Deep versioning of shared assets

[SeanAdams]

When we create a shared macro on the Gallery, the desire is that we are able to:

- publish this down to users simply and seamlessly

- Allow them to use these assets in their canvasses

- Allow them to simply update to the latest version of the asset on an existing canvas.

Unfortunately - right now the only way to distribute shared macros is to create a shared folder; and the only way to manage version upgrades of a shared macro is to manually find every single usage and manually upgrade.

[SeanAdams]

cc @SteveA @revathi @Deeksha @avinashbonu @MPistone

The gallery has the ability to create specific districts for things like reusable macros, which is a tremendous help.

Unfortunately - when a user actually uses one of these macros - it looses it's connection / dependence to the macro that's stored on the gallery - so if the macro on the gallery is updated or repaired, this update has to be done on every single workflow that uses the macro because they all carry their own copy.

For example:

• I create a macro called "HelloText" which adds the text "Hi there" to a greeting field
• User then uses this macro in a canvas and pushes their canvas onto the gallery
• We then decide that all greetings should say "Hello - and welcome", and make the change to the macro
• All canvasses who use this macro will still have the old text "Hi there" unless they download the macro from the gallery; re-insert the new macro; and republish.

We need to make the dependence to a macro that's downloaded into a strong dependence - otherwise reusable macros can quickly become a liability rather than an asset because we will end up with dozens of different copies of the macro being used in different places - just like if we had a reusable web API that we built, everyone would be on the latest version unless they explicitly made the call to break version.

While there are cases where you may want to not follow along with the version upgrade - this should be an explicit decision (just like in a code repository where you deliberately decide to fork code).    There are also some arguments that doing this will create more risk because an upgrade to a macro could break several flows if there's a defect.   This is true, but that's the reason that we should be testing reusable macros very robustly before pushing them into usage with an automated harness.

[AshwiniChezhiyan]

@SeanAdams: We could extend the ask to extend a little further to include trace ability as well. 1) Admins/macro owners can find all related canvases using a specific macro (all version) thus providing visibility into consumers & macro penetrability. 2) Also, if we could have an alert sent to all canvas owners when the linked macro is upgraded, that would be great!

[SeanAdams]

Fantastic idea @AshwiniChezhiyan!

[Community_Admin]

The status of this idea has been changed to 'Inactive'. This status indicates that:

1. The idea has not had activity in the form of likes or comments in over a year.

2. The idea has not reached ten likes.

3. The idea is still in the 'New Idea' status. 

However, this doesn't mean your idea won't be implemented! The Community can still like and comment on this idea. With enough renewed interest, this idea can be brought back into the 'New Idea' status. 

Thank you for contributing to the Alteryx Community and the Alteryx Product Idea Boards!

[rslopez2]

Just coming across this thread! We currently deal with the headaches of the chain reaction triggered from these types of updates. In an enterprise environment, this unintentionally helps with data fragmentation. It would be extremely beneficial to be able to leverage a macro specifically designed to be leveraged by other groups and dynamically update all downstream assets for consistency vs. Multiple groups all having to pull down production assets and update(assuming perfect communication) or even worse a spider web of outdated versions being used across the stack.

[HeatherMHarris]

This would be extremely valuable for helping to position Alteryx as a platform for collaborative development and knowledge sharing as well as an enterprise platform. This would help Alteryx analytics development to mirror best practices in software and hardware development.

[KylieF]

This idea is being returned to the New Idea status, as it has reached the required number of likes to be brought to our product teams attention. Please note it may take time for our product team to provide a response. However, we will do our best to insure this idea is updated accordingly.

Thank you for posting and contributing to the product idea boards!

[KylieF]

Hello!

After careful consideration from our Product Team, we've decided the best status for this idea would be Revisit.

This feature is being heavily considered for our next generation Server product as the team feels that our new Server product would be the most appropriate place to release such a feature.

To properly implement this feature into our current Server product would be a large undertaking requiring a fair amount of time and careful planning. While we still may consider this feature in the future for the current Server product, at this time we would prefer to invest that effort into building it on the new platform.