Disable or Default CSV Encoding Type at Output on Gallery

[wildflower]

2019.4+ Server now prompts users to select an Encoding Type when downloading a csv on the gallery. Unfortunately there is no way to disable the prompt of which encoding option to utilize or an ability to select a system default. Please provide these server options as this is causing confusion across departments. 

.csv output

.yxdb output, csv format

(many users like the preview provided by yxdb but want excel download)

During development in Designer, when the workflow is configured to output to csv it already has the encoding configured, please provide the option to at least default this at output on the gallery:

.csv config

The only alternative at this time is to republish all workbooks configured to output .csv or .yxdb to be .xlsx. This is not ideal.

Note: Scheduled jobs are not affected - I tested a scheduled run and csv files were successfully written out to a file share on the server. Content format appears to not be impacted. 

Thanks!

[wildflower]

Correction - this is the screenprint for the .csv output. This workflow is reading from a db and was ran on 2019.4.6 gallery. The Encoding Type must first be selected in order for end users to download the file.

db to .csv

[Benk95]

I have much the same problem, the large range of choices is unnecessarily complex for business users. But it seems there is no way to always go with the default?

[wildflower]

@Benk95 Not with the latest server version, no. End users will need to be instructed on what to select. Alteryx recently released 2019.4.8, however this idea/issue is not addressed or noted in their release notes. The idea only gets priority when enough people show interest.

[kimip]

+1 for this. Also, if there's only one filetype could it be automatically chosen? Our workflows output .xlsx files, but now user must select the format from the dropdown which in the end is really poor ux.

[TanyaS]

Thank you for providing feedback! This was developed to address some issues that users with expanded dictionary sets were experiencing. We tried to develop this to be generically applicable, but did not take into consideration that users who are primarily consumers need reduced interaction points.

If there was a system setting that allowed an admin to determine if a default encoding was used, such as UTF-8 which covers all characters, or if users could select their own encoding as is available in the latest versions, would that provide the system flexibility to meet your users' needs?

Thanks!

Tanya

[Benk95]

That would certainly be helpful from our end! Often there is only one file extension available as we have already pre-defined it in the workflow. Perhaps when this is the case, it could be selected by default to remove 2 clicks from the user journey?

[AmandaH]

@TanyaS  Implementing both of those solutions together (where a default is selected at a server admin level and it can be overridden in individual workflows) would be perfect. We're in the middle of testing 2019.4 in sandbox and won't be able to upgrade production until there's a solution for this unfortunately.

[TanyaS]

Thanks to everyone for the feedback! Based on the comments, this is something we can likely resolve by making the system a bit more flexible, while maintaining the fixes that were needed for a global audience.

[AmandaH]

@TanyaS  I realize you only just moved this to 'accepted' but wanted to find out if you're able to provide an eta on this? Now that 2020.1 is out, my team is eager to upgrade.

[jineshnp31]

Default selection was requested by every business user running reports. Looking forward to have this functionality added.