Gallery Schedule Sorting not sorting correctly

[JamesHa]

Environment Details

When viewing the schedules in the Gallery and you go to sort the schedules by workflow name, they sort in a random way.

• Alteryx Server
  • Version 2020.2.3+

Cause

When a schedule is created there is an optional Schedule Name field to name the schedule.


If this name field is left blank and the schedule is created, sorting by Workflow on the Schedules page will sort the list relative to the mongoid of the schedule. 

Red Square: Workflows scheduled WITHOUT optional schedule name and they sort by the mongoid of the schedule
Green Square: Workflows scheduled WITH optional schedule name and they sort by schedule name



To illustrate the mongoid part of the sort, below is a table of the same 7 schedules in the same order: 

Resolution

To fix the sort issue you can edit your schedules to have a schedule name equal to the workflow name and then the schedules will sort correctly.

Red arrow: Workflow name
Green Arrows: If you fill in schedule name, Schedule: {name} will appear


If there are a mixture of workflows with no schedule name and workflows with schedule name, sorting the schedule list by the Workflow column will sort in the table as such:

Schedules without a schedule name will sort by the mongoid of the schedule.
Schedules with a schedule name will sort by the schedule name. 


 

[Paul_Holden]

Notes

The the last two lines of that article look to be incorrect, I think that they should read:

Schedules without workflow schedule name by mongo id
Schedules with workflow schedule name

The article fails to mention that the schedules list is sorted by Schedule name even when the sort option on the Workflow name column is chosen?

The screen capture in the article even shows that the person choose to sort by Workflow and not by Schedule but that isn’t called out.

In the UI, if the Schedule does not have a name, then the Workflow name is shown (repeated) in the Schedule column. Because of this the only way to identify the where the Schedule name is missing is to notice that the rows are not correctly sorted.

Looking at the creation dates of the Schedules on our system that I have had to fix it would appear that earlier versions of the Gallery automatically copied the Workflow name into the Schedule name if the latter was not specified. I'm not sure why this was changed as it seems to be a sensible solution to the issues that have resulted from the changes in this version?

[DanielG]

@JamesHa -- is this going to be fixed in any future releases to just sort on Workflow Name to save us this extra non-intuitive step?

Thanks

[JamesHa]

@JohnPelletier could you help me out with @DanielG question?

[JohnPelletier]

@DanielG  and @JamesHa We'll work on getting that sorting to work more intuitively based on the selected column. Feel free to check again in May.

[jayj1000]

Any updates @JohnPelletier?

[JamesHa]

@jayj1000 I just tested this in 2022.1 and still see schedules without an optional schedule name being sorted first and then schedules with an optional schedule name being sorted below that.  See below image for what I tested.  I will look into the initial submission and see what the status is.

[JamesHa]

@jayj1000 After looking at the issue and internal notes it looks as though the best route to go is to use the v3 endpoints in 2021.4 and above to modify the schedules to have an optional schedule name OR have all schedules not have an optional name.

You can utilize the v3 macro pack created by our solution architecture team to do this with an Alteryx workflow:

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Engine-Works/Introducing-the-Alteryx-Server-v3-API/bc-p/904057#M299...

I have updated the issue notes internally and apologize for the inconvenience but hope the workaround helps.

[jayj1000]

@JamesHa Thank you for the link explaining the v3 macro. We are currently using 2021.3 and the schedules are not being sorted by schedule name or workflow name as you have pictured in your previous comment.  They are being sorted via a randomly assigned mongo id as explained at the top of this thread.  Was this problem corrected at version 2022.1 or a different version?

[LisaL]

@jayj1000 
The sorting behavior has not been changed and no changes are imminent.  Starting with version 2021.4 the v3 endpoints are available to use as suggested in the link JamesHa provided.

[Paul_Holden]

@LisaL 

"and no changes are imminent"

This is disappointing to me. We are talking about having a standard web UI element - a table - sort in a user intuitive way, or at least not to mask/conflate the problem by copying data into null fields only at display time (current functionality) and not when a record is created (old functionality).

In addition the table sorting by Schedule name even when the sort option on the Workflow name column is chosen is surely just a flat out bug?

[jayj1000]

@Paul_Holden I agree.  This is a very basic feature that should be available.  We have over a thousand schedules on our team and it's nearly impossible to find any specific one.  Please add a more reliable sorting method by default, or add a search bar for schedules @JamesHa @LisaL.

[JamesHa]

@jayj1000 @Paul_Holden I understand your side of it and will do my best to ensure that your concern is heard and accounted for.  As I do not work with the development team here is the best that I can do for you:

1. Please both open a support ticket referencing this post and that this relates to TGAL-6302
   1. TGAL-6302 should either be re-opened or a new defect created as the issue still exists in 2022.1
2. I am providing a workflow, accessible here, that can be used as a workaround for you now, that will allow quicker querying of your schedules
   1. It utilizes Alteryx Designer with mongo input tools and the service data parser macro from the Alteryx Server Usage Report.
   2. This will allow you to run it, get the mongoid of the schedule, appid of the Gallery app, be able to sort in a way that works and it will create a url to paste in the browser.
   3. I know it's not ideal right now, but it's the most efficient way I can think of because you can sort by ApplicationName or LC_ScheduleName (= Optional Schedule Name) and then copy and paste the url into the browser.
      
      1. 
      2. You will need to retrieve the Password from your Alteryx System Settings on the server for entering into the mongo input tools
         1. 

Hope this works for you and the link to the drop location will expire 12/31/2022

[Paul_Holden]

@JamesHa support case opened. Thank you.