Alteryx Designer Desktop Knowledge Base
Definitive answers from Designer Desktop experts.Export Workflows with Attachments (Assets)
Question
How can I share my workflows if my recipients don’t have the same files they reference? Sending them all over separately and reconfiguring inputs separately seems like a lot of work. Halp!
Answer
You’re right, that does sound like a lot of work. Luckily, we have an export feature to help with this exact scenario:
Navigating in your Designer to Options >> Export Workflow will open a menu where you can include assets that are referenced in your workflow and export them into a single .yxzp file to be shared. Feel free to select whichever files you’d like to include – if a file is missing, try attaching an additional asset/file to the tool it’s associated with. At that point it should appear in your export options:
Note: If your workflow uses a database connection, your recipient will need to either 1) have a DSN set up (system preferred) for the connection string used or 2) use the same alias to establish a connection in their environment.
After you select the files to be included, select “Browse” to specify the location and name of the export:
You should be all set! Share this export with your files included.
To open an exported workflow, simply File >> Open Workflow >> Browse in Alteryx or double click the green .yxzp file like any other Alteryx file type:
You should then see a prompt stating that the file is an Alteryx Package; just hit “Yes” to begin the import:
You’ll then be given the option to change the directory that the export is extracted to; below that option you will see the exported files listed with their locations relative to the destination directory:
Select “Import” to proceed:
Once the export has successfully extracted, you will be given a notification that the import process has completed. Select “Yes” and your exported workflow should already be loaded and ready to run!
Hi @MattD ,
Thanks for your explanation. I have been using this export workflow for long but now I have a new ask from the user of my workflow. Instead of having _externals\ and 1\ , 2\ , 3\ folders, can we name them differently?
Hi @hannahobanner - your question is many months old at this point but maybe you're still looking for the answer.
"If I package my input files, will this affect my original files at all?" - No. This will make a copy of your files and include them with the package. Think of it as creating a Zip file with everything needed to run a workflow.
@aeulusan your question is many months older than Hannah's but I think I have an answer you are looking for.
Yes, you can rename the folders that are included in your packages. You just have to be strategic about the placement of your assets relative to your workflow. If you nest your assets in the same folder as the workflow, they can be packaged/unpackaged to those relative locations. I'm not able to attach a .yxzp on this post but PM me and I can send you the example workflow/package that I have cooked up. See the screenshots below for how I have the folder structure set up. My original workflow was saved to the .\Community stuff\package_example sub-folder.
In the screenshot above, I have 5 files being written to or from 5 folders. I then package my workflow like normal but since I'm working inside the same folder that the workflow "lives" in, Alteryx is going to keep the folder structure that you have instead of creating the "external" structure. The only reason Alteryx creates the external structure is because it needs to make a relative place for these assets to live.
The screenshot above is the import screen of my package that I have created. I did not modify anything when I exported to workflow but did rename my .yxzp to Openexample
The final screenshot (below) is a picture of the folder structure that is created after unpackaging this .yxzp.
Thanks, let me know if this helps!
