Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

I think It would be very beneficial to be able to find the first instance that a field appeared or when its name changed.

So consider the following:

1) Somewhere in my workflow, I use a formula tool and create a new field called Total Assets which is the sum of Asset1 and Asset2.

After my workflow is built (and I failed to do any sort of documentation) it would be nice in the results window if each field name was a highlighted link that took me to the first instance that a field appeared.

In my scenario above if I am downstream and wonder when Total assets appeared (as I might have multiple formula tools, but if could click the field name and it bounced me right to the first instance the field existed -- in this case a formula tool, this would be a huge time saving when troubleshooting.

Thanks,

Seth

When outputting to files in avro format, it would be nice to have Alteryx either throw an error/warning or automatically add a prefix when field names do not conform to the Apache Avro specifications. For example, if I were to try to output an .avro file with a field named "2018 actions", Alteryx could throw a warning/error to remind me to rename the field, or Alteryx could change the field name for me to something like "X2018_Actions".

When working on the Weekly Challenge #108, I was trying to design a non-macro solution.

I ended up settling on the Generate Rows tool and was trying to find a way to generate rows until I had reached or exceeded the maximum density, however, I ran into an issue where I'd always have one too few rows, since the final row I was looking for was the one that broke the condition I specified.

In order to get around this, I came up with the following solution:

Spoiler

 

Essentially, I just set my condition to twice that of the true threshold I was looking for. This worked because I was always doubling the current value in my Loop Expression, and so anything which broke the 'actual' condition I was looking for ([MaxDensity]), would necessarily also break the second condition if doubled again.

However, for many other loop expressions, this sort of solution would not work.

My idea is to include a checkbox which, when selected, would also generate the final row which broke the specified condition.

By adding such a checkbox, it would allow users to continue using the Generate Rows tool as they already do, but reduce the amount of condition engineering that users are required to do in order to get that one extra row they're looking for, and reduce the number of  potentially unseen errors in their workflows.

Hello,

It would be nice if Alteryx had a way to create a time lapse video based on a date field.  Create a map showing data over time (day, week, year, etc) that shows it cumulative or individual for each time frame.  I needed to map a set of location points, with a date field, to show where and when they opened throughout time by each year or by each decade, so it starts with only a few locations, then keeps adding the new locations with time to show all locations at the end or present time.

Thanks,

Bob

Hey Alteryx!

Here's one. I don't care for the tabs at the top showing each workflow. They are not in order by open date and it's hard to tell whether tab all the way on the right is the final workflow or not... They are hard to X out (especially the last one on the right that seems to have a semi hidden X). Depending on your monitor layout/resolution, you can only see like 10 visible workflows at a time in the gui. If you want to see more, you have to go into the workflow dropdown carrot which AFAIK also doesn't seem to be in any particular order esp when you open up several flows having same name. On a side note - what happened Alteryx? They USED to be in order by open date going across at the top AND in the workflow dropdown... That was useful.

So let get rid of these tabs. It's so windows95.

Instead create an interactive workflow history table (window) similar to what exists in TOAD, sql assist and other database tools (see image below). It's a table in the view but each row would reflect a workflow (formerly a tab). Top row is most recent workflow and moving down the table shows history of workflows.

You could can hover over a row to see details pop up for that workflow OR you could click each row (double click to run?) and workflow becomes visible in active canvas and overview and results window update accordingly. Maybe we could even have more than one active window per session? (sort vert/horz).

Additional benefits/functionality:

1. Slightly more screen real estate which we know you are always looking for and asked about 🙂

2. This could also be an autosave feature. When Alteryx crashes - and it does - when you reopen designer all your history will be there - no loss of productivity! Also high on your list.

3. Have an additional search function where we can search for tool names, comments, annotation, workflow/app/macro names, odbc connections, specific formulas or key words and then we see which history rows match our search criteria (rather than searching using notepad++ 'find in Files' feature in a directory)

4. It's not that much dev time since workflow history is already available in some buried log so why not show some of this metadata to the user in the gui?

Thanks,

Simon

A user may need to perform regression test on their workflows when there is a version upgrade of Alteryx. To save users time and effort, users can be encouraged to submit a few workflows in a secure area of the Alteryx Gallery. Prior to a version release, the Alteryx product testing team can perform a regression test of these workflows using automation. Thus when users receive an upgraded version of Aleryx it is more robust and with the added assurance that the workflows they had submitted will continue to work without errors.  

Hello,

When i build my workflows i often times have to save, close, and reopen just to see data flow through tools and check for errors.

It would be awesome if there was a validate button next to the run button so we dont have to go through all of this just to check for errors...

It would also be nice if we didnt need a button but the data automatically flowed through the tools to see compatibility automatically.

Nick

Hello all,

It would be awesome to see an obvious change to the Input Tool when you change the setting from Cached to Not Cached. Something simple so that as the process is running i can clearly see what that setting is opposed to having to stop the process and restart it.

Thoughts?

Nick

Often when working on problems posed by other people, they provide a sample table of data.

Would love a trivial way to copy from the Community to Alteryx.