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Is there a development harness?

SeanAdams

Hey all,

So I'm building my first Python SDK tool (a simple tool that allows you to create directories for outputs), and I think I'm doing something wrong 🙂

The GUI is working; as is a basic tool that passes info through - but the development process is super painful because I can't figure out how to get a development harness working so that I can run within an IDE to test my code.

Desired State:

- Fire up a new project type of "Alteryx Tool Engine"

- This creates proxies for the Alteryx Engine; Incoming Interface; Outgoing Interface etc

- Also allows me to set up test data on inputs; do test driven delivery etc

Current State:

- I can't figure out how to do a proxy (harness) for the Alteryx Engine; Incoming Interface etc - so all development is in a python tool (like Jupyter / VS Code / IDLE) but I can't run it to test or get any debug messages

- As a result, I may as well be developing in Notepad

- Write Code

- Copy the tools in to the Alteryx folder under ...AppData\roaming\Alteryx\Tools\

- Run a test Alteryx Canvas

- get an error (which is difficult to read in the Alteryx GUI)

- Copy this error into notepad to read it

- Repeat

I feel like I'm missing something fundamental - how do the devs at Alteryx do this and develop new tools in a harness that simulates the Alteryx Engine and all the other critical objects so that you can build and debug right in the IDE?

Thanks all

Sean

Developer

Accepted answers

tlarsen7572

Hi Sean,

I use PyCharm to do my custom tool development. As far as I know, there is no harness available to us.

Therefore, my approach to developing custom tools has been to build the functionality I need without referencing any of the the SDK classes. There should be a very clean separation between my code and the Alteryx SDK. This means I can develop using my normal TDD workflow. As I develop the tool, I am also inherently developing the entrypoints into the tool's logic (after all, the unit tests have to call something).

When I am done with the core logic (i.e. the business logic), I then create the SDK classes. These classes call into the entrypoints at the appropriate point in the tool's lifecycle. There is no business logic in the SDK classes; their sole purpose is to integrate the business logic with Alteryx via the business logic's entrypoints. My 'integration testing' of these classes is to run the custom tool in Alteryx. By this time I am fairly confident my business logic is working correctly (because of my unit tests), so the errors that occur are almost always because I did something wrong with the SDK. Only having one failure vector greatly reduces the mental effort needed to debug errors.

I do all of my development directly in AppData\roaming\Alteryx\Tools\. I can write code, alt-tab over to Alteryx, run Alteryx, review any errors, then alt-tab right back to my code. This saves the step of copying the tools, which is a huge time saver. If I have a separate repository where I want to permanently persist the code, I will copy the code from AppData\roaming\Alteryx\Tools\ when I am done coding.

If you want to see a small example, I have an open-source tool that sorts fields by specifying the order using full field names or regular expressions. Code is on GitHub.

cam_w

Hi @SeanAdams

Also check out Sydney's article about SnakePlane - https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Knowledge-Base/Getting-Started-with-SnakePlane-and-SnakePlane-Pilot-A-Tutorial/ta-p/390354

It might be the closest thing to what you're referencing. It still runs against the AlteryxEngine, but it might allow us to set up unit tests on the tool. As yet I haven't tried doing this, but I think it's closer to what Alteryx is using to develop tools using Python.

Bonus - The tutorial references PyCharm, so you'll get a quick intro to that IDE in the process of reading the article.

I've built a few tools using this now, and I have to say that I still use Jupyter for developing the business logic, but eventually move it into the SnakePlane repo as I build the new tools. This way, I can share all my tool changes with anyone on my team through the git repo and they can contribute PRs etc. through their own work in PyCharm.

Ozzie

Hey Sean,

I usually use vscode for python and javascript code but when it comes to making tools with python sdk and snakeplane, pycharm has been a must for me simply due to the fact that you can attach already running python processes in pycharm. This however isn't as possible in vscode: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-python/issues/1078. With pycharms remote debug session it allows us to debug these tools. (https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/remote-debugging-with-product.html) Hope this helps. Cheers!

-Ozzie

All comments

tlarsen7572

Hi Sean,

I use PyCharm to do my custom tool development. As far as I know, there is no harness available to us.

If you want to see a small example, I have an open-source tool that sorts fields by specifying the order using full field names or regular expressions. Code is on GitHub.

SeanAdams

Thank you @tlarsen7572 - generous and detailed answer.

I've done some of the same things that you've mentioned - build and complete the logic in a regular Python environment; and once it's working; only then insert it into a tool - just figured that there may have been a way to do this all in the IDE (like when you build an Android App, you have the ability to simulate phone events like GPS; rotation etc without leaving the IDE)

Appreciate your response - will log this as an idea in the community and post the link here for clarity.

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