Ability to reference a gallery workflow from within another gallery workflow

[mix_pix]

We have several workflows that call other workflows (i.e. via the Conditional Runner macro) but are running into some versioning challenges since we moved to storing all of our workflows in our gallery.  When I publish a workflow that references another workflow, I can bundle it up with the workflow when I save it, but then Alteryx places that workflow into the /externals directory, which is obvioulsy not the same as the workflow that we've saved to our gallery.  An example:

I have two workflows in our gallery...one that generates a TDE and one that calls that one if certain file availability and time conditions are met.  The "master" version of each is in the gallery, which is what we want...

...but when I load or save the Sales Analytics workflow in Designer, I have to bundle the TDE workflow with the main workflow in order for it to run from Gallery.  But now I've created a disconnected version of the TDE workflow and if I forget to update it when I update the version in the Gallery, I'll be running the wrong version.  I know I could store these workflows in a network directory, but that seems to defeat the purpose of the Gallery.

If I'm not missing something insanely obvious, I think this would be a very important feature enhancement, namely the ability to pull in a Gallery workflow into another workflow.

[patrick_mcauliffe]

If I'm understanding the use case correctly, then it sounds like what we started doing just a few days ago.  In which case, you don't actually have to bundle the second workflow.  Maintain your workflows on a network drive that your server uses and make sure that all of your workflows only use the UNC path.

Edit: You could also use the Gallery API.

[mix_pix]

But doesn't storing the workflows on a network drive negate the benefits of using the Gallery?  We were using a shared network drive prior to installing the Gallery, and could go back to that, but we were hoping to use the Gallery as our collaborative hub for workflows.

[patrick_mcauliffe]

I see your point. 
Sounds like the Gallery API is the best route for you to take (if I'm understanding your target outcome correctly).

Have you tried that yet?

[MattB]

@mix_pix, did the suggestion from Patrick work for you? If not, please let me know and I can ask a few folks to see if they know how to address this.

[mix_pix]

It did but we didn't get a chance to try out the API yet.

[SeanAdams]

This is super important because this opens the way to having shared macros on the gallery which everyone can access as a shared asset (as requested by @tom_montpool and I in a few idea posts)

Not sure why we would go through the gallery API thought - especially since this offloads the complexity onto the user.    It would make sense to allow this to be imported with a nice visual GUI directly in the designer.

[SeanAdams]

Now that we're doing analytics on our gallery - we're seeing that our gallery has literally thousands of copies of a shared macro that we use - this is a worry because if we upgrade or fix this shared macro, we'll need to change thousands of copies manuallly.

The original idea by @mix_pix is spot on - gallery assets should be able to be referenced in their original location so that we don't have a proliferation but rather build a small number of shared assets which are used by many.

cc: @jalvarezv

[KylieF]

Updating this idea's status back to Comments Requested, to be in line with past product updates.

[joeGade]

I built an Macro around this use case , let me know if you are still looking .