Cut the Clutter and Run Only What You Need in Designer

[RithiS]

Partial Workflow Execution: Speed Up Your Workflow Development!

If you've spent time working on large workflows in Alteryx Designer, you know waiting for the whole workflow to run can be a drag—especially when you just changed one tiny piece. That’s why I’m excited about a brand-new feature in the 2025.1 release: Partial Workflow Execution.

What is Partial Workflow Execution?

With Partial Workflow Execution, you can run your workflow up to a specific tool instead of running the entire thing. This is perfect when you're testing or tweaking just part of a workflow that might have dozens of tools and large datasets. You no longer need to manually disable containers or create workarounds to isolate sections—Alteryx Designer now lets you do this directly.

Why is This Feature So Useful?

Save Time:
Instead of waiting for your whole workflow, you only run what's necessary. This can significantly speed up your testing and development, letting you focus more on the changes that matter.

Enhancing Workflow Development & Debugging:
No more adding and removing containers. You just right-click on a tool and run it!

How to Use Partial Workflow Execution

Here’s how easy it is:

1. Select a Tool: Right-click on the tool you want to run up to.

Select tool’s context menu showing the new option ‘Run Until Selected Tool’.

2. Choose the Option: Click "Run Until Selected Tool" in the context menu.
3. Run the Workflow: Alteryx executes only up to the selected tool. You’ll see that tools downstream are marked as disabled, clearly indicating they're not being executed this time around.

The Browse tool is disabled after the partial workflow run.

Things to Keep in Mind

• Partial Workflow Execution works exclusively with the AMP Engine.
• You can select multiple tools if your workflow has separate data streams.
• The feature also supports cached workflows, making iterative testing even quicker.

The Text Input tool is cached first then then a partial workflow run disables the Browse tool.

This run occurred on a single workflow run. Partial workflow runs can work across multiple tools and separate connection streams.

When to Use Partial Executions vs Containers

While disabling a container also provides a similar experience, partial executions are great to use when you do not want to deal with a container on the canvas. You can quickly right-click on a tool and select the partial execution option, whereas containers require you to add a group of tools to the container and then disable it before running. You don’t need to manage the container or downstream tools through this new option.

However, containers are still valuable when you are building macros and analytic apps. Using containers properly will allow you to include complex run logic within the workflow. This ensures that only parts of the workflow are triggered as needed, which can be very important for runs on Cloud Execution for Desktop or on Alteryx Server.

Try It Out in Alteryx Designer 2025.1

Ready to speed up your workflow development? Check out the new 2025.1 release of Alteryx Designer here and let me know what you think in the comments below!

What do you think about Partial Workflow Execution? Do you have any suggestions to make it even better?

[abacon]

Hi @RithiS,

This looks like a fantastic addition—I’m really looking forward to trying it out in my development work.

While tool and control containers are helpful, this will be especially valuable for the ad-hoc workflows we build daily that aren’t meant for scheduled runs. I can see myself using this almost every day once we upgrade to 2025.1.

– Bacon

[RithiS]

Thanks, @abacon. That's really nice to hear you could potentially use this so much. We would love to hear your feedback on how to make it better.

[TheOC]

Love this feature! I feel like this + cache and run will massively speed up production/maintenance of XL workflows.

[EKasminsky]

This looks really helpful and I'll have to remember it exists. Can we set it to "Cache Until Selected Tool" as well without running the entire workflow and just what we need it to?

[RithiS]

Are you referring to the Cache and Run Workflow option? Because yes, you can cache the workflow first and then use the 'Run Until Selected Tool' option to run what you just need

[EKasminsky]

So there is no way to "Cache and Run Until Selected Tool" but you have to first cache the workflow, then use the run until selected tool.

[NeoInfiniTech]

This new feature really sped up my development process and eliminated the need to create a Debug Workflow each time I wanted to test a specific part of an Analytic App, thank you!

I think that the Analytic App interface can also benefit from this development, given that this is a feature that can be dynamically specified in any tool's configuration in the future, which would make it possible for this idea to become a reality.

[RithiS]

@EKasminsky that is correct, you have to currently use them separately in order. I will share that feedback with out Designer product team. Feel free to submit that idea on Community for more visibility and if you think others can benefit. Thank you.

[RithiS]

@NeoInfiniTech that's really nice feedback. I will share that with our Designer product team. Thank you.