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Alteryx App output in Alteryx Gallery

ignas
8 - Asteroid

Here there,

 

I have a very simple App:

Capture.PNG

1. Input file from company

2. Output file is attached as Workflow asset while saving to the gallery. Output file should contain output sheet and template1 sheet.

 

Then I run App on Desktop I get output plus template1 sheet, but then I run on Alteryx Gallery I only get output sheet and template1 sheet is missing.

 

Does anybody know why I loose template1 sheet? And how to fix this issue?

 

The file is attached.

 

Thanks a lot for any help.


Regards,

 

Ignas

 

 

 

 

9 REPLIES 9
GiuseppeC
Alteryx
Alteryx

Hi @ignas,

 

I had a look at your Output tool configuration and it looks like you have it configured to only output Sheet1.

 

The reason why you find the template1 sheet in your local file when you run the workflow, is probably due to the fact that it was already there in the file (it's not actually the workflow to produce it). The option 3. Output Options in your Output tools set to Overwrite Sheet (Drop) makes this transparent to you.

 

Try if this article on how to write to multiple Excel sheets helps you:

 

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Knowledge-Base/Output-to-multiple-sheets-within-an-Excel-fi...

 

Hope this helps!

Giuseppe

ignas
8 - Asteroid

Hello @GiuseppeC 

 

Thanks a lot for trying to help me, but it is not what I need :(
Yes, I know that I produce only Sheet1, but template1 sheet needs to be all the time the same included in the output. Template1 sheet is not included in any workflow. 

 

Let me please know if I am still unclear of what I need.

Simply Output file needs to have two sheets:

* Sheet1

* template1

 

Thanks

 

Regards,

 

Ignas

GiuseppeC
Alteryx
Alteryx

Hi @ignas,

 

sure, it makes sense now. Sorry for the misunderstanding!

 

The issue may have something to do with how you package the workflow when you save it on the Server/Gallery. Have a look at this article on packaging assets when using Gallery.

 

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Server-Knowledge-Base/Assets-and-Packaging-Workflows/ta-p/4...

 

The idea is that you can package your output (containing the template1 sheet already) together with the workflow, so that every time you run it, only Sheet1 gets replaced by the workflow, while Template1 sheett is already there.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Giuseppe

ignas
8 - Asteroid

Hello @GiuseppeC

 

Yes, I added the output file as an asset, but it did not work. Tempalate1 sheet was missing. Would you be able to test in your Gallery and tell me if it works?


Regards,

 

Ignas

GiuseppeC
Alteryx
Alteryx

Hi @ignas,

 

I managed to replicate your issue and, thanks to @MichalM, I now understand why Gallery behaves this way.

 

Although you packaged your output file with the workflow as an asset, every time that you run the app on Gallery, a new folder on Server is created containing temprorary files needed to execute the workflow. With the current configuration of the Output tool, a new Test_Output_2.xlsx file is created in that folder, hence it cannot contain the template1 sheet.

 

In order to get what you want, I can recommend 2 options, depending on your use case:

1) set up the Output tool to write to an absolute location (can be a shared folder on the Server or anywhere else on your network). Check workflow dependencies (Options -> Advanced Options -> Workflow Dependencies) to make sure you have an absolute reference there on the output.

2) have the template1 sheet as an extra input in your workflow and append it to the output

 

Option 1 could be potentially more straightforward, but if you have multiple users to run the app at the same time, you run the risk of writing twice to the same file and, potentially, getting errors.

Option 2 is a safer from this point of you, it may cost you a little bit on the automation side of things, depending on how 'dynamic' your template1 sheet is.

 

Hope this, finally, makes sense now!

 

Please, let me know how it goes.

 

Cheers,

Giuseppe

 

 

 

ignas
8 - Asteroid

Hey @GiuseppeC

 

Thank you again for both of the solutions, but I have had both of them in mind and unfortunately none of them are applicable in my case, because:

 

1. Template1 sheet contains functions and macros that refer to output sheet. It is not possible to output from Alteryx functions and VBA macros as far as I know.

2. It is not possible because there are over 1000 users.

 

Regards,

 

Ignas

 

 

patrick_digan
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

@ignas For what it's worth, I think this idea I have explains what is going on: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Ideas/Include-output-assets-when-packaging-saving-.... tldr; when you package your output, it doesn't actually package/send the template file to the server. @jarrod  and I provided good workarounds in this post: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Server-Discussions/Outputting-from-gallery-to-Excel/m-p/255... where you essentially need to add your template output as an user added asset to your output tool. I mistakenly thought in that post that you had to add it as an input tool. My testing seemed to show adding a user defined asset pointing to your excel file did the trick.

 

You can see if the server contains your file by downloading it from your private gallery and opening the yxzp in Alteryx. If it has your template file, it will display that when you open the yxzp in Alteryx.

 

GiuseppeC
Alteryx
Alteryx

@patrick_digan nice workaround here, you beat me on time while I was getting to it! Thanks for jumpinig on this.

 

@ignas, hopefully the attachment clarifies everything.

 

 

ignas
8 - Asteroid

Hello @GiuseppeC  and @patrick_digan 

You are both amazing. I could never figure it out.

 

Cheers

 

Ignas