Chained App in Gallery not pulling updated data from yxdb files

[michalikm]

Good afternoon!

I have a chained application that is made up of four separate .yxwz files.

• The first app gives the user the option of uploading a file. If they choose to do so, the app appends that data to a .yxdb file located on a local server, and overwrites that .yxdb file to be used in the final chained app (Output1.yxdb). If they do not upload a file, it just passes through Output1.ysdb to be used in the final step.
• The second app queries other database information, and outputs six .yxdb files to a location on our server, to be pulled by the final chained app (Output2.yxdb, Output3.yxdb, Output4.yxdb, Output5.yxdb, Output6.yxdb, and Output7.yxdb). It also outputs 3 other .yxdb files to our server to be used in the following chained app (SubOutput1.yxdb, SubOutput2.yxdb, and SubOutput3.yxdb).
• App three uses the three SubOutput.yxdb files from app two, to create a final .yxdb file on our server to be used in the final application (Output8.yxdb)
• The final app compiles Outputs 1 - 8.yxdb and outputs an excel file for the user.

Once the package is replaced in the Alteryx Gallery, apps 1-3 appear to correctly be updating all of the .yxdb files on our server. The issue we are having is that the final app appears to not be pulling in the versions of each Output.yxdb that are being updated on the server, but instead are pulling a "moment-in-time" version of each .yxdb file as it exists when the package is saved to the gallery.

I have confirmed that each of the three chained apps are checked as assets (as well as two additional .xlsx files that are "templates" used in the workflow (shown below), and that they are showing full server file paths instead of relative paths.

I've also confirmed that each of the Output.yxdb files that being used as inputs in the final application are showing the correct server file path in the asset list of the final chained app (shown below).

I've tried to look around the community for other similar issues to help me troubleshoot, but can't find anything that seems relevant. Any thoughts or input would be very much appreciated!

[KGT]

This sounds like a tempfile issue, where App4 is looking at temp files (maybe input assets selected on load or something). It definitely seems like something is different and it'll be a simple(-ish) config change.

Take a look at App3/App4 and put some logging on there. App3 is reading files from App2 and is outputting files used by App4. Is that actually working correctly, or is that having the same issue, just that you can't see it yet?

I would add some tools to App3/App4 that write to a local text file or something so I can see for sure what files are being hit and where.

[michalikm]

Thank you @KGT for the reply. I am thinking the issue is related to what you're suggesting, but I'm not entirely sure how to troubleshoot. For each of .yxdb outputs that were being used as inputs in subsequent apps in the chain, I was using full file paths for both input and output tools (ex. //sample_server/sample_folder/Output1.yxdb) since these databases need to both be used as a source, but also need to be updated each time the app is ran. My thought was that because it appears that the app is pulling cached data instead of data that is refreshed each time the app is ran, I should create two outputs, the existing outputs with the full file path, and a separate output with just the file name (ex. Output1.yxdb), that can be referenced via input tool in the subsequent apps (.\Output1.yxdb). 

I attempted to do this, and uploaded to the gallery to test, and I'm now getting the "Problem Loading App - The App interface failed to load" error message. I've confirmed that the issue is with the final app in the chain, as I can upload the first 3 apps as a package successfully without issue.
As far as including a .txt log file that can be output when running the app in gallery, I'm not sure how to do that. Could you provide me an example of how that works.
I apologize again, My experience with some of these more complex Alteryx applications is very limited. Thank you again for your assistance!