Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

I think it will be useful if I have an option to add field description when new fields are being created (eg. formula tool, transformation tools etc.)

 

The case for this is I tend to create a lot of calculated fields by combining fields and applying transformations for exploration predictive possibilities, I want to capture description of the fields while they are being created (its not always possible to set the names descriptive enough)

 

As of now I think I can add description using select tool but that's not optimal

 

 

Thanks,

Option to add a description for each newly created filed in all data preparation and transformation steps. Although a description can be added in the select tool but that's an additional tool in already cluttered (most workflows).

My use case for this is I tend to create a lot of fields (dummy, interaction and transformation) for predictive modelling to come up with a best model. I can not always name the same filed in such a way that is descriptive enough but I want to capture my thought on why I created a particular field right when I am creating it.

 

Thanks,

Ashish Singhal

I know this is a reach, but it would be nice to have the ability to drag around points or lables on the map before outputing them.  Specific example, plotting competitor stores that are at a Mall, all of the points stack on eachother.

It would be very helpful to be able to export your entire workflow to a poster-sized paper, either in paper or PDF format.  When explaining a workflow to others, or getting feedback, the ability to see the entire workflow or lay it out on a table is very helpful

There is a bug in DateTimeDiff(a, b, "months") whereby if a is a leap day DateTimeDiff() returns a value by less than 1 month.

Please see attached workflow where I demonstrate this bug.

 

Add some sort of highlight to an input data icon that currently has a record limit set.  Maybe an orange exclamation point on top the icon visually queing the analyst that the setting might need to be adjusted after process is complete.

We just updated to 11.7 from 10.5.

 

The Container adding/removing rules were changed somewhere in there and the change made it much harder to remove tools from containers. Is there any way to undo these changes or look into a better set of rules to use?

 

Nick

Hi,

 

I understand that we can find tools that uses formula by ctrl+F. 

I wish we can find text and replace the formula like excel does.

Sincerely,

knozawa

 

It would be a timesaver for workflow documentation if macro metadata could be passed through to the workflow where the macro is deployed.  The image below suggests that the Description encased in the macro could be copied across to the corresponding Annotation panel.  I would also suggest that the Meta Info panel have a checkbox to control this new funtionality.

 

It would be great if there was a way to convert datatypes within the Table Reporting tool.  The specific example that sparked this idea is calculating percentages so they are shown in the report with the decimal place moved over.  Today, within the formula tool I need to calculate the percentage and then multiply it by 100 in order for it to display the way I'd like in the report.  However, if I need to leverage this percentage for another formula I most likely will have to divide the percentage I calculated first by 100 before I continue my calculation.

 

It would be nice to not have to multiply by 100 to move the decimal place over 2 spots and instead use the table tool to convert the number into a percentage we're all used to seeing.  I'm thinking something similar to excel where you can click percentage, currency, etc to convert your number.

The "Open Example" feature that has been implemented for many tools helps new users quickly learn how to exploit Alteryx.  I would like to see Alteryx make further investments in this area and in particular I would like to see enhanced and organized documentation for functions with more and better examples.  I would encourage Alteryx to engage its ACE community and the other advanced users who are active in the Community to contribute to this effort. 

Often when we need to use the Filter tool and select the Custom filter option, it requires us to write conditions such as "IF", "OR" and so on.

 

Was hoping if some suggestions or hints could be embedded in the custom filter for those of us who have no experience even in basic coding.

 

 

Instead of being a module setting, showing counts should/could be a user setting.

When you have a complex workflow and you need to identify what happens to a specific field throughout a LONG workflow, it would be great to have the paths, connections, etc highlighted.  

 

If the field is modified in a tool (formula for instance), the tool gets highlighted in orange.  If it just passes through a tool, it is highlighted in green and a tool where it gets dropped is colored red.

 

This will help in identifying which tools modify a field of interest as well as identify tools which "deselect" a field and cause it drop out.   I spend a lot of time tweaking workflows developed by other analysts, so this will greatly speed up troubleshooting and assessment time. 

 

 

 

 

This can be a simple add on to the sample tool or possibly a separate tool. This would give you the ability to select which row the Header row(and use field values for header) and/or data starts. This is particularly useful if someone has extra rows with report titles and information, etc. This tool could also select rows to skip, ie blank rows in matrices or rows that do not contain data. 

This is a low priority one, but I constantly find myself wanting to do this and it seems to be both an easy fix and something which should exist anyway.

I have ten input tools, I want to be able to highlight all, right click and select "add all browses" or something similar. 

That's it. Nothing earth-shattering, nothing deeply insightful, just something that would brighten up my day and maybe save a bit of time.

 

Thanks.

Greenplum is a new in-db capability; which our company has started using frequently. GP is a distributed database, across many nodes, much like how Redshift and other new database technology works.

 

In order to properly use these databases the Alteryx tools MUST have a way to distribute our tables across the nodes how we desire. Currently the tools for In-DB will distribute by the database default (almost always taking the first column in the table to distribute) which has terrible affects on performance. The work around has been to run SQL outside of the Alteryx tools to run ALTER TABLE DISTRIBUTE BY statements for all tables; also this cannot work on TEMP tables as those tables are created and deleted at the end of the workflow.

 

The idea I want is an additional option for Distributed DB's to choose the distribution column OR choose the "RANDOMLY" option for distribution of tables [DISTRIBUTED BY statement]. This would make my DBAs very happy and make it possible for me to run even more challenging requests to my system.

 

As far as I know, in the current version (Jan 2018) of Designer the presentation settings for the canvas are global and are set by the user in the Canvas settings tab of the User settings.  There appears to be no way to adjust canvas settings at the individual workflow level that would over-ride the global defaults.  (Please tell me if I am wrong).

 

I propose that the user defined global defaults be retained but that the workflow configuration window include a new tab where local settings can be set.  This tab should include a button that enables a user to reset all local settings to the global defaults. 

 

 

Sometimes the field names for an imported file are very unhelpful.  Consider the image below as an example.  Even though the AUTO FIELD tool has been applied to this imported CSV file it is still necessary to inpect the source data before assigning field names and descriptions. 

 

MY SUGGESTION:  insert a data preview column in the Configuration view between SIZE and RENAME.  This data preview column would show the first row of data but a scroll function would allow the user to advance to the next or previous record within this view.  This feature would enhance the productivity of analysts in the data preparation phase of their work.