Alteryx Designer Desktop Ideas

It would be great if it was possible to output the top most influential features in producing the score for each individual entity/row when using the predictive and machine learning tools.

 

Similar to the way they work in DataRobot. Details here and here.

 

This would enable some simple interpretation of how a model came to an individual prediction and the most important features in that particular row/case.

I'd love to see a Haskell Tool similar to the already existing Python and R-Tool.

 

Haskell is a great way to handle data without side-effects. I know I am probably pretty much alone with this suggestion, but I wanted to share it anyway.

 

I also know Python can do basically everything Haskell can do, but it isn't as beautiful and effective as it is in Haskell. Haskell brings many logic operators and great syntactic "sugar" out of the box. Things like pattern matching with input parameters is just amazing in Haskell and would require way more code in Python.

 

 

Under the join ribbon, could there be a new tool added called Minus?

 

This would behave similar to how SQL Minus works.  I think this tool could closely resemble the setup found in the union tool and provide the following functions:

 

• Ability to manually configure fields
• Automatically configure by name
• Automatically configure by position
• Ability to (de-select extraneous columns)
• Option to either include ALL rows, or just the distinct (similar to the minus and minus all behavior in SQL)

When doing validations in a workflow, this would provide a useful dq measure to use as a sanity check to ensure that for example loan numbers haven't been dropped from one point of the workflow to the next.

We should have a simple mathematical functions under Formula Tool - Math functions to calculate specific Percentile data point. Or it can be a separate tool to derive various other statistical information.

 

The Python equivalent is Numpy.Percentile() OR quantile().

 

I have explored Alteryx app, help documentation and community posts without success.

I see a huge potential for an IFTTT or Microsoft Flow Connector or Trigger.

 

Trigger: I have been part of a company that runs a great amount of Microsoft Flows to automate business processes. It would have been a nice addition, if we could start a Alteryx process when a certain event happens.

 

Output: On the other side, it would also be good to start a flow automatically when an Alteryx workflow is finished. E.g. it would be possible to create an analysis and automatically push it to several media / internal channels. It's also possible to bring twitter/facebook/etc output connectors to Alteryx, but it's definitely easier to build an IFTTT connector, that enable a huge amount of other tools.

 

 

I suggest that it would be beneficial to add in a column filter that can automatically remove columns based on a condition, such as removing columns where all values are NULL or if they contain something in the values.

 

Should have a True and False output, like the normal Filter tool, so you can check what is being removed.

 

e.g. Would help with when you get poorly formatted excel sheets that add in hundreds of redundant columns, or if your workflow has generated NULL columns that should be removed, without having to Transpose, Filter, Cross tab etc to clear them out.

 

Thanks,

 

Doug

It will be great if we have a round down or round up function just like excel in Alteryx. I know we can use the left function after converting the number to string, but it becomes difficult when the decimal value is huge.

A very simple idea, the same principle as the existing filter but there is only one output (true) and there is an on / off button. This could gives users the opportunity to put in a "what-if" gateway into their workflow. 

 

For example, your stakeholder has asked you to use 'all the data'. Whilst building the workflow, you notice that excluding 2016 data gives you a more accurate / representative end result. However, it is not necessarily your decision to exclude the 2016 data. You put in the Valve Filter tool:

 

Valve Filter On = Excludes the 2016 data.

Valve Filter Off = Allows all data to go through.

 

You are able to turn the filter on and off, run the workflow and see / demo different end results (instead of using a traditional filter and creating a separate workflow or a duplicated arm of a workflow).

 

Until your workflow is complete, you do not always know the full impact of the parameters / decisions you make along the way. The Valve Filter could give users more flexibility.

Alteryx does not currently have to email tool that is configurable to use SMTP Authentication for Microsoft Office 365 or any server requiring authentication.  Our office printer can authenticate over SMTP and with TLS enabled why not my Alteryx mail tool - 'mic drop!'. 

 

Further explained, Alteryx is a tool that needs to live within abide by the policies and security standards in the organization not vice versa.  Therefore, it shouldn't be a big surprise, or a big ask for that matter, that a mail client should have the ability to authenticate prior to sending email of SMTP.   I'm very surprised this tool is so arcane.  Please implement quickly.  Thank you

Disabled Containers throw errors if it contains any interface tools. It should not throw any error as the user is intentionally disabling the container.  

 

I have a workflow that accepts 4 different sets of inputs.

 

It also has four different outputs.  However, I can easily output to separate files in four containers and just close the containers that don't pertain to the input.

 

On the input side, I keep having to delete the connections and connect the desired input.

 

I would like to connect multiple files to one tool and have the tool only work if only one of the inputs it's live.  Through the use of containers you would then choose which input was live.

 

Hi Team,

 

The data set has 2 columns with missing data, 

 

Amount

Age

 

If the user wants to impute the

missing values in Amount column with '$0"  and

missing values in Age column with "mode",

it would be nice to have a single imputation tool to perform this. 

 

Please let me know your thoughts. 

Thanks

 

 

From discussions the new distribute auto spaces when distributing. Any chance we can get a spacing setting in the user settings. Settings would be like we do our grid spacing except we would separate the horizontal and vertical spacing(set number of pixels for horizontal/vertical). This would allow people to have a different vertical spacing compared to their horizontal spacing. Particularly helpful for heavy formula usage. Thanks.
Also take into account ability for it to stay snapped to grid. Example I use a 72 px grid size for ease of lineups. With the new distribute it pulls between those grid snaps

There's often a need to do a cascade of filters which would normally be handled in a programming language by a Case or a Switch statement.

For example:

- if it's a cat then go left, otherwise go right 

      - if it's a dog then go left otherwise carry on right

             if it's a fish then go left otherwise carry on right

                   otherwise do xxxx

 

This could be handled more elegantly by a conditional split tool that allowed you to specify multiple conditions like a case statement, and which then generated multiple output nodes; with the last one for any leftovers.

 

 

I think this is fairly self-explanatory and is a very common use case.

 

Would like to have a tool that can natively support DateTimeAdd functionality where you can define working days of the week for inclusion and holidays for exclusion.

Must be able to handle both adding and subtracting.

Problem.

My Workflow poll incoming data directory for new files. When there are no files, I want Workflow processing to be stop without any error.

 

1. Workflow has an email event - send email on error. This is to notify owner that workflow has failed.

2. If I fail workflow on my given condition using Message Tool - error and stop further processing, then event in step 1 triggers and send email which is undesirable.

 

I want event in step 1 triggers on workflow errors excluding user initiated error as in step 2.

 

Proposal:

1. Can have a tool or config for controlling Events dynamically? Say, on a given condition I want to disable a Workflow Event?

2. Message Tool : Can have another Message Type options like:

          - Stop Workflow Processing without Error

          - Stop Workflow Processing with Warning

 

In a short workflow, this might not be necessary as the information related to each tool is spelled out in the progress windows.  However, in a complicated and lengthy workflow, tracing such msg can be a tedious task. In addition, using a tool with multiple outputs and only one output is selected while the residual outputs may be used to validate the result in the selected output; for example, joint tool where left or right output should be zero, a visual queue could be a quick way to alert operator on any potential problem.  Certainly, a browse tool can be added but in a big workflow, couple with a large data set, it might be a drain to the system resource. What if there is a tool that would activate a visual alert, like a light bulb, based on a preset condition to tell user that something is wrong and perhaps additional work needs to be done to either remedy or to account for the residual data. As in the case of a joint where 100% match is desired, any unmatched row would require an update to the reference list which maybe an additional adhoc process outside the current process. Certainly, an additional steps can be added to first explore the possibility of unmatched data and to update the reference list accordingly.  The workflow would in hold until 100% match is achieve. This would require additional system resource in order to hold; especially with large set of data and lengthy workflow.  If the unmatched situation rarely occurs, just a lightweight visual queue that 'pop' while allow the process either to break or to go through might be a sensible solution.  Just a thought.

When I use the Comment Tool its difficult to select the tools inside it, but when I use the Container Tool the Container Text doesn't support Font Sizes, and doesn't support multiple lines of text so I end up moving the Comment into the Container, but still have problems selecting a group of tools.

 

So a combined Comment and Container Tools would be wonderful!

 

Bonus: If the Comment Tool could support Multiple Font Sizes.

 

As more vendors start selling directly to Amazon, the need to use Amazon Retail Analytics specific to your products is increasing. Currently, the only way to do this is manually downloading data from the Amazon Vendor Central platform every week to make sure data is saved and then further prepared in excel or Alteryx. The Download Tool does not work in this situation because of the various login credentials and page navigation that is associated with the platform. It would be great if there was a Connector Tool that integrated the Amazon Retail Analytics data from Vendor Central directly into Alteryx.