Cannot connect to a Gallery Data Connection through Designer

[prasannaraut]

I created a snowflake data connection in the gallery and shared it with a user. He is not able to connect to it in his Alteryx designer and get the following error. The user has the same Simba driver that the Server uses on his computer.

[patrick_digan]

@prasannaraut Can you share the format of the data connection string? Obviously don't include usernames/passwords/keys etc. For example, something like: odbc:DSN=DSNName;User=UserName;Password=Password;DBQ=ABC

Looking at the error, I'm guessing your connection includes a DSN that the user doesn't have on their machine. You would presumably need to setup a 64-bit connection with the same name as is specified in the data connection. You can go to start >> ODBC and the 64 bit ODBC connections should be an option to click on. They can then add a User DSN. Other than the driver, they would need the relevant info to connect (generally a server, user name, password etc). 

[prasannaraut]

This is the connection string - odbc:DSN=Snowflake;UID=UserID;PWD=__EncPwd1__

From your reply - does it mean that the user has to get his own snowflake access and then set-up the ODBC connection on his computer with User DSN = Snowflake? I thought creating Data Connections on the Gallery made it easier to share with users access to the relevant databases.

[patrick_digan · Accepted solution]

@prasannaraut perfect! For that to work on their computer, they would have to setup that DSN named Snowflake on their machine (in their 64 bit ODBC connections for windows). 

From the alteryx perspective, giving them access to that data connection is giving them access to that userID and Password. So they don't need their own account if sharing is ok. 

As for making it easier to share, DSN-less connections are the way to go. You have to specify the driver and any other info that would normally be included in the DSN. For example, something like this:

odbc:Driver={Simba Snowflake ODBC Driver};pwd=YourPassword;server=account_identifier.snowflakecomputing.com;uid=YourUserID;

You'll obviously need to get the right driver name and put in your info.  This page shows all the additional connection params that you can use in addition to the ones I've already included.

[prasannaraut]

@patrick_digan Thanks! The DSN-less connections worked out and were also very easy to share. They seem to be slower as compared to DSN connections that the developers were using but they work without errors.