Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

Extend the machine-learning framework for pressure analysis on a single well to multiwell systems.  

The framework should capture the well interference accurately and be able to test a greater area of the reservoir. Develop a machine-learning model to reconstruct the flow-rate history by use of pressure data. Ensure that both models maintain the advantages of the machine-learning- based single-well pressure interpretation in terms of the accuracy of prediction, computational efficiency, and tolerance to noise.

A common problem with the R tool is that it outputs "False Errors" like the following: "The R.exe exit code (4294967295) indicted an error"

I call this a false error because data passes out of the R script the same as if there were no error. As such, this error can generally be ignored. In my use case, however, my R tool is embedded within an iterative macro, and the error causes the iterator to stop running.

I was able to create a workaround by moving the R tool to a separate workflow and calling it from the CReW runner macro within my iterator, effectively suppressing the error message, but this solution is a bit clumsy, requires unnecessary read/writes, and uses nonstandard macros.

I propose the solution suggested by @mbarone (https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Boosted-Model-Error/td-p/5509) to only generate an error when the R return code is 1, indicating a true error, and to either ignore these false errors or pass them as warnings. This will allow R scripts and R-based tools to be embedded within iterative macros without breaking.

Hopefully this is the right place to post this and it hasn't been suggested already but I think it would be useful to add a numeric indicator to the formula tool to show how many formulas are being done with one tool. It would be useful when going back into or sharing workflows that a user would know more than one function is being carried out at that point. Currently I change the annotation to show how many but I think it would be useful if the icon changed dynamically. Below is a mockup of what I think it should look like.

Thanks,

Pete

when using the R-Tool for simple tasks (like renaming files, for example) in an interative macro - there's a delay on every iteration as the R Tool starts up R.

The following are repeated on every iteration (with delays):

Can we look at an option to forward scan an alteryx job to look for R Tools, then load R into process once to eliminate these delays on every iteration?

This is an interface issue but I wish Alteryx can allow user to scroll across the ribbon toolbar (e.g. In/Out, Prep, Join, Spatial tools...) when the toolbar is active.

That is, for example, when I click on "Transform" and notice my tool is not there, I can quickly scroll my mouse to move to other toolsets. Microsoft Office is a best practice for this and I think this will make it much efficient to locate tools.

With the increase number of JSON feeds and the need to properly define the data type for date and date/time fields. It would be useful to have the Auto Field tool detect common date and date/time formats from Strings and assign the Date, Date Time, or Time data type.

Given the following input data:

The select tool confirms is a String

If we use the Auto Field as:

The result is still a String data type (2nd Select Tool)

I would expect this to be Date Time.

One solution would be to create a formula and parse it, but this is not suitable for situations that the field names are unknown.

It would be much easier to have the work done by Auto Field.

When using the Transpose tool I'm pivoting out networks names to column headings then I want to populate those fields with an "X".  To do this I have to first create a column first with an "X" in it and populated the various Networks columns with that.

How about another drop-down that says something like "I'll key the value I want to populate the fields with" and I can key "X" or "Y", etc.

It's possible I just don't know enough about the tool but I can't see how to do this other than my way.

When I maximize the SQL Editor Window within the Input Tool only half of the screen show the SQL window.  The bottom half of the screen is useless grey space.  Why not have most all of the screen be the SQL window and only a small portion of grey border for the Test Qry, Ok, Cancel and Help button?  I'd like to see more SQL and less wasted space.  Thanks!

When using the Levenshtein distance matching in the fuzzy match it gives you the option to select a match threshold % but does not allow for other options.  Is it possible to provide these additional options in a future release?

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.

Similar to the regular formula tool, it would be great if we would be able to configure multiple text to column processes within one tool rather than having to line up several tools when having to convert various fields of different logic at the same time.

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 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.

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.

Designer should support statistical testing tools that ignore data distribution and support Statistical Learning methods.

Alteryx already supports resampling for predictive modeling with Cross-Validation.

Resampling tools for bootstrap and permutation tests (supporting with or without replacement) should be tools for analysts and data scientists alike that assess random variability in a statistic without needing to worry about the restrictions of the data's distribution, as is the case with many parametric tests, most commonly supported by the t-test Tool in Alteryx. With modern computing power the need for hundred-year-old statistical sampling testing is fading: the power to sample a data set thousands of times to compare results to random chance is much easier today.

The tool's results could include, like R, outputs of not only the results histogram but the associated Q-Q plot that visualizes the distribution of the data for the analyst. This would duplicate the Distribution Analysis tool somewhat, but the Q-Q plot is, to me, a major missing element in the simplest visualization of data. This tool could be very valuable in terms of feeding the A/B Test tools.

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.

In environments with a large number of designers - we are now starting to bump into the issue of many people re-inventing the wheel - or editing a canvas in ways that overwrite each other.

Can we make an addition to the flow of work so that I can check an item out of the server, work on it, and check it back in?   that way, people can see that I'm working on it in the designer, my changes are being sent back, and when I commit my changes then people can work accordingly.

The other alternative would be code branches & trunks which would be more effective and more useful, but I'd guess this would be a tougher ask (unless Alteryx just embedded GIT under the covers)