2023.2 Connected for Enterprise

[JHendu]

We are thrilled to announce the latest release of Alteryx! As we continue our focus on delivering enterprise-ready and cloud-friendly capabilities, let’s explore some of the biggest innovations in recent and 2023.2 releases, which help to: 

• Accelerate journeys to cloud  
• Elevate connectivity governance at scale  
• Boost productivity through enterprise readiness features 
• Augment analytics processes with AI 

Accelerating the Journey to Cloud* 

Building upon this summer’s release of Cloud Execution for Desktop, which enables users to run their desktop workflows in the cloud, new enhancements in the Alteryx Analytics Cloud Platform (AACP) allow desktop users to take more advantage of cloud resources.   

Customers in Europe and Asia now have the option to host the AACP within their respective regions, enabling them to securely store and execute their desktop workflows in local data centers.  

Another significant advancement is sharing assets in AACP. Analytics is a team sport. This enhancement allows users to seamlessly share workflows, datasets, schedules, and plans from within the AACP, ensuring your teams stay in sync. 

Elevating Connectivity Governance at Scale

In line with our commitment to enhancing the enterprise readiness of your analytics, Alteryx 2023.2 introduces a host of features that redefine connectivity at scale.  

Support for Databricks Unity Catalog on Designer and Server 

Expanding on our Databricks capabilities, including Databricks Unity Catalog support for Alteryx Analytics Cloud Platform, we are also announcing Unity Catalog support on our flagship portfolio. Unity Catalog makes it easier to collaborate on the analytics process securely across environments. Simply access Unity Catalog through tools like Input and In-DB, along with bulk data loading, providing an integrated and streamlined experience. 

Automate Data Connection Manager (DCM) Processes with API for Administrators 

Manage DCM objects with ease while effortlessly integrating third-party applications for synchronized data orchestration like never before. This functionality empowers administrators to create, update, and delete DCM connections directly through Alteryx Server API, revolutionizing the way you interact with your data! 

DCM Migration Tool 

Exciting news for Designer users! Introducing our new DCM Migration Tool, the solution for efficiently transitioning from legacy ODBC to DCM connections within your workflows. If you're ready to embrace cloud opportunities with Cloud Execution for Desktop, our tool ensures a painless process to convert connections to become DCM enabled. 

DCM Connection Sharing 

Elevate team collaboration by leveraging our new DCM connection sharing functionality. This provides a more effective and secure way to share connections amongst teammates, enhancing the collaborative spirit. 

Boosting Productivity through Enterprise Readiness 

With feedback from users like you, we’ve made improvements that will elevate your daily experiences and help your organization take on enterprise-level tasks with confidence.  

Empowering Tools and Connectivity with the New Alteryx Marketplace* 

We’re excited to announce the launch of Alteryx Marketplace – your go-to destination for verified, creator-supported, and ready-to-install Add-Ons. The Alteryx Marketplace is home to expert-built connectors, Enterprise Utilities, macros, and more, strengthening your capabilities and expanding your toolbox. Here’s what’s new you can find on Alteryx Marketplace: 

• GitHub Macros tool can streamline the versioning and asset promotion processes, facilitating the seamless migration of workflows, data sources, and assets, while also enabling the application of controls and approvals at each stage. 
• CReW Macros have already saved Alteryx users hours, if not days, with their efficient and thoughtful tools, and now you can access them on the Alteryx Marketplace as verified and supported Add-Ons. See their power in action in quick demo videos here.   

Head over to Alteryx Marketplace now for easy access and downloads of all these exciting releases! 

Say Goodbye to Missing Macros 

Say goodbye to the days of those black question marks from missing macros causing you headaches! We're introducing a seamless solution to debug missing macros. A pop-up message will inform you of missing macros in your workflow, followed by a dialog that will let you fix the broken macro paths, simplifying the workflow journey and empowering you to concentrate on what matters most. 

Create Your Own Custom Workflow Templates  

Spend less time formatting and more time building solutions with our new workflow templates. Now, you can effortlessly save your workflow as a customized template, complete with pre-built components such as comment boxes, images, and your favorite colors and fonts. This feature allows you to streamline your workflow creation process and help ensure consistent workflow design so that you can generate actionable insights faster than ever before.

Enhanced Time Zone Scheduling for Server 

To promote accurate and reliable execution at all times, especially during daylight savings, our APIs now empower users to define the time zone for their schedules in Alteryx Server. This enhancement ensures Daylight Saving Time changes are accurately considered. 

Empowering Data Transformation with New Formula and Product Functions 

Our commitment to enhancing data manipulation continues with the introduction of three new string formula functions: GetPart, GetLeft, and GetRight. These functions strengthen your data parsing capabilities, making string manipulation effortless. In addition, you can also multiply records together while optionally grouping them with the Product function in the Summarize tool.  

Augmenting Analytics Processes with AI* 

At Inspire, we introduced Alteryx AiDIN, the AI engine that infuses the power of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) across the Alteryx Analytics Cloud Platform. Now, let’s take a closer look at how our latest generative AI-powered features in our Cloud-Connected products enhance the democratization of analytics and the widespread sharing of insights within your organization: 

Incorporating Generative AI into Existing Workflows 

The Workflow Summary Tool is a new AiDIN-powered Designer desktop tool that leverages OpenAI’s ChatGPT to automatically provide concise summaries of a workflow’s purpose, inputs, outputs, and key logic steps. This provides enhanced visibility into your workflows, empowering better collaboration and oversight through insightful summaries. Try the Workflow Summary Tool today and elevate your workflow insights! 

OpenAI Connector: Unlock the potential of OpenAI's generative AI models within your Alteryx workflows 

The OpenAI Connector empowers Alteryx users to leverage the power of generative AI within Designer, eliminating the need to switch platforms. You can formulate prompts with your data, query the OpenAI API, and integrate the results directly into your workflow.   

That’s not the end! We are looking forward to taking more steps with the robust capabilities that AiDIN offers. Stay tuned for more innovations in the months ahead. 

*Delivered separately from 2023.2 over the past few months. This allows you to access the latest tools and improvements as soon as they become available.  

Upgrade to 2023.2 Today  

We can’t wait to see what you build with these new capabilities. To read more about these new features, head over to Technical Documentation. We also love hearing your thoughts and suggestions! Please share your ideas on our Maveryx Community Discussion Forums.   

Want a sneak peek at what’s next?   

As we continue our journey of innovation and partnership, we invite you to look forward to the Q4 Customer Webinar. Join us to gain insights into the roadmap ahead and witness firsthand the evolution of Alteryx! 

If you are a current customer, learn more about what new features we’re working on behind the scenes through our Public Preview Beta Program. You can now test all features in one Designer build and provide feedback directly to our Product team.  

  

Thank you,  

Jay 

[Kenda]

Thanks for all of the new features, team! Can't wait to put them to use

[simonaubert_bd]

Hello @JHendu 

Thanks for the update. What I notice :

-Very happy to see some old frustration points solved like the missing macro or the getpart function (it was one of my ideas with a lot of votes)... even the support of Windows 11 !
-some progress on long-term technical project such as cloud, dcm and dark mode
-sadly still no update for in-database :(

And finally a question : how is using a template different from using another worfklow and changing name ? Is there some variables that we can use ?

Best regards,

Simon

[NicoleJ]

Hey @simonaubert_bd ! (Was exciting to get to mark one of your ideas as implemented! We really appreciate how much you contribute to the Maveryx Community! 😁 )

This first iteration of Custom Workflow Templates creates the foundation for some additional features we hope to add in the future. So while, yes, you could theoretically just change an existing workflow name, this new template experience packages up the experience a little more cleanly. For example, the templates you create have a different file extension (which is what will allow some of our additional functionality in the future for those new file types) - you'll notice they're indicated as YXTD, YXTC, or YXTZ based on original file type. You can also see that the selection of a template to use will open it as a new workflow in the base file type (converting YXTD to YXMD when opened, for example) - think of it like the way you use a PowerPoint template (which is a POTX extension), where when you choose your template it will then open as a PPTX with all the template formatting applied. We also make it easy to know your templates are all saved in one location, with sorting/searching capabilities to find the one you're looking for quickly (rather than trying to remember where you've saved all your favorite workflows). Our next phase is going to bring in some additional metadata for your templates and some other options for customizing how/where they are stored... so stay tuned in future release for some more cool options!

I'll leave you with a few examples of things you can include in your saved templates to speed up that initial workflow development: 

• Populating a corporate template with your preferred brand colors for comment boxes, containers, and logos - easy updates & copy/paste to spend less time formatting
  • For those who work with multiple different clients, this could be a handy way to have base templates for different customers with their specific desired formats/branding as well!
• Saving a template with specific Runtime settings enabled/disabled (pre-selecting check boxes for showing all macro messages, cancel running on error, enabling performance profiling, etc.)
• Building templates with enterprise validations or custom input macros built in to ensure consistency across the organization, such as Before Run or After Run with Error Events
• Adding custom user constants to your template Workflow configuration tab that need to be used regularly in your enterprise workflows
• Creating a base analytic app framework with commonly used & pre-connected/configured interface tools for speedier app development
• Pre-configuring Iterative Macro inputs, outputs, and macro setting configurations (number of iterations, what to do with leftover records, etc.)

Hope that gives a little clarification, and feel free to reach out if you have additional feedback or ideas for how to improve the template experience (or other features of this awesome release!!) We've already got our eye on a bunch of new Community ideas to tackle next 😁

[simonaubert_bd]

Hello @NicoleJ  Thanks a lot for the explanations, that's helpful and now I wil have a look on it.

Best regards,

Simon

[AkimasaKajitani]

I found that the window sepalaters are bolder than previous version. It is very useful!😁

[JosephRJohnson4]

When is Alteryx Designer 2023.2 available to download? Will this version fix the issue with the MS Power BI Output Tool in Designer by being able to connect to the GCC?

[MeganBowers]

Hi @JosephRJohnson4! 2023.2 is available to download now 😀 you can do so here: http://licenses.alteryx.com/.

I am not sure about the MS Power BI Tool, but here is the latest help documentation: https://help.alteryx.com/current/en/designer/tools/connectors/microsoft-power-bi-output-tool.html#mi...  

[JosephRJohnson4]

Good afternoon,

I hope you are doing well. I clicked the link you had in the post. However, when I clicked the download button for Alteryx Designer the only thing displayed was One Model Examples, Machine Learning (as indicated in the below screenshot). How come I am unable to see Designer version 2023.2 to download? I also tried to get into AIS, but it failed to load.

[MeganBowers]

@JosephRJohnson4 just sent you a private message with more details specific to your account 😊