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SOLVED

Output a file and then use that output as an input in the same workflow

afontaine
7 - Meteor

I am creating this workflow and I have an excel document as an input. After the process I output that into another excel document in sheet 1. The excel document is linked so once that gets inputted it populates sheet 3. I then want to use that sheet 3 as an input for another process within the same workflow. I hope that makes sense I included a diagram to illustrate this. I cant pull sheet 3 right away because I would have to wait for sheet 3 to get populated with the new data coming in. 

8 REPLIES 8
ddiesel
13 - Pulsar
13 - Pulsar

Hi @afontaine

 

Have you tried using the Block Until Done tool? That's my go-to tool for this type of situation. You can also try the Paralel Block Until Done tool, depending on your use case.

 

Capture.PNG

 

Tool Mastery | Block Until Done

 

 

 

 

afontaine
7 - Meteor

Block until Done was the first thing I thought of but I am not super familiar with using it. I looked at the mastery page and am still having some trouble configuring it the way I described above.

BenMoss
ACE Emeritus
ACE Emeritus
Why do you need to output data and then input it again? Why can't you just use a separate stream from before your output and work from this, the data would be the same? Unless it's in append mode on the excel output?
BenMoss
ACE Emeritus
ACE Emeritus
Oh I see, sheet 3 runs generates data from sheet 1 which you are writing; personally I would push the excel transformations into Alteryx, I would never advise dipping in and out of different tools!

Ben
afontaine
7 - Meteor

Well I am outputting the data to sheet 1 and want to input sheet 3 after sheet 3 gets updated with the new sheet 1 values. Sheet 3 is a summary page that pulls in data from a number of sources that are not currently in Alteryx.

ddiesel
13 - Pulsar
13 - Pulsar

I get it now.

 

Without bringing everything into Alteryx, you definetly need the Crew Macro Parallel Block Until Done.

 

 

ParallelBlockUntilDone.png

 

 

This tool will allow you to run your process for sheet 1 through the top anchors. Once all that is done (including the write to sheet 1) you can input your data from sheet 3 and thread your process through the bottom anchors. 

afontaine
7 - Meteor

This looks promising thank you!

Prateek_Gupta25
7 - Meteor

Thanks for sharing the solution but in my case this is not working. 

I have a similar case as explained here, but when I pass the input file to the second link, it reads the original file with any output change from the first link. 

 

Please guide. I tried many solutions but no luck yet !!

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