be implemented very quickly and for very low cost.

I would like Alteryx to create an internship support program that provides a license similar to a trial but for an extended period, say 6 to 8 weeks, and tied to core certification. you could repackage much of the existing training into a curriculum aimed at educating new users sufficiently on the elements necessary to pass the Core certification within a short time frame.

Our organization just launched an internship program and had our first group of interns start 5 weeks ago.  I had to come up with a plan that provided the intern a valuable experience.  I decided to make Alteryx Core certification a key objective and put him on a spare license we had for the duration and worked with him to get his core. 

I think this could be a great marketing tool for Alteryx.  It would get more people entering the workforce educated about your product so that no matter where they end up they might already be a fan and suggest the tool as a solution in a new job that doesn’t currently know about you.   Conversely it gives interns a certification that shows they know more than the other applicants for a job where Alteryx is already a tool.  I am sure there are tax benefits to Alteryx as well for each license used.

This is kind of how we discovered Alteryx, we had issues with volume of data and technology limitations (Excel) and someone had used Alteryx at a prior company and suggested we try it out.  We purchased a couple licenses, then within a couple years we had 16 licenses.  You can’t sell someone who doesn’t know you exist…the internship type license is a good idea to expand the list of people in the workplace who know you exist.  Even better they will have have reached a level of knowledge, core certification, to have a basic appreciate your value.

I am using a Dynamic Input within a Batch Macro to allow the user to read (dump) data from multiple Oracle tables with varying schemas.  If a table read has 0 rows output, then an error message like the following is displayed at the end of the job execution:

Because it is always possible to return 0 rows from the read, I'd like to mute the error message.  If this message is present, I don't want to STOP the macro/application.  I do however want to stop the application if an ERROR Message that I care about is encountered (e.g. Output file is not defined).

Cheers,

Mark

Using R tool, I created Monetary unit sampling macro. Auditors often use MUS methodology to select samples from population for testing.

Check it out and let me know if you have any suggestions or comments.

As simple as the title : an In-Database Block Until Done would be a pretty nice feature to control the execution of a workflow.

The Transpose In-db stands in the "Laboraty" for years now. I understand Alteryx invested some time and money to develop that but sadly we still can't use that tool for sensitive workflows. Did you get some bugs on it? Can you please correct it and make this tool an "official" tool?

Thanks

I'm not sure if this will ever be possible, but I know that it would greatly benefit me and I'm sure thousands of other users. In my work place I am constantly working in a conference room and at my desk. At my desk I am wired into an Ethernet connection while in the conference room I am wireless. When I start my workflows after working with my team in the conference room, I can't go back to my desk until the workflow is finished running because I am changing internet connections and I lose connection to the databases. With the pause button it would become possible to run a workflow and then change my internet without losing connection to the databases.

Another use for this would be while testing a workflow with a new tool. There are times I run a workflow that can take a few hours, but then I realize there is a mistake somewhere in my workflow, where the data hasn't reached yet. I think it would be very helpful to be able to pause the workflow and add the new tool in, while seeing results from tools it has already passed through.

But yet again this is just an idea that relates to me, I wonder what the rest of the community thinks.

As an admin - we currently need to download a large number of different binaries for every release; then package them for internal deployment; then send them out.

This creates unnecessary work for our admin teams, our packaging teams, our deployment teams etc.

This problem is becoming more acute now that Alteryx is shipping add-on tools via the public gallery - so our standard desktop designer can now require 10 or more separately packaged installs.

Can we please change the download experience to allow enterprise admins to:

- Select the components that they want in a standard download

     - This would allow for a menu selection across all the starter kits (e.g. Tableau; microsoft; qlik); the standard designer; the predictive

     - it would also allow for a menu selection across public gallery assets so that we can include things like the model comparison tool and other new predictive capabilities

     - the addins for Microsoft R Server

     - database drivers

     - Connect data loaders

     - Server components

- Given this set a name (like "Standard designer install") since in a large enterprise we will have several different configurations (some for super-users; some for standard users).    In our world we'd have "Standard Designer"; "Admin"; "Connect Controller"; "SuperUser" as our starting list.

- Then download one installer which is the aggregated set of these in one place 

- ... and finally allow the Admin to be notified when any component in the install set changes so that they can download the new version.

cc: @jason_m_mack @AshwiniChezhiyan @LizaNemchynova @revathi

StreetGeocoder when finds an address returns its fields in CAPITAL CASE which is no good for showing to user. Can it return in a correct title case? AFAIK, source data are in valid title case, but the tool or data preparation team make a standardization which actually makes all letters capital.

When city is not provided StreetGeocoder tool returns the first one in alphabetical order associated with provided ZIP code. For example, if you submit "380 New York St, 92373" the geocoder will return you "MARIGOLD, CA", instead of Redlands, CA which is the primary place name for 92373 ZIP code.

So if an address has multiple city names within the geocode table, can we provide the recommended city name?

I try to parse the Alteryx yxmd, yxwz, yxmc... etc files.

It happens the tools and the fileformats are not written in clear : 

We should have a list stored somewhere (API, file?) where we can find the information. 

Best regards

// This is my new formula
MAX([Price] * [Quantity],0)
// This was my old formula
// [Price] * [Quantity]

Imagine being able to SELECT your text block (could be many lines) and right-clicking to see an option to Comment or Un-Comment those configuration statements.  I thought that you'd like it too.

Cheers,

Mark