Supporting Gallery Data Connections in Macros run on Private Gallery

[KenMoorhead]

I love the gallery data connection feature - we're going through some big systems architecture changes, resulting in new locations for many datasets. Having a single place in the Gallery Admin area to update connection information works beautifully.

We're running into issues with the gallery-hosted data connections when trying to run some apps on our private gallery though. The trouble comes up when the gallery-hosted data connection appears inside a macro that's part of an app. We get an "Unable to translate alias" error when trying to run these types of apps.

If we have an app using gallery-hosted data connections that are outside of a macro, the gallery is able to resolve the connection alias fine and work properly. The issue only appears when the gallery data connection is part of a macro used inside an app.

We use macros a lot in our app development because it allows us to use standard methods for accomplishing common tasks. Using macros also enables us to set up automated testing workflows to make sure our processes produce expected results. As it is, we're unable to take full advantage of the gallery-hosted data connections because they don't work within macros, and instead have to continue using hardcoded connection strings. These are a bigger maintenance burden as our underlying systems evolve and are updated.

[David-Carnes]

@brucks 

I wonder if your workflow is writing to the \externals folder but pointing to a shared drive for the email attachment.  Or vice versa.  Check your settings at publish time to see if the spreadsheet is a managed asset.  Just my first thought, probably not worth $0.02.

[KylieF]

Updating this idea's status back to Not Planned, to be in line with past product updates.

[TanyaS]

This functionality is under consideration as part of the upcoming work being done to address data connections across all products. I'll update the status once there is confirmation of intent.

Thanks,

Tanya

[KenMoorhead]

@TanyaSthat's great news, thank you! Is there a place where I can subscribe to receive updates on this specific functionality?

[David-Carnes]

@KenMoorhead In the Idea, in the right of the box, there is an ellipsis.  Clicking that should give you the option to subscribe to this specific idea.

[KenMoorhead]

@David-Carnesso simple, thank you!

[brianscott]

@everyone - 

It looks like the solution provided on the last entry of this thread solves this problem:

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Macro-unable-to-translate-alias/td-p/6...

It isn't a fix so much as a workaround, but still.  

[JohnPelletier]

We believe this has been addressed in release 2020.2. Apologies for not updating this old thread sooner.

[venza]

The issue is still there in version 2020.3.4.30228. A data input or output in a macro is not packaged with the workflow using the macro when saving to the gallery.

[KevinP]

@venza Are you still seeing issues utilizing Gallery Data Connections in a Macro published to Server, or is this a general issue where some input and output tool dependencies aren't being packaged properly? Do you get the same results if you export the workflow from Designer as a yxzp package? 

If you are having issues with the Gallery Data Connections used in Macro's not working once published to Server please let me know as this should be working in 2020.2+ and is working in our testing. If its not working for you I would also recommend engaging support for assistance. If its the later where a general input/output tools dependencies aren't being packaged this would be an unrelated issue to the work done to accommodate this idea, and you should also reach out to support about the issue. Understanding if you get the same issue when exporting a yxzp directly from Designer will help us narrow down if the issue is related to how yxzp packages are created or if its specific to publishing to Server.