Alteryx Designer Desktop Knowledge Base

This is the third article in the series of renaming, moving, and deleting files using a batch file. This workflow will create a .bat file which you can use in other workflows that use the files you specify in this workflow to delete files.   WARNING: Please be careful using this command as it will do what it says it will do. Test thoroughly before adding to production.   Deleting Files   Creating the Batch file workflows: Tools needed: (1)Directory Input, (2)Select, (3)Formula, (4)Summarize, (5)Output Tools.   Directory Tool (1) – Browse to the file or files you are looking to change   Select Tool (2) – Fields you will need are Fullpath, Directory, and File Name   Formula Tool (3) – Output Fields Created: Command and Batch File. Create a new field, Command (String) – This is the field you want to build your command. Expression: 'DEL '+ '"'+[FullPath]+ '"'+ ' ' + + '"'+[FileName]+ '"' Sample Output - DEL "C:\Users\dmenke\Documents\Sample Data\Command Line Test\$200.xlsx" "$200.xlsx" Create a new field, Batch File (String) – You will take the Directory field from the Directory Input and add a name of what you want the Batch File to be. Expression: [Directory]+’Delete_files.bat' Sample Output - C:\Users\JDoe\Documents\Sample Data\Command Line Test\rename_files.bat Summarize Tool – Select the Command field and the action will be to concatenate using a separator as \n. Select the Batch file and the action will be First. You can rename the Output fields if you choose as it will change the fields to Concat_Command and First Batch File.   Output Tool (5) – Browse to save file as any name you want (you will be replacing this name). You will want to use the Save as type: (.csv) and add .bat to end of the name. We want to transform that txt file to a bat file. In the Delimiters Row in the Options section add \0 as the delimiter. Select Take/Table Name From Field and choose Change Entire File Path. Select the First_Batch file (or name you called the field) in the Field Containing File Name or Part of File Name and unselect Keep Field in Output.     Adding Batch File to Your Workflow: The last step is to add this batch file to the Events tab in a Workflow that you want to move the file or files you have chosen in the .bat file in the Configuration window. Select Add > Run Command> Run Event When> After Run> Command: Browse to the bat file and click Ok.   See attached Sample Workflow.  

Inputting Data in Chinese, Japanese and Korean Characters

Did you know that instead of having to choose a save location in the Output Tool, you could leverage the directory that is used to save your temporary files?

When bringing data into Alteryx a lot of users often add a select tool to check the data type and structure. Data types are very important because of the available operations/functions in tools can be adjusted to fit the data type being used!

How to create a help file/link for your custom Applications and/or Macros

The important thing to know is that when you least expect it, this file can become a lifesaver if something happens to your original workflow, so please don't delete them!

You have gone through the hard work of creating your macro and now want to make it easy to insert this into your workflow time and time again. You may have, up until this point, been right clicking on the Alteryx Canvas and going to Insert>>>Macro.    However, you can now create your own macro category by going to Options>>User Settings>>Edit User Settings     Within this splash screen you should now be able to see a macros tab:     At this point you can hit the '+' icon and you can give a name to your category and select the file folder where you save your macros in.    Then simply press Apply and OK and the new tool category will appear at the end of your tool palette.    Best, Jordan Barker Solutions Consultant

In some cases Designer is very slow when working from home. This can have several root causes.

Error connecting to Office 365 using the Sharepoint Input tool - "The sign-in name or password does not match in the Microsoft Account system", when the user tries to connect to Sharepoint from the Alteryx Designer

Quick Connect: Internal-Error-Unable-to-add-new-Alias-to-the-Alias-Manager

The error message appears when using System Settings in Alteryx Designer.

If you are unlucky while rendering a map in Alteryx with a Carto base map, you may encounter the error message Error: AGG error loading font (C:\WINDOWS\fonts\C:\Program). This article explains the cause of this error, and how to resolve it. 

How to add your username into the results of your workflow

This error occurs when importing a Gallery Data Connection, but there is an issue with the Gallery Data Connection.

There is a comprehensive list of Data Sources Alteryx Designer / Server can connect to. While only these are supported you still might be able to build your own connector. Additionally a product feature can be requested.

Full details on the addins can be found on my blog; the addins can be download from GitHub. Hopefully it will make creating some formulas easier!

Performance tuning is an art.  Start sketching today!

So you've installed the licenses to run Scheduler. Now what?

If you observe an error message like Error: Salesforce Input (1) File " ", line 1 os.environ['PATH'] = r"... please read on to learn how to adjust the environment variables to resolve it. This can happen with any one of several Connector tools, not just the tool mentioned in the example.

An "Unhandled Exception" thrown when starting Designer, appears when the user clicks on the splash screen. Looking at C:\ProgramData\Alteryx\ErrorLogs reveals the following error type: System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException Message: Could not find a part of the path 'F:\.....'

This article contains a list of common causes for being unable to run a workflow on a Gallery and solutions for each cause.