Alteryx Server Ideas

It would be useful there was the concept of a description for Alteryx content, which was displayed within Gallery, as even with logical folders, naming conventions & tags when there are several hundred items available this additional metadata would be highly beneficial to users to know what the content they can see actually does. The ability to search this description would also be highly useful.

*This is an idea from @cneivam  from the Portuguese Community*

 

• Being able to control the workload in Alteryx Server (for example, making sure that a workflow can run only when another set of workflows finish running)

I have tables that I need to run ETL jobs on every 5 mins. But, a batch job runs every day for an hour at the same hour. During that time I can't query the source.
With the current scheduler setup; it appears that my only option would be set up multiple schedules. Each running once a day, and a separate schedule for every 5 minute increment of the day with the exception of the one hour my source can't be touched.
Rather than that degree of hassle, doesn't it make more sense to set up a scheduled with and/or/not criteria?
Example:
Run every X minutes on Y days
Except: during %t am - %t am on Z days

I've seen some applications that have a visual scheduler for setting the exception times. That would be pretty cool too.
Bonus points if you can make an admin console for the server which allows the admin to set blackout date/time by table or DSN for all users (override their schedules).

Our company has workflows where we use the Gallery API to kick off executions on server.  The user kicking off the workflow has setup API access using his account, but when he kicks off his jobs, it does not show up under his Gallery so he is unable to view the results.  In the admin panel, it shows the owner as (None) so it does not appear that workflows kicked off via the API get assigned to the user tied to the API key.

 

Conversations with Alteryx support revealed that these results are available via an API call, but not within the Gallery web UI.  It would be great if the user tied to the API key were added to the workflow execution so they could see results within the Gallery rather than going back through the API.  

 

Use Cases:

 

1. As a server admin, planned PM outages should be scheduled.  These outages should prevent jobs from beginning execution (window of time) prior to the outage.  Jobs running at the time of the cut-off should be system-cancelled.  
2. As a server admin, unplanned outages should cause running jobs to stop.  At the conclusion of an outage, jobs that are system cancelled should be restarted.

Currently, we use Task Manager to control Alteryx Service (or command line).  An administrative function within Alteryx should support graceful stopping and starting of the service as user jobs are interrupted (or can be) by our activities.  While I currently post messages to users alerting them to admin activities, I am asked why Tableau can restart jobs (admin) and we can't.  Other admins have asked what is "hanging" alteryx service up for a STOP command.  I have explained that all jobs must be stopped in order for a quick restart of the service.  

 

We're using a single server today (this client) and plan to add workers to the configuration.   It would be helpful to know where work is running and be able to use admin functions across the servers.

 

Cheers,

Mark

From a security standpoint, it is important that all users are authenticated when accesing the Gallery on Alteryx Server and using local accounts.  There shgould be an option available to force user to the login page rather than the public Gallery.  Users going to the Alteryx server URL should be presented with the login page by default before being taken to the Gallery, rather than seeing the public Gallery and needing to click Sign-in in the upper right corner.

With Alteryx Server 2019.4, new users cannot create Collections by default. 

 

As Alteryx Server admin this causes much manual effort on my side, because I need to configure new users manually. 

Alteryx claims to be a tool for automatization and I do not see how this new feature fits into Alteryx's vision.

I wish that there were tools, which allow me to automatize the management of users on the Alteryx Server. 

With a growing number of users on the Alteryx Gallery, manual user management is not an option!

 

I wish there was a way to create custom roles on the Gallery and assign them to AD groups, similar to "Permissions".

Those custom roles could include the privilege to create Collections, schedule Jobs, etc.

I would also love, if there was a way to give granular access to the Data Connection menu to users. 

 

I have already addressed this topic to the Alteryx product manager in Q1 2019 and I hope this feature will be implemented in the future. 

I've been writing applications and regularly need to REQUIRE fields for data entry.  When I do, I include ERROR MESSAGES at minimum.  Often I label the field as something like:  Name (Required).  Wouldn't it be nice to have a red star or have the data field in another color for background?  Taking this a step further, the validation rules being activated within the screen (rather than during run) would be awesome.

 

As long as I'm posting ideas, it would be nice to have an Alteryx supported function to identify the user within the application global variables.  For users, it would make my apps more friendly if they could save their configuration (*.yxwv) in the gallery.  Extending that thought, within my application I would like to be able to have easy access to their responses as well.

 

My use case for access to the .yxwv file data is that I will repeat some of the fields back to the user within my output.  When needed I will write the responses to a text input tool and format it for display in the output.  That requires an additional action and maintenance within the application.

 

Just a few application thoughts.

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

One of the issues that we have with Alteryx jobs in prod (and also Tableau, coincidentally) is that often a canvas is built to serve a need at the time, but after a while it's no-longer needed but it continues to run and consume server resources.

 

Can we add the option to our server environment to request recertification that a particular job is still needed every X months.

This will achieve 2 useful purposes:

- if the job is no-longer needed then the user hits "No thank you" and it's then taken off the scheduler which reduces server loads

- Alternatively - the user may realize that this should have been handed over to a new team or owner, and they can then make this change based on the recertification prompt.

 

I'm pretty certain that this would help to manage the inevitable build-up that happens on server environments where jobs build up until the server starts thrashing and the admin team then need to go out to all the users to do this recert process manually.

 

 

CC:  @rijuthav; @jithinmony; @HengHe; @RajK; @ydmuley; @revathi; @Deeksha; @MPistone; @Ari_Fuller; @Arianna_Fuller; @JoshKushner; @samN; @avinashbonu; @Sunder_Sriram; @Rahul_Thakur; @Rahul_Singh

In regulated environments, like banks, there is a requirement to fully segment Alteryx Jobs so that people on either side of a Regulatory Wall cannot access each other's canvasses or results.

 

As an example:

- Public vs. private side in Broker/Dealer banks

- Compliance or HR or Finance need to be segmented from all other areas in most banks

 

What is needed here is for any canvasses belonging to each of these walled-off areas to be controlled so that they cannot be shared across the wall, and results cannot be viewed across these areas.   This also means that the Gallery Environment needs to be capable of being segmented fully within 1 installed environment.

 

CC: @rijuthav @jithinmony @HengHe @RajK @ydmuley @revathi @Deeksha @MPistone @Ari_Fuller @Arianna_Fuller @JoshKushner @samnelson @avinashbonu @Sunder_Sriram @Rahul_Thakur @Rahul_Singh

 

 

Currently when running an Alteryx Workflow from the gallery via the API, it doesn't get logged in the user interface in the same way that running it interactively in the gallery GUI does - a shame as it then becomes harder to know the traffic and performance of a workflow run in this way.  

 

 

When saving a workflow to the Gallery, I would like an option on the Save window to save directly to a collection. This can be an existing collection, or would have the ability to create a new collection. The current process requires you to log into the Gallery after saving the workflow and move it to the appropriate collection.

My company, a very large organization, is in the early implementation phase of Alteryx right now. My company requires frequent password changes and we plan on making heavy use of Shared Connections since there are also many shared data sources. Unfortunately, this would mean that every time a credential has changed that affects a workflow, the credential holder would have to contact Server Administration (me), and I would have to update any Shared Connections or other assets that use those credentials. This problem is exacerbated by also having to manage user permissions and which users belong in each Subscription Right now, that is not much of a big deal, but as the number of users begins to scale, this could become a very daunting task.

 

My current solution is to create Subscriptions for each Department, Group, or Team and give one person from that Subscription Curator permissions. This enables each Department to work more autonomously and reduces the load for Server Admin. The issue is that there is no permission level between the publishing rights of an Artisan and the ubiquitous acces of a Curator. So, with my solution, any one of the Subsription Curators can start using connections they're not supposed to have access to or deleting/stopping scheduled flows, intentionally or otherwise.

 

I propose that we find a middle ground between Curator and Artisan, a (Studio) Moderator. This person can be assigned one or more subscriptions by a full Curator and will have Curator-like permission, but only to the assigned Subscriptions. This means that they will be able to add/modify Credentials, Connections, and/or Scheduled under the envelope of their Subscriptions, but they won't have access to any others. I believe that this solution will mitigate the possible overflow of tedium to the true Curators while allowing the powerful communal features of Alteryx be used to their full potential.

Please provide the ability to bulk add/delete users to a gallery. This would be useful for on-boarding/off-boarding large companies, departments, and external customers. For public-facing galleries, this would provide us the ability to on-board/off-board entire customers of ours. 

Not sure if this has already been suggested but I couldn't find it in the ideas...

 

It would be awesome if in the Gallery some better documentation could be created for the naming of the different private studios, collections, and districts. The naming causes some confusion because it is so different than most other products which causes confusion in our company.

We have the need to bulk-add users, and to bring in their information (full name; location; etc) from Active directory.

 

Right now, adding users is a 1:1 process which is highly painful.

Desire is to be able to take a list of Kerberos IDs, and bulk add them as users - and then select a group of them and permission either for the gallery; or for designer licenses.

 

cc: @revathi @avinashbonu @Deeksha

As we continue to build Alteryx Workflows for the business, there is a continued need for an organizational structure for saving and storing Alteryx Workflows within the Alteryx Gallery. Organizing the workflow repository through a "folder hierarchy" will allow users to quickly navigate and find the appropriate workflow. Currently, the workflows are listed in alphabetical order and requires the user to remember the Alteryx Workflow name and click to the proper page. 

 

Any enhancements to the Alteryx Gallery organization structure would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thank you, 

 

KK

 

Hi,

 

I have an existing app in my company's gallery. I updated the app in the gallery to not allow others to download. I just made changes to the desktop version of the app and saved it to the gallery, then went thru the steps of replacing my existing gallery app with the new version (this part I like). BUT, after updating the app, when I went back into the app settings, the option for others to download was checked again. To me, the app should inherit anything that was manually done to it in the gallery, like making it not downloadable. Is it possible to have this changed in a future release?

 

Thanks!

Aliases are a really powerful tool, particularly when you have multiple environments (EG Test, Prod) and need a published workflow to work without any code changes (In particular in an IT or Release/Change Control model).  By configuring a system alias on your Test and Prod servers, code will dynamically point to the correct server.

However, aliases can be somewhat cumbersome if you have a lot of databases on a server, and those database names change by environment.  Effectively, you end up needing an alias for each Database, which runs into naming convention and standardization issues.

Having the ability to configure a "database value" or a "database alias" would do a lot to help this.  This could either be a file that would be attached (allowing for easy config changes without risk of modifying the underlying code structure) or a secondary tier of aliases, so that a connection string might go from:

aka:SQLSERVER (contains sqlserver and database information)

 

 

to:

aka:SQLSERVER||aka:database - so that at runtime Alteryx would evaluate the SQLSERVER alias and the database alias to create the correct connection string for that environment.