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Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

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1. The Union tool 

 

When switching to Manual method and then adding fields up stream, the result is a warning "Field was not found". I don't look for warnings. This should create a red error. Having fields fall off the workflow is a pain.

 

2. Unique tool

 

Changing fields upstream causes the tool to error out when the workflow runs. No issues are shown before the run. 

 

3. Having containers all open up when I reopen a workflow is a nightmare when you have 20+ containers all over lapping.

 

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One of my favorite features of Alteryx is the in-line browse in the results window, as well as the descriptive log, highlighting record counts into and out of tools.  As I develop bigger and longer-running workflows, I would love to be able to save off these results to provide my QA analyst with a "cached" version of a run without them having to run it themselves.  Providing them not only with a well-documented workflow, but with a complete data flow would be tremendously helpful in getting work checked.  Our current process is to pass workflows off, and encourage the QA analyst to run them with the "Disable all Tools that write Output" option checked.  While this is not an issue for smaller workflows, it is inefficient for larger ones, and also can cause some difficulties with access logistics like missing or inconsistent connection aliases.

 

I have seen some requests asking for saving of browse results (https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Product-Ideas/Save-Browse-Results-Until-Next-Run/idi-p/1827), but these primarily seem to be geared at data caching for further workflow development.  My aim is to save the browse and results statuses of a completed workflow for the purpose of QA.

 

Note: I posed this as a question in the Data Preparation and Blending forum, but didn't receive an answer so thought I would propose it as an idea.

We have a large number of apps which are used by a substantial number of end users. One frequent end user complaint is that forms do not persist, i.e. the settings need to be reselected each time the form is run.  We've heard that this is an Alteryx issue.   Are there any solutions or work-arounds? It is a huge ease of use issue.   It has occurred to me that we may need to dramatically simplify the forms (they have many controls) but I would like to have a solution that is correct in terms of complying with modern Web UI standards.  I remember pushing to make forms persistent twenty years ago.

 

Would be great to have a dynamic input tool that is a SFDC connector to update SOQL queries based on the fly. 

Please let me know if I've overlooked a suggestion and I'll be glad to upvote that post.  

 

I think it would be great to be able to convert a Browse tool to an Output tool.  I always work with browses until I have the product that I want, at that point I'll bring in the output tool.   The ability to right click and convert, would be great.

If I understand right, currently, Alteryx only accept projection defined with WKT, but not support WKT as an input or output spatial object.http://downloads.alteryx.com/Alteryx/Help/Projection_Support.htm

 

 

As a Tableau user as well as an Alteryx user, I suggest Alteryx can support WKT (Well-known_text) as part of its spatial format,  and support output spatial object in TDE file: 1. it can output spatial object into tde file directly, as Tableau use WKT as a spatial object format in its TDE file. 2. WKT is essentially a standard string, which can lower down barrier of handling and exchanging spatial data, and make spatial data more accessible. For example, it is easier to write spatil file to Exasol databse, which support WKT as spatial object.

 

For your information. I am aware that FME can output spatial object directly into tde file(for example: how-to-write-spatial-data-into-tableau-with-fme ; tutorial-preparing-data-in-fme-for-tableau ), while, currently, Alteryx don't have this function. So if one have a file with spatial object (eg.postcode-string, its polygon-spatial object), it is straight forward to get a file with spatial object ready to use with FME tde file creater, whereas, in Alteryx, it output the string part only. [Currently, I am outputing a spatial file, and combine the string with the spatial file, and let Tableau to transform the spatial object to WKT for me.]

 

A good article demonstrated how to work around before Alteryx can help to do this inside current spatial object output. I think it shouldn't be too difficult for the Talents in Alteryx to integrate this inside Alteryx, hope it is heard by the Alteryx people.

"Flights of the World: How to map great circle routes in Tableau 10.4

A short-cut. Writing directly into a TDE

If you know that you want to use this data in Tableau (and you have the Personal or Professional Edition of Tableau Desktop), you can take a shortcut and write your routes directly into a Tableau Data Extract (TDE) file using the TableauSDK (SDK = Software Development Kit). The SDK supports several languages (C, C++, Python, etc.). We used the Python version to turn the routes created using geographiclib into a TDE.

A benefit of writing straight into a TDE is that the files are much smaller because coordinates for each route are compressed into our spatial data format as you drop them into the TDE."

 

 

Many thanks

Hope this is something the community also support

 

Steven

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It would be great if the deselecting of fields in a select tool updated the output window(before next run) as a "review" to make sure you are removing what you expect and/or you can see other items left behind that should be removed. This would also be useful for seeing field names update as  you organize and rename.

 

Often I join tables w/o pre-selecting the exact fields i want to pass and so I clean up at the end of the join. I know this is not the best way but a lot of times i need something downstream and have to basically walk through the whole process to move the data along.

 

 

The CompareDictionary([A], [B]) function in Alteryx is case insensitive so it returns an "Equal" response (0) for CompareDictionary("cat","CAT").

 

Could we please add a either a case sensitivity parameter like the EndsWith(String, Target, caseinsensitivity) function; or create a new function that allows for both case sensitive and insensitive comparisons between strings?

 

Hi there,

 

The select tool writes a different configuration to the underlying XML file for the Alteryx flow depending on whether the "Unknown" value is selected.

 

  • if unknown is true:
    • Only fields that are deselected (or renamed /modified) are written to the XML file.   This is understandable since if no field is de-selected, and "Unknown" is true, then whatever goes through the tool is passed on
  • if unknown is false:
    • Only fields that are selected (or modified) are written to the XML file.    Again, this is logically understandable.

 

However - we are hoping to scan our Alteryx jobs to spot where fields are not used and should be trimmed out earlier - and because of this behaviour of select-type tools (Select; join; etc), we cannot get a full view of all the fields known by the tool.

 

Can we please give the user an option to write ALL fields to the XML file irrespective of the "Unknown" flag?   This will give the added benefit of enabling every tool to know its fields on a fresh reload without having to rerun.

 

Example:

2017-09-26_9-03-55.png

 

 

Desired State:

 

2017-09-26_9-12-27.png

 

cc: @Ned 

There should be an in built option in the Email Tool to send only one email instead of sending emails equivalent to the number of records in the attached file.

Currently, it requires to add Unique tool before the Email Tool.

Pretty simple one here - I would like to have an option in the UI to clear all Input Data caches or even a right click/properties option to clear an individual Input Data cache.  Often when developing, I use the Cache Input Data option to speed up development iterations.  However, if I modify the source data during the development, I am unable to easily clear the cache and often turn caching off to avoid stale data.  The "easiest" way I have found to do this is to pull the temp yxdb file paths out of the log after a recent run, clean them up using notepad++, put a del statement before each file, and paste them into a Command Line.  This inefficiency often offsets the development speed realized by caching.

Hi there,

 

The download tool is currently very cryptic, and difficult for most users to grasp..   This is due, at least in part, to the fact that it tries to be generic and serve all needs instead of being broken into smaller tools which fit the need.

 

Could we please break the download tool into:

- Input FTP tool.   This would allow you to download from FTP or SFTP sites, and work in a wizard fashion to get you to the file / files you wanted and take you through FTP authentication

- Input: Web API call.   This would be much easier if there was a wizard where you could put the API you wanted to call, and then you could add the parameters using a wizard

- Input: Web-download:   This would allow you to download frames or pages from the web.   this would be a good place to do what so many users have asked for and which Excel does natively - i.e. allow you to see the site in a wizard in a browser, and pick the elements you want to download.   Must allow for authentication and walk you through this with the wizard.

- Output; FTP put.   AS above - splitting this out makes it more sensible

 

There are probably other variants, and we can keep the Download tool for super-complex or bespoke uses - but if we break this down into smaller tools with simpler capabilities, we'll get a higher usage.

 

Thank you

Sean

Hi there,

 

The download tool currently does not work if the user is behind a corporate proxy setup - and the only way to download web-content is using CURL.

This is a significant impediment because this prevents almost all corporate alteryx users from being able to access this capaibilty

 

Could you please look into using the proxy settings that the workstation uses to access the internet in a corp env?

 

thank you

Sean

Hi there,

 

As we all know - the Alteryx toolbox is along the top of the screen, and it takes up quite a bit of real-estate.

Can we give the users the ability to pop this into a vertical tree on the left hand side like in RapidMiner or Visual Studio?    This will free up screen space, and the search box can then move directly into the top of the tool tree (which lessens mouse movements on every search)

 

 

Alteryx

capture1.PNG

 

RapidMiner

capture2.png

 

Visual Studio 2017

Capture3.PNG

Currently - if someone has accidentally kept an excel file open on their desktop, Alteryx will fail to load this flow.

 

However, it would make more sense to open this file without read-lock as a dirty-read (equivalent of "Read Uncommtted").

This may require some interaction with Microsoft but would be worth pursuing because it prevents / eliminates an entire category of needless canvas errors.

0 Likes

As recommended by HenrietteH at Alteryx to submit as a suggested future enhancement.

 

I have Oracle 11 and Oracle 12 clients on my machine. With Toad, I can toggle between either client's current home, but it appears that is not a feature in Alteryx. So now I am unable to execute ETL jobs off my machine or server because Alteryx gets confused. Currently, the only remedy I can think of is having 11 client uninstalled, which can cause dependency issues if I need it in the future.

Please add an append fields component to the IN-Database components.  And also allow the adding of fields to the in-db formula component.  It seems to be really difficult to add a field into the data stream when using IN-DB components.  Would be good to resolve this and try to make the IN-DB components consistent with the standard ones.

I ❤️ Alteryx but sometimes I miss some of the abilities Tableau has to visualize the data output while designing.

 

When working with data containing many fields, I find myself changing the order of columns, running the workflow, and repeating... over and over until I get the right "look".

 

I know you can right-click and drag in the configuration pane of the select tool but I was thinking that it would be great if we could also do the same in the results pane and see the changes live.

When opening an Excel workbook or Word document, the Microsoft start screen enables users to minimize or cancel opening. These would be convenient features to add to the Alteryx start screen. Because the Alteryx start screen appears in front of everything you have open, I feel the ability to minimize it would add a lot of value. Additionally, the ability to close it would be beneficial for those times when you accidentally click the wrong workflow, for example.

Start Screen Excel.PNG

I decided to get real fancy when building a standard macro the other day. I checked the box on my macro input that made the connection optional:Capture2.PNG

 

shocked-will-smith

 

It worked really well. My macro then became more complex, so I changed it to a batch macro. To my great surpise/astonishment/shock, the optional incoming connection is no longer optional:

Capture.PNG

 

The standard macro is working as expected on the left, but the batch macro is producing an error because my optional connection is requiring that something be connected to it.

what-did-you-just-say

 

I've been told that the code to make it optional is not there for batch macros and that this would be a product feature/improvement.

 

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