Alteryx File Browse Tool Altyerx Gallery Dynamic Input

Question

I am using the file browse tool in an Alteryx App. This file browse tool provides the directory and the complete file name to my directory tool. For my app, the file which user need to select is a multiple sheets excel file where different sheets is passed through the dynamic input file. Hence, I am using the File Browse tool to pass ONLY the PATH and the FILE name to my dynamic inputs.

This was working fine in my PC but not in Alteryx Gallery. In the Alteryx Gallery the file browse tool is asking the details of the sheet which needs to be uploaded. I don’t want the user to select the sheet as it is not one sheet but multiple sheets.

The alternative which I find is the text input tool in my app, but it will not be easy for the user to put the full path as the text.

Any help on this would be much appreciated.

Yogesh · Answer

So can we conclude that this function I currently not available.

Best Regards
Yogesh Agarwal

BenMoss · Answer

The reason you get asked to specify a specific sheet when using the filebrowse in the Alteryx Gallery is because the appropriate data is loaded to the server as a temp file (not exactly this but essentially this) to then perform the appropriate transformation off of.

Why does it do this? Well because Alteryx Server cannot communicate and read files in the same way there local machine can. Therefor you can't simply take a file name, file directory and hit run, because alteryx server will not have the ability to read from that location. For the same reason, a 'text input' to specify this will not work either.

An alternative would be to have multiple file browse tools but not sure this will be the most ideal solution.

A similar issue is captured here: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Server-Discussions/File-Browse-Tool-Behaves-Differently-when-run-on-Gallery-vs/td-p/70944

Ben