Cannot save or use any functions in Designer

[clarab]

Issue

Saving or running the workflow in the Designer causes the following error to occur:

An Unhandled Exception occurred.
A previous action may not have completed successfully.
Click OK to send the development team the error log so that we can fix this error in a subsequent release.

Environment

• Alteryx Designer

Diagnosis 

Checking the logs from %PROGAMFILES%\Alteryx\ErrorLogs\AlteryxGUI shows the following error:

Alteryx Designer x64 - 2019.2.5.62427
Type: System.ArgumentException
Message: Cannot have ']]>' inside an XML CDATA block.
Source: System.Xml
OS Version: Microsoft Windows NT 6.2.9200.0
OS Is x64 Capable: True
Selected Plugin: LockInGui.LockInSelect.LockInSelect
Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2676 v3 @ 2.40GHz
Private Memory: 380923904
--------------------------------------------
at System.Xml.XmlTextWriter.WriteCData(String text)
at System.Xml.XmlElement.WriteElementTo(XmlWriter writer, XmlElement e)
at System.Xml.XmlElement.WriteContentTo(XmlWriter w)

Cause

The use of "]]>" in the following tools (not an exhaustive list) causes the error:

• Formula tool
• Filter tool
• Report text tool
• R tool
• Python tool

Solution

Avoid using "]]>" in the tool or escape the ">" to ">".