Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

I'd appreciate the ability to use the Find and Replace tool and "Find" on multiple fields as if it were a join. Currently, in order to flag clients (who are repeated across the data set) with some records that I've already isolated that meet certain criteria, I have to create a compound key for the client and the flag and then use Find/Replace on the compound key. I'd rather use a Find/Replace where multiple columns match (ex: Client, Product, Month, Shipping Depot A, etc.) and skip the compound key step if possible.

I have been using Alteryx for not a very long time, but allready feel frustated by the difficulties when it comes to access the data result shown in the Browse Tool (from Linear Regression, Principal Component Analysis, etc.).

Lots of the output shown here is really important data that you really want to be able to access for further analysis in Alteryx or in another tool.

This data should be easy to access, following the Alteryx self-service philosophy.

When running a workflow and outputting files to get a better look at the data if you have forgotten to close one of the output files of the same name, you get the "Error Creating File". 

I understand why this happens and that I forgot to do something.  The issue I have is that it doesnt tell me that those files have been left open until after the workflow is almost complete which in some cases is 5-10 minutes and then I have to close the output files and re run and wait again.  Could a future version check those files at the begining of the process and then let me know, or could there be a message that says "filename" was open and could not be created we have renamed it to "filenameA".  Checking at the begining would be prefered. 

Thanks

If you are connecting to an Oracle database you can get faster results with adding a short hint to your SQL query. For a query like this

SELECT customers.cust_first_name, customers.cust_last_name, 
MAX(QUANTITY_SOLD), AVG(QUANTITY_SOLD)
FROM sales, customers
WHERE sales.cust_id=customers.cust_id
GROUP BY customers.cust_first_name, customers.cust_last_name;

add /*+ PARALLEL(4) */  (or depending on your CPU size 😎 and that SQL becomes this;

SELECT /*+ PARALLEL(4) */ customers.cust_first_name, customers.cust_last_name, 
  MAX(QUANTITY_SOLD), AVG(QUANTITY_SOLD)
FROM sales, customers
WHERE sales.cust_id=customers.cust_id
GROUP BY customers.cust_first_name, customers.cust_last_name;

There is a similar capability for SQL Server too...

SELECT *
FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail
OPTION (MAXDOP)

I suggest adding this feature in in-db tools so that no one needs to alter the SQL query itself...

You can check out the inner workings for oracle here; https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e25523/parallel002.htm

Almost all usage statistics is tracked by Alteryx I suppose, including annonymized workflow xml's too? That is a treasure trove...

I would like to suggest doing analytics (a simple market basket or a slightly advanced predictive model) to offer me a next-best-action;

• either when I click on an output of a tool or  
• clicking on a connecting line in between tools

With what frequency other users selected which tool given the current setting and previous sequence of tools in the workflow...

You may call it wisdom of crowds or AI assisted workflow development...

Best

Hello - does anyone know if it's possible to to place text both above and below a table in the report text tool (in this instance i'm using it to feed an automated email)

I have some text which is the body of the email but also want to add some text with a hyperlink to unsubscribe to the email, below a table but as far as I can tell, there's not a way to input the table in between text, only above/below/left/right

Thanks in advance for the help,

Harry

Is there a possibility of changing the behavior of Event or the email tool itself to not use anonymous relays?

Our Security team does not want to white list desktops, and a lot of our customers don't use server.  Our server IPs have been whitelisted and a couple of desktops, but that's it. So looking to see if an enhancement can be considered for the Email tool and the Event set up.

Here is what we received from Alteryx Support:

Alteryx sends anonymous email, and there is no way to tie (or spoof) a separate IP address to the email to let the server know where it's coming from, or to make it "non-anonymous." The email tool is a very basic SMTP client that currently does not support SSL or authentication. As such if the SMTP server you are connecting to requires SSL or authentication to relay messages the tool will fail to send the intended message(s). If the server IP hasn't been blocked to send anonymous email, you can test in Designer on the server to see if you receive the same error. If it works on the server, you should be able to send emails from workflow scheduled on gallery. Since the IP of the machine itself is blocked from sending anonymous email, there is nothing we can do on our end to resolve the issue for each individual Alteryx user. IT will have to white-list any IP that wishes to send anonymous email. 

Thanks so much!!
Diana

Can you look at improving the table tool? something to look at:

1.  background/alternate color off or none so we don't have any fill color in Excel
2. Table header alignment option vertical AND horizontal - different from row alignment.
3. make it dynamic for rules - so if _currentfieldname contains 'percent' then back ground color =yellow, if contains 'Rank' then green etc. Split between header & data. I know it could be accomplished with a macro and xml but that's a tedious process and having it in the tool just makes sense.

Thanks!

simon

I have a process that joins 3 data sets to identify a specific group of data and apply certain ruling. From this created file, I need to extract the data (not the headings) from specific columns and insert into an already existing template. The template has formatting that needs to remain in order for it to function. 

Is this possible? 

Hello All,

We are new to Alteryx and we could see that the Supported Data Sources from IBM are of below :

• IBM DB2
• IBM Netezza/Pure Data Systems
• IBM SPSS

How about adding IBM Sterling to this?

We want Alteryx to support connection with IBM Sterling OMS which will help the Business requirements

Can anyone post some suggestions on this? How we can connect to Sterling?

Thanks,

Praveen C

I propose an update to the Join Tool to allow users to select "Only right" or "only left" fields after a join.  I like the options you have there currently (e.g., select highlighted fields), it would just be nice to add these options to it. 

I’m writing about a short-coming I see in the Publish to Tableau Server Tool v2.0 (PTTS).  I work in a development environment where we use different Tableau servers (i.e. development, test, production) to support product development.  One of the shortcomings of PTTS is that once the Tableau server information you are connecting to is entered, validated, and the tool is configured, you can no longer ‘see’ which Tableau server/site the tool is publishing to.  I think this piece of information is quite important.  I know I can always us the “Disconnect” button in the tool and re-enter the information so I know which server it is pointing to, but this defeats the purpose of entering that information in the tool in the first place.

Please consider an enhancement to the tool so we developers know at a glance where (server/site) the tool is publishing.  Project and Data source names are helpful, but in a development cycle, all Tableau servers may have the same Project and Data source names across all environments.

I've attached examples of the tool options when being defined and once the tool is configured – notice server URL and Site are aren’t displayed in the tool once it has been configured.

Extend the Gallery, so that you can pass a set of parameters to Analytic Apps changing both look and feel as well as feedback of the App, i.e. allow to call the App "Add Two Numbers" without borders and jumping direct to the question page.

https://gallery.alteryx.com/#!app/Add-two-numbers/5cc704bb826fd31188cf8ad8/run?header=N&sidebar=N&di...

sidebar=Y|N     allows to hide sidebar (home, districts,...)

header = Y|N   allows to hide header line

questions = Y|N    skip question page (only if no questions are available)

direct = Y|N       directly starts App (i.e. directly jumps to the question page)

Idea:

As a method of deploying preprocessing and ML models it would be awesome to be able to convert a workflow to java... 

Rationale:

models are needed to be deployed into Complex event processes or decision systems. Even for SAS there is a need to implement the datastep algorithms and procs to run in JVM.

Quickwin:

It is possible to convert a workflow into a PMML file and then use JMML package to convert that to Java. Yet the full workflow with all preprocessing alternatives and a series of ML methods may not be captured fully.

Competitor example:

For SAS case here is a similar solution: http://www.dullesresearch.com/carolina-features/

If a macro or tool is missing in a workflow, all configuration and connections of said tool is broken, and if you save, all previous configurations and connections are lost.

I am proposing all connections and configurations of these tools are instead 'frozen'; all connections and configuration are saved but not editable (with the exception of deleting them). This would allow collaboration with users who do not have the tool/macro.

Additionally, functionality to be able to manually point towards another tool and maintain the connections/configurations (in case you have the same macro versioned or named differently) would be nice.

There are currently two different types of select tools. The dynamic select tool and the normal select tool. In my opinion there should only be 1 tool and it should be a mix of these two tools.

First the select tool is great because I can select the exact fields that I want, and I can pass new fields through using the "unknown" field. The dynamic select tool is also great because I can write formulas that dynamically select fields. Why not have one tool that does both?

In my mind, it would just look like the select tool, but then on the "unknown" field, I can click on it and configure it. It would basically just open the dynamic select tool interface where I can write formula's etc that select the unknown fields that I am willing to pass through.

For example.. clients add new fields to our data integrations all the time. A lot of the time I dont want these new fields to pass through automatically. But we also do reporting, and reporting could include column headers that are dates (ie sales may 18, sales june 18, etc). As new months appear in our sales data, new columns are added to our reports. I should have the capability to hardcode the fields I want to pass through and then write a formula for the remaining "unknown" fields. In this example I would check mark the fields I know I want, then write a formula that says if the unknown field starts with "sales" then pass it through.

Yes there are workarounds for this type of functionality (such as I could do a dynamic select tool and use the formula function to type in the name of EVERY field that I want to "hardcode"), but that would take a long time if I am trying to pass 10+ fields through.

We extensively use the AWESOME functionality of SharePoint List Input and SharePoint List Output tools.  They're great!  BUT... they require valid credentials to pull back the valid list and view values.  Not normally an issue until you go to share your workflow.  If you strip out your credentials from Alteryx the List and view fields go blank, do it from the xml and when the person you share it with opens it up the fields go blank and you have to count on that user selecting the proper list and view.  

I propose to have these tools load valid lists and views only upon pressing a button or running the macro in initial configuration state.  

Found this https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/SharePoint-Passwords/td-p/17182

and we could use a macro tool but every implementation still requires storing a valid username and password to avoid the error and the list id which I imagine the sharepoint API requires and which is why the tool behaves the way it does is not easily obvious to most ppl.

Idea:

In forecasting and in commercial/sme risk scoring there is a need for trying vast number of algebraic equations which is a very cumbersome prosess. Let's add symbolic regression as a new competitive capability.

Rationale:

Summations, ratios, power transforms and all combinations of a like are needed to be tested as new variables for a forecasting or prediction model. Doing this by hand manually is a though and long business... And there is always a possibility for one to skip a valuable combination.

Symbolic regression is a novel techinique for automatically generating algebraic equations with use of genetic programming, 
In every evolution a variable is selected checked if the equation is discriminatitive of the target variable at hand. In every next step frequently observed variables will be selected more likely.

SR comparison with linear regression neural nets and random forests

Benefit for clients:

This method produces variables mainly with nonlinear relationships. It is a technique that will help in corporate/commercial/sme risk modelling, such that powerful risk models are generated from a hort list of B/S and P/L based algebraic equations.
There is potential use cases in algorithmic trading as well...

There are 3 very interesting world problems solved with symbolic regression here.

A very relevant thesis by sean Wouter is attached as a pdf document for your reading pleasure...

R side of things:

I've found Rgp package for genetic programming, here is a link.

Competition:

I haven't seen something similar in SAS, SPSS but there is this; http://www.nutonian.com/products/eureqa/

Also there is Bruce Ratner's page