Alteryx Server Ideas

Currently the Gallery loads all of the workflows before displaying objects on screen.  As our collection has grown this makes the Gallery painfully slow to load.  It would be more efficient to load 10 workflows and get the rest with the next screen arrow.  

https://alteryx.dataservices.bayer.com/gallery/api/collections/b05aa77eb91941ba8b1c4ea640da75fe/?v=1...

I think it would be nice to have a user-defined name for events in the Workflow - Configuration - Events tab.  You can see in my image that the default view is not super helpful.  It would be nice to label the steps so a user can edit more easily.

It would also be nice to more easily disable or disable these items - a batch select to enable for instance.

The current Alteryx user interface is displayed in a vertical orientation without the option for customization. To optimize space efficiency, it would be highly advantageous if the filters could be arranged horizontally, as depicted in the attached figure.

Additionally, there is a usability issue with the options list for interface tools like the list box. Currently, all options are displayed without utilizing a dropdown, requiring users to scroll extensively when multiple tools with numerous options are present within a single analytic app. Implementing a dropdown functionality for improved navigation would significantly enhance the overall user experience.

Previously, Alteryx Gallery had a progress bar when the job is running. However, it has been removed in the newer version and the screen only appear blank when the job is running. This could lead to confusion in users as they might be wondering what is happening when the screen goes blank when it actually is running the job. Users might also attempt to click the run button repeatedly due to this.

Hence, I hope Alteryx could bring back the old UI that showed progress bar or anything similar when the job is running so users will aware of what is happening. 

Right now, there's no easy way to see everything that is running across all your workflows. It forces you to live on the "Schedules" tab. It would be create if it saved how I've sorted my columns and the "rows per page" setting. 

Basically I have to hit those buttons every time I click into the schedule. And I need to click into the schedule 4-5 times to see where we are in the backlog. 

On the Job page, in addition to seeing the worker tag that a job is running on, it would be great to see which server the job is running on to ensure the work is being spread out and look for bottle necks.  We have a group on servers broken down into Small , Medium and large with several servers in each group.  Looking at the current screen, you can not tell what server a job is running on within the group.  Example, 'Large' has 3 servers with 4 jobs running on it.  But you can not identify which server the job is running on.

I would like to be able to suspend scheduled jobs - those that are queued to run. 

The only option currently is just to delete them. 

I want to be able to 'put them on hold' then release them as and when is convenient.  Once you release them, they just go back in to the queue or run if there is a free scheduling slot.

I just underwent an exercise of recovering my controller in the event of a catastrophic failure. One of the steps is to recover the DCME keys (DCM Encryption keys) - which is documented here: https://help.alteryx.com/20221/en/server/install/server-host-recovery-guide/dcme-keys-to-backup.html...

This DCME recovery needs to be revisited. This document assumes that the previous controller is running. In a disaster recovery situation, this is not possible. What, if any, can be done to recover the DCME keys if the host has is completely irrecoverable?

For context, having an irrecoverable host has happened. Complete hard drive failure (showing my age), nuked virtual machine and its backups (no one paid attention to the notices that the data center was shutting down), and fire.

Current State:

Currently, all workflows and applications are in list-form within "My Workspace" (formerly Private Studio) and Collections.  In My Workspace, I might have workflows and applications that support a broad range of domain spaces and audiences.  As the developer (or Artisan), they're all in My Workspace, but shown as an exhaustive list with no categorization unless I name them to represent not only the function of the workflow/application but also the domain. 

Once those same workflows/applications are moved to collections, there can exist confusion over whether the workflow/application is intended for a schedule, manual run, or application.  Separating by naming convention gets messy and degrades clarity for non-developer roles.

Proposed Solution:

I would like to see folders, only one or two levels deep, be added to My Workspace and to Collections.  This proposed solution would not alter permissions, as those would be common for the parent collection and any assigned roles would function the same for that entire collection.  The solution is simply adding organization to enhance the user experience.

For example:  I might have a Collection that is intended for my Finance team....

Finance_Collection / Scheduled_ETL_Workflows / Workflows

Finance_Collection / Scheduled_Analytic_Workflows / Workflows
Finance_Collection / Applications_for_AccountingDepartment_ReceivablesTeam / Workflows
Finance_Collection / Applications_for_AccountingDepartment_PayablesTeam / Workflows
Finance_Collection / Manual_ETL_Workflows / Workflows

Finance_Collection / Manual_Analytic_Workflows / Workflows

Finance_Collection / etc...

All persons who have been assigned the role connected to the "Finance Collection" will still see everything in all of the folders but would have a better sense of what "workflows/applications" are intended for their use according to the folders the workflows/applications are organized into.

Value Added (Why This Matters):

• Enhanced user experience (easier to find the correct workflows
• The volume of roles and collections can be reduced, thus reducing Admin strain
• The solution does not impact roles and permissions
• Overall management of workflows and applications is enhanced for the Artisans

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I welcome input and feedback from the community and would appreciate your support if you find this suggestion useful for your Alteryx experience!

Hi Team, 

The Alteryx API documentation for Audit was only available for certain entities(workflow, collection, etc.,) and not available for Schedule entities

If you create a schedule in Gallery, information about the schedule like creation date time, frequency, owner, type, last run, next run, etc. will be updated in MongoDB. If a user edits or modifies a schedule in the gallery, the edited/updated information is only available in MongoDB. There is no possibility of seeing audit information like old value(before change), new value, or operation (update, delete, insert).

We required the Audit information of the entire gallery operation such as schedule, Collection, Workflow creation, updation, and deletion. 

Regards, 
Ariharan Rengasamy

I develop workflows or analytical apps in the Designer and save them in a Gallery. If I need the setting "Always run this workflow with these credentials", I have to type in my username and password every single time I want to save it, even in the same Designer session. This is very annoying and results in saving the workflows much more seldom than I would do if I did not have to type in the credentials every single time.

My idea is to cache the credentials (login name and password) for one Designer session. It would be perfect if it was for the entire Designer session for multiple files. But even if it was specific to the opened file it would help.

Result would be:

• After loading the file, the user has to type in credentials only for first saving.
• Every subsequent save would be done without further interaction.
• After closing and re-opening the file, credentials have to be typed in again.

Option to Zip All Outputs

For workflows that produce various different output files, I think it would be nice if the Gallery had the functionality to create a single zip file containing all outputs. The user would opt in or out of this functionality using a checkbox in the Gallery workflow settings (for apps, this checkbox could also appear as an additional setting above "Questions"). After the workflow has been run, the user would only see the zip file in the output preview instead of each individual output file. 

This functionality would create a more user-friendly experience as it would eliminate the need for zip file creation workarounds, such as using the Run Command Tool or the "zipfile" Python library to create zip files (these options also do not generate a zip file in the Gallery output preview).

In one fell swoop, you can see if all the workflows included in the collection have run smoothly.

I did it with a workflow but it should be native.

Hello,

Tableau has a nice Postman Collection available... it's really easy to use since you can download or forkt it on Postman and all you have to do is to write the variable values.

I would like the same thing but for Alteryx.

Best regards,

Simon

When using a flow that produces multiple outputs each has to be selected in turn and downloaded, which is no effecient.

It would be a better user experience if standard selection box functionality where the user can select one or multiple files they wish to download, including a box to select all and where more than a singular file is chosen they are provided as a singular zipped download.

the idea would be to be able to chain Workflows (execute Workflow B at the end of Workflow A). Or to condition the execution of a Workflow in relation to another when there are dependencies.

Most companies work on a period level basis and that is every 4 weeks.  There is no way in Alteryx currently to schedule workflows to run only every 4 weeks, the monthly options do not match this cadence.  If the option was added to select "every X week(s) on X day" this would also encompass biweekly scheduling as well.  Outlook currently has exactly what would be needed (screenshot attached.)

Hi Team,

We used the 2021.3 version earlier, which included a user interface feature allowing for search by owner and a
few other filters. However, upon upgrading the server to the 2022.1 version, we discovered that this option was no longer present on the UI page. Moving forward, it is imperative that this functionality be reintroduced in future releases of Alteryx for better user experience.

Regards, 

Ariharan Rengasamy

It would be beneficial to be able to add a description to collections to explain the purpose of the collection, i.e. the types of content contained within or even a waiver stating "use of the contents in this collection is at your own risk, please ensure you validate the results are accurate" sort of thing.