Macro path changed from Absolute to External

[Arun_pep]

Hi All,

I'm seeing an issue while publishing into Gallery from Designer. "Absolute Path" of the Macros used in the workflow are changed "_externals\1\<macro_name>".

I made sure, workflow path is absolute. but still gets changed to externals path.

This change only happens to Macros used in the workflow, not to input files.

Server was recently upgraded to 2020.4. we haven't encountered such issues before. Please help!

Regards

Arun

[patrick_digan]

@Arun_pep When you save to the gallery, you'll want to click on workflow options and then manage workflow assets. You'll then want to make sure that the box isn't checked so it doesn't get packaged. 

[Arun_pep]

Thank you Patrick_digan.Yes, I made sure of that as well. Manage workflow asset didn't cause the issue

I tried few things to debug (if it will help to understand)

Approach 1

I just published a dummy new workflow with Macros on it to Gallery. It worked as expected(Absolute path didn't get changed)

Approach 2

Tried to delete the Macro in existing workflow and re-insert it again. still we have the issue(changing from Absolute path to externals path)

[patrick_digan]

@Arun_pep bummer. what version of designer are you using? 2019.3 had a bug awhile back that sounds exactly like what you're describing. I'll look it up and edit this post. And does the same problem happen when you export to yxzp (options >> export workflow). since the yxzp is just a fancy zip, you can just change the yxzp to zip and open the file to see if it's putting the macro in an externals folder.

[patrick_digan]

@Arun_pep Your issue sounds like bug DE23005 and I think it was present in all versions of 2019.3 and fixed in 2019.4. 

and here was my notes at the time. You could turn on the advanced settings for asset management and see if your macro is being auto-detected or not: I have 2019.3 installed and it looks like saving to the gallery/exporting workflows is having an issue with packaging assets. Basically whether it's auto-detected or not overrides your selection when exporting/saving. There is an advanced user setting to display the asset management if you need. If it's auto-detected in the input tool (which happens for local files\network files) then it will always be packaged even if you uncheck it in the export/save dialog. If it's not auto-detected in the input tool (which happens for UNC and relative references) then it will never be packaged even if you uncheck it in the export/save dialog.

[Arun_pep]

Yes Correct. It's putting the Macros inside externals folder when I exported it.

I'm using 2020.4 designer as of now.

It was upgraded recently like a month back. Existing workflow was originally created in 2019.4.

now making changes to it with 2020.4

we never saw such issues with 2019.4

[patrick_digan]

@Arun_pep huh well I'm quite puzzled. I'll just include some screen shots here but what seemingly is working on my side isn't on yours for some reason. 

When I export the workflow, I uncheck the box for my macro:

Then when I open the yxzp with 7zip, I can confirm that my macros isn't being packaged:

[Arun_pep]

It's true that macros aren't being packaged when I did export for test workflow I created.

but it does gets packaged for an existing workflow after making some changes.

At this point, I don't know if it's happens to all the workflows. I will reach out to broader team and research further. Thank you for your responses and valuable information. it has been very helpful

I will post back once I find the reason for this behavior.

Regards

Arun

[Arun_pep · Accepted solution]

We have found a way to resolve the issue. Please follow the below steps

Step 1: check highlighted property in Options->User Settings->Edit User Settings as below

Step 2: Manage the assets of Macro tool. New tab will be available in configuration now. Un-check all the rows. By doing this, Alteryx won’t package these Macros while deploying to Gallery/Export it

All the Macros that have similar issues can be configured this way to avoid the issue

After doing Step 1 and 2. We are good to deploy the workflow to Gallery/Export as usual

Additional Notes

So is it a bug in latest version

Yes and No (just my perspective). The override steps does work fine when we tried creating sample workflow in 2020.4. but it appears, it doesn’t work well when the workflow was initially built in previous version(don’t know if it’s specific to any version). May be, the workflows that were built in this 2019.3 are having issues(just an assumption)

Regards

Arun