Getting Started With the Server API Tool

[PhilipB]

If you need a way to automate administrative tasks on your Alteryx Server, we have good news for you. The Server API Tool is here to help! This tool provides a stable, modernized way to leverage all of the great API features of Alteryx Server without needing to know how to write API calls. Even better, you can embed the Server API Tool directly into Alteryx workflows, which opens a lot of options for automation.  

The possibilities are almost limitless--schedule weekly/monthly audit workflows to analyze and identify new User accounts; report on most popular workflows and most active users; create new Collections and automatically assign users; chain workflows together by using Server API Tool to add another workflow to the Server queue. And so many more!

Let’s take a look at how to install and use it.

Prerequisites

In order to get this tool set up on your machine, go through these steps:

1. Read through this overview article about the Server APIs (5 minutes). This article walks through the endpoints available, how to construct API calls, and authentication.

2. Read this overview on the Server API tool (3 minutes).

3. Download the Server API tool from the Maveryx Community here (30 seconds).

4. Double-click the .yxi file you downloaded to install the tool (10 seconds).

Using the Tool

1. In Alteryx Designer, search for the Server API tool and drag it onto an Alteryx workflow canvas. You can also find it in your Developer tool palette.

2. You'll need your Admin API Key and Secret. You can find them in the Keys section under My Profile in the Alteryx Gallery.

3. Configure the tool by entering your API Key and Secret and selecting a method and an endpoint.  I highlighted a GET method below. Then, run the workflow.  In the example below, the Server API tool will retrieve a list of all workflows on this Server. You can also select many other endpoints for different tasks.

4. In the S anchor of the tool, you'll see the output of the API call. In this example, we see results containing information on workflows, including subscription owner and run count.

The Server API tool is powerful for the administration and governance of the Server. To learn more about Alteryx governance best practices, check out this article that includes a governance checklist.

Download the Server API tool and add it to your governance toolkit!