Community Spring Cleaning week is here! Join your fellow Maveryx in digging through your old posts and marking comments on them as solved. Learn more here!

Alteryx Server Discussions

Find answers, ask questions, and share expertise about Alteryx Server.
SOLVED

Local output of a scheduled workflow

Federica_FF
11 - Bolide

Hello everybody,

 

I have a simple workflow/app that gets data from an API service and creates a .csv file locally, on the desktop of the server machine.

 

Since when I've published it on the gallery and shared with my collegues, I can't output the .csv on the desktop, I can only download the .csv from the Gallery/Workflow result window.

 

Is there any way to save locally the ouptut from an app/workflow published and used from the gallery/web browser?

 

I've notice from the logs that the .csv file is actually in the "external file" folder of the packaged workbook...(staging folders) but I need it to be saved in a specific folder on the server machine.

 

Thanks,

12 REPLIES 12
MarqueeCrew
20 - Arcturus
20 - Arcturus

You can push the output to a network drive.  You can modify the output tool to a specified file.  Does that work for you?

Alteryx ACE & Top Community Contributor

Chaos reigns within. Repent, reflect and restart. Order shall return.
Please Subscribe to my youTube channel.
Federica_FF
11 - Bolide

Sorry, I'm an idiot!

 

Don't know why publishing the app, Alteryx changed all the output to the "external" folders, even if I initially set the Desktop as output folder of the Render tool.

 

I'll try to change all the path and I'll let you know if it works!

Federica_FF
11 - Bolide

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I can't change the output path.

 

Before I publish the workflow, the output tool saves on the desktop:

Prima.png

 

If I publish the workflow on my Gallery, the path changes by itself:

dopo.png

 

If I try to open the workflow directly from the gallery (File --> Open --> My Gallery) I can see that the path in the Output tool is changed. I also tried to edit the Workflow Dependancies option, but as soon as I publish, the path change again.

 

Can someone tell me what am I doing wrong?

patrick_digan
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

@Federica_FF It looks like it's getting packaged when you publish. When you go to publish:

 

 

 

Capture.PNG

 

 

Click on Manage Workflow assets. Then uncheck any assets that you don't want packaged and changed to the externals folder.

 

Capture2.PNG

By default, this output was checked and would have been changed to the externals folder.

 

Federica_FF
11 - Bolide

Okay, that solved my problem.

 

Thanks!

MichaelPilz
6 - Meteoroid

Hello. I've been having exactly the same problem, and finally found this thread. I was very excited when I saw the solution,....until it didn't work for me.

 

I must be doing something wrong!!!

 

Im running a very simple test workflow that opens an excel file stored locally on my desktop (for now) and then stores the output into the same folder. I've unchecked both the input and the output file in the 'manage workflow assets' as suggested...

Mange Workflow.PNG

but then when I go to save I get the below error

Saving Workflow Error.PNGAn

Any suggestions would be so welcome because if I can get this to work, then I have some workflows that chain together to make my life, and that of some of my staff, so much simpler!

Thanks in advance...

Cheers Michael

mszpot89
9 - Comet

I did the same (unchecked output) but same issue appears.

 

 

image.png

fharper
12 - Quasar

Consider the reason for Alteryx Server's default behavior.  When you publish it packages up everything and in most cases local drives are not accessible, especially if a username is part of the path, notice in these examples the file is under a folder structure "C\Users\*".  It assumes those are not shared locations and thus not valid for published flows and converts them to internal or external folder locations in the packaging...makes sense right?

 

I NEVER save anything to desktop, at least not for operational use.  It is bad practice generally because "desktop" is a folder under your username...when you publish it the flow has to run on a server, often under a under a service account id, or at least some other ID, and thus will not have access to local drives on personal machines, at least in any normal config.

 

Develop the habit of using folder structures on a NAS or SAN or folder structure replicated on each system so it looks accessible.

 

This will get you past this issue in most cases and you can address straggler issues through the packaging/publish function

 

davidhenington
10 - Fireball

This is totally helpful...why is this mistake so easy to make?