Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

When you use the Visual Query Builder, you can drag and drop tables to arrange them clearly (to show the star or snowflake schema, for instance). 

 

When you close the Visual Query Builder and reopen it, the tables are all left-aligned in a long column, with the joins overlapping each other. Since many of our tables are very wide (i.e., with many columns), this makes it cumbersome to locate the correct table and field.

 

I would like the manual positioning of the tables to be saved in the Visual Query Builder, to

1. Make the logical arrangement clearer to the developer and later users
2. Make it easier to locate tables/fields without scrolling downward

This is a feature that our users were very accoustomed to in Hyperion Intelligence, our legacy BI tool, which works similarly to the Visual Query Builder (shown below).

 

I would like to see the same functionalitly that the Output Tool has in the Render tool.  In the Output Tool, you can specify the Excel Worksheet along with the Sheet Name that you want to output too.  Meaning Same Worksheet, different tab:

     C:Output FilesExample_Worksheet.xlsx|Report_1
     C:Output FilesExample_Worksheet.xlsx|Report_2

This functionality is not currently available in the Render Tool and would be very useful and cut out some manual operations on the back end that requires us to copy/paste from one file to another.

I tried using the Section Break technique that was offered as a suggestion, but it did not perform what I needed.

I would like to suggest 2 small changes to make working with Interface tools easier:

1) Let a user change the name of Question Constants from the workflow tab. For example, I would love the ability to change the names of my list boxes below. Currently, I can click in the name box and write new names in, but it doesn't stick.

 

 

 

2) Let the user add the value on the Interface tools under the Annotation tab. Currently, I drop an interface tool on, change the name on the annotation tab, and then have to go the the workflow tab to setup a value. It would be easier if the value box was also on the annotation tab:

During the design phase, we make some experimentations and create tables with Alteryx.

But, sometimes, after this phase or after a mistake, we need to drop those tables.

 

We know that it's possible to write a drop table statement in Pre-SQL or Post-SQL but it requires SQL skills and it could be done only if you write in a table.

 

It will be great if we could drop a table directly in the Query builder of the Input tool by making a right click on the table in the discovery tree.

 

Extension : It also be great to have the same thing in the HDFS browse.

I would like to see a time interface tool similar to the Date and Numeric Up Down tools. I am working on some macros where the user can select the time they would like to use a filter for the data. 

 

Example: I want all data loaded after 5:00 PM because its late and needs to be removed.

Example 2: I want to create an app where the user can select what time range they would like to see records for (business hours, during their shift, etc) 

 

Currently this require 2-3 numeric up downs or a Text box with directions for the user on how to format field with Error tools to prevent bad entries. It could even be UTC time.

 

Time Interface Tool 

Pushing data to Salesforce from Oracle would bemuch easier if we were able to perform an UPSERT (Update if existing, Insert if not existing) function on any unique ID field in Salesforce. Instead of us having to do a filter to find the records that have or don't have an ID and run an Update or Insert based on the filter.

When converting data types while In-DB, it would be really helpful if I could change the data type with the "Select In-DB" tool in a similar manner to the "Select" tool. Currently, we are having to use the "Formula In-DB" tool in order to create a "Cast" Statement.

We have a large SAS Programming team that keeps most of thier data sets in a Unix environment. A more robust ODBC connection to this data would greatly enhance our use of Alteryx. The current SAS odbc Driver tends to lock Alteryx up. Creating edits to the connection also tends to lock ateryx up to an unrecoveable point.

Multi-Resolution Raster format, or .mrr, is a MapInfo Pro Advanced file format that is becoming increasingly common as an output option for many software providers.  It is being used in place of .grd and .tiff file formats in some instances, because of its many advantages over most raster formats.  I would like to request that alteryx allow .mrr files to be included as input options, as it seems this trend isn't going to decrease anytime soon.

Currently the BROWSE tool shows numeric data in raw format.  It would be easier to evaluate a column of data if the data was right justified and formatted with the decimal point aligned.  

 

Thiwould change this

 

234.56788

12.0

.098

 

to 

 

    234.567

      12.000

          .098

 

 

In Powerpoint, you can right-click on a picture and replace it with a different picture without losing formatting.

 

Similar functionality would be useful for replacing custom macros.

• I would like to be able to switch an old version of a custom macro with a new version in situ, without losing the connections to other tools, interface tools, or location in a container. 

Currently, the only option is to insert the new custom macro and then reset all incoming and outgoing connections. Some downstream tools (e.g., crosstab) lose their existing settings and that has to be reset too. On complicated workflows, this can introduce silent errors.

 

This capability would be especially helpful for team coding, where different team members are revising different modules for a parent workflow.

 

Currently:

Right-clicking on the canvas shows Insert > Macro > (choose from list of open macros)

Right-clicking on an existing macro shows Open Macro

 

New functionality:

Right-clicking on an existing macro shows Replace/Change Macro > (choose from list of open macros)

 

 

Instead of adding a tool container to the canvas, then moving my input tool into that - it would be nice if I could just click a box for 'Disable' in the input tool properties.  This would speed up things if I'm trying to test inputs one at a time; or need to disable just one specific output while I test another data stream in my workflow.

It would be nice to have the ability to automatically generate twbx files from a master Tableau workbook so that end users can open the file in Tableau reader.  For example, if I were creating separate CSV files with my data for each state I would similarly want to create them as a ready to consume twbx file with Tableau Reader.

Please add the ability to specify indexes when creating a table with the Write Data In-DB tool.

 

When running Teradata SQL using the Connect In-DB tool I need to create a table on the database using the Write Data In-DB tool and do numerous updates before bringing the data to the PC.  Currently there is no way to create a unique primary index (or any other index) when the Write Data In-DB tool creates a table.  This causes Teradata to consume huge amounts of wasted space.  Today I created a table with 160 columns and 50K rows.  This consumed over 20 Gigabytes of data with 19.7 Gigabytes of wasted space.  In Teradata the way to control wasted space(skew) is by properly defining the index which can't be done today.

The ability to limit the number of records (either on a specific input tool, or via the Workflow Properties) is super useful when developing a workflow...

 

...but how many times do you forget that a record limit was set and then spend ridiculous amounts of time trying to figure out why something isn't working properly? (I can't be the only person this has happened to...).

 

Wouldn't it be fantastic if a warning/message was shown in the workflow results (e.g. "Input Tool (n) has a record limit set"
or "Record Limits are set on the Workflow Properties")?

The behavior of an "Overwrite Sheet (Drop)" configuration is such that it breaks formulas (#REF) that point to the overwritten sheet and named ranges that reference the overwritten sheet.  This is a bummer because the only way I've found to overcome the issue is to write a script that re-applies the named range.  This works, but it greatly raises the barrier to using this tool and in some corporate environments it won't even be possible.

 

What would probably be a good alternative behavior is to delete the contents of the sheet, rather than the rows/columns/cells of the sheet.  I think both probably have valid use cases but my proposed functionality is going to cause fewer issues and be the more popular behavior for most users.  I believe there is a google sheets API call for just this kind of behavior...

I know there's the download but have a look at that topic, the easiest solution so far is to use an external API with import.io.

 

I'm coming from the excel world where you input a url in Powerquery, it scans the page, identify the tables in it, ask you which one you want to retrieve and get it for you. This takes a copy and paste and 2 clics.

Wouldn't it be gfreat to have something similar in Altery?

 

Now if it also supported authentication you'd be my heroes 😉

 

http://community.alteryx.com/t5/Data-Sources/Extract-a-table-from-Wikipedia/m-p/14531/highlight/fals...

 

Thanks

 

Tibo

Similar to how the Tool Container Defaults can be set on the Document tab of User Settings, it would be nice to be able to set the Comment box defaults here as well. I find that I change the Colour & Size every time I add a comment, and would appreciate if this could just be set as a default.