Adapting Custom Tools for Older Alteryx Versions

[rpaugh]

Hello,

I have a custom tool I built in C# for version 11.5 and subsequently upgraded to 11.7.  However, I've had several requests to adjust the tool to work with older versions of Alteryx.  What is the best way to accomplish this?  Do I need to download and install older versions of Alteryx, pull the old DLL into my project, and recompile and redistribute from there?

Thanks,

Rick

[MichaelCh]

That sounds right, but I'm not certain. Perhaps @LindaT or @Ned could answer that.

[Ned · Accepted solution]

Recompiling will definitely work, but presuming you haven't used any new features, there is a good chance that you can just drop your plugin dlls into the older version and have it just work.

[rpaugh]

Somehow in one of my builds the dependent Alteryx DLLs had the "Copy Local" setting set to "true".  I think this may have been forcing the tool to use the version dictated by those DLLs rather than that of the actual Alteryx Designer installation, so I updated the setting to "false" and recompiled.  I sent the executable to one of the users who reported the issue.  I'll let you guys know this fixed the issue for the user.

[rpaugh · Accepted solution]

I discovered that the InstallShield application I was using to install the tool was still pulling in version-specific DLLs.  I removed that dependence and have already had a user verify they were able to install and run the tool on an older version (11.3).