Alteryx Gallery Series: App Publishing & Version Control 101

[JordanB]

This is Part 3 of the Alteryx Gallery Series - The Gallery Series only refers to the Alteryx Server where you can host your Private Alteryx Gallery. This Article with refer to 'Alteryx Gallery' as a privately hosted Gallery on the Alteryx Server. 

Part 1 Alteryx Gallery Series - The Lay of the Land 101: Gallery Admin Edition 
Part 2 Alteryx Gallery Series - The Lay of the Land 101: User Edition 

Part 4 Alteryx Gallery Series: How to make the most of your Alteryx Gallery – Use Cases 

The main draw of the Alteryx Gallery (other than scheduling) is the ability to create Analytic Applications!  Analytic Applications allow data analysts to parametrize Alteryx Designer workflows, so Business decision makers can interact with a user friendly interface and create custom reports faster on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Often these Applications need updating without interrupting end user interaction. Through the version control offered in the Alteryx Gallery, it makes it easier to track application development and prevent disruption for the end user. This article explains the conventions of uploading and apps and version control.

Before reading this article there a few pre-requisites to ensure you can publish apps:

• Your permission level is set as a Data Artisan in the Alteryx Gallery (You cannot publish up to the Alteryx Gallery without this permission level)
• The Analytic Application functions successfully from the designer

Publishing an Analytic App

• From the File Menu, go to Save As “My Company’s Gallery”
• You can then name the workflow and provide any comments or details specific to version being “saved”
• Once you click “Save”, Alteryx will publish the workflow and validate that it runs without errors in your gallery environment.

Upload to your Private Studio

• If you are a Data Artisan in the Alteryx Gallery you will have a Private Studio. If you have not already been added to another Studio, the Private Studio will be your default location when uploading an App from the Alteryx Designer. You can only belong to one Private Studio or Studio at a time.

You want to publish to a Studio (Subscription)

• The studio you belong to will populate in the ‘Location’ section when uploading to your company’s gallery.
• If this does not populate with the correct studio name you need to contact the creator of the studio or Gallery Admin.
• When you File>>Save As>>>Local Gallery from the Alteryx Designer you should see the studio (subscription) you are belong to.

You want to Publish to a Collection

• To publish to a collection you will need to have Data Artisan Permissions for the whole Gallery. If you are a Data Artisan in the Alteryx Gallery you will have your own private studio but you also have the ability to create collections. Other Artisans in your company’s Gallery can add you to collections they create.
• When you first upload your app to the Alteryx Gallery it will ‘land’ in your Private Studio (You only get a Private Studio if you are a Data Artisan).
• From your Private Studio you can click on your app and then there will be a ‘Sharing’ icon.
• You will then have the option to ‘Add to Collection’

• This will then give you an option to select the collections you have access too or the option to create a new collection.

You want to publish to the Public Gallery

• If you choose to publish to the Public Part of your company’s gallery it will give access to everyone who can access your company’s gallery. Users often upload to the public gallery if they are testing proof of concepts or uploading demo version of Apps.
• To upload to the public gallery you can upload to your private studio and then choose to share the app in the public gallery. 

I want to run this app with certain credentials 

• Within Alteryx Server 10.5+ there is the ability to manage certain 'Run As' credentials for certain Applications and Workflows ran on the Alteryx Server. 
• There are few different configurations you can select when setting up the Alteryx Gallery
• Speak to your Alteryx Server Gallery Admin if you are unsure which setting is available for you

What are the settings?

• These setting are found on the Gallery Admin page under 'System Settings'

Allow users to set options for credentials when saving a workflow

• The best practice would be to ask users for their credentials so they can only access the data they have privileges for within your internal IT environment. 
• The interface will look like the screenshot below. When uploading an App from your Alteryx Designer (File>>Save as>>>My Company's Gallery) you can click on 'Workflow Options' & 'Set Workflow Credentials'. 

• This will give the user three options 

• 'User is not required to specify credentials' - The application/workflow will run as the default Alteryx Server user account (Run As settings in system settings on server config). 
• 'User must specify their own credentials' - When running the application from the Alteryx Gallery the users will have to enter in credentials 

• 'Always run this workflow with these credentials' - The user can enter the credentials at this point, however preset credentials can be added within the Alteryx Gallery Admin section ("Workflow Credentials")

Always run workflows wither server or studio default credentials

• This will run any workflows with the default Alteryx Server user account (Predefined in the Alteryx Server System Settings)
• This could be a general account that allows all users to access the data they need to. 
• This is useful when testing out the Alteryx Server for scheduled workflows

Require users to enter their own credentials when running any workflows

• 'User must specify their own credentials' - When running the application from the Alteryx Gallery the users will have to enter in credentials 

 

Version Control

• Workflows saved in the Alteryx Gallery can be shared with others who can then open them within the Alteryx Designer, make changes to them, and save them back to the Alteryx Gallery.
• When changes to a workflow are saved back to an Alteryx Gallery a new version of that workflow is created, and the previous version of the workflow is maintained.

IMPORTANT!

• To re-version an app you just need to hit the save icon in the Alteryx Designer once you have uploaded to the Alteryx Gallery for the first time.
• If you have already uploaded the app to the Alteryx Gallery and then go to File>>Save as>>>My Company’s Gallery, it will re-upload that same app twice.
• To see the version you can click on my company’s Gallery and it will populate with all the workflows, apps and macros. Within here you can click on the versions icon and it give you access to the various different versions for that workflow, app or macro.

Useful Links

• Are you are looking for more information on the Best practices for App Building?
• You may need to load the input files for your app if your Alteryx Server does not have access to these files. You can do this through adding files to the application you are uploading.
• What tools can be published within my app to the gallery
• I want to use the Gallery API to call on Apps, where can I find my API and Secret Keys

Best,

Jordan Barker

Solutions Consultant 

[brad_j_crep]

Jordan, when you "Add to a Collection" and it's not your collection I'm getting a error.  Do I need to have the person adding to the collection be added in my studio? 

Thanks,

[JordanB]

Hi @brad_j_crep

For the person who created the collection they will have to set you as collection admin

Best,

Jordan

[brad_j_crep]

Do I understand it right?  That if someone else wants to share a workflow to my collection I would have to make them the collection admin.  Could the collection have more than one admin?  Say a group wants to share a collection.  The group has five people.  This group wants to share all their workflows to this collection.  Would the group, all five of them, have to be collection admins?  Can they all be collection admins?

Thank you,

Brad

[JordanB]

Hi @brad_j_crep

If you are using Windows authentication for server:

• The user who has created the collection can only add content. The other users who are made collection admin will only be able to add users to the collection, not content. There will also be the requirement for them to reside in the same private studio.

If you are using Built-in authentication for server:

• Users will have to reside in your private studio, and be made collection admin to add both content and users.

Best,

Jordan

[alex_reevoo]

Hi @JordanB

I'm trying to create an app for a couple of users that blends mysql data from two servers. These users aren't analysts and only need to change a couple of where clauses. They also don't have access to Alteryx designer! 

I've ran the app locally and it retrieves results successfully, when I attempt to publish the app I get an auth error:

Both servers are mysql. Any recommendations on what's going on?

Alternatively (as I'm not even sure if we even allow external access to these servers), is there a way these users can run the apps without Alteryx Designer?

Cheers,

Alex

[JordanB]

Hi @alex_reevoo

You need to make sure the MySQL driver exists on the server machine

You also need to make sure the same Alias name is used on both the server and on the alteryx designer. You can create the connection on the server, by using the Alteryx Designer which also sits on the server. This is a good way to test the connection from the server to the MySQL DB. 

A best practice would be to create this connection, copy the connection string from the input tool into the data connections manager in the Gallery admin and pass this down to the alteryx designer where you are building the app.

You can the re-publish this back up to the Gallery and this should work, as it seems the error specifies the driver/connection cannot be found.

What are the Run As permissions set up on server? If you are running under a service account the end users should have permissions to run the application is they do not have access to the DB. All they will see if the end result. 

Best,

Jordan

[vinothkumar]

Once shared to a collection, a workflow is moved from the users studio to the shared collection?

[JordanB]

@vinothkumar  it will exist in both the private studio & the collection

[vinothkumar]

Thank You

[srikant96]

@JordanB - I am using an ALTERYX database for reading data ( created by another ALTERYX workflow ) in one of the apps I have published to Gallery . Can I make an assumption that during the run time ( apart from other input/output files for which I have designed FILEB ROWSER as user interaction) the APP will read latest data from the YXDB file in the network directory

I checked the ASSET and was thinking its going to store/cache the data ( Hopefully not)

Thanks 

[Aum]

@JordanB  On 2019.1 Server, Can you clarify below please?

- Only the admin of the collection can add workflow to the collection?

- How many admin can a Collection have?

- How to make someone a Collection admin without changing their subscription? Is this possible? 

When the owner of the scheduled workflow changes subscription, the scheduled workflow become disable. This is not fixed in 2019.1, correct? 

We want to find a way where our analysts can collaborate on the same workflow efficiently without changing the subscription. 

Please help. Thank you!