Location Data Knowledge Base

Update Allocate Append tool using XML   You’re running a process to select certain variables to be used within a model. You’ve built your process, but you’re getting tired of having to run it twice. Once to pull thousands of variables to check for relevance, and a second time with just the variables you want to include in the final model based on the tests you’ve run.   There’s good news! You can use the Action tool within the Interface toolset to update the Raw XML of the Allocate Append tool to dynamically select the variables you want to use, and it’s not as hard as you might think.   The first thing we need to do is find out what the XML code is for the variables we want to use, and the format it needs to be in for the Allocate Append tool to recognize it. You can enable the XML view from the User Settings menu (Options -> User Settings -> Edit User Settings). On the Advanced tab, there is a check box to “Display XML in Properties Window”:   Once you’ve checked the box, return to your Allocate Append tool, or any tool on your canvas, and you’ll see a new option on the right hand side that will allow you to see the XML code the tool is creating.   From here you can get the format you need for the XML code that we’ll pass into the macro to be created later.   Once you know the variables you want to use, you can use the variable name (code, not description) to build out the XML string as show above. If you select multiple variables, what you’ll notice is that they are each on their own line under the “<Variables>” tag in the XML code. The list you make must follow the same format:   In the sample workflow attached, you’ll see that I am using a Text Input tool to simulate the data stream that contains the fully compiled XML strings needed. As you will most likely see in your data, I have one variable per record. The problem is I need all of the variables in the same cell, on their own line. So how do we combine the records into one, and add a new line?   The answer is we use the Summarize tool. Within the Summarize tool we can use the Concat function to combine the XML strings into a single cell, and in the concatenate Properties section, we can indicate that we want to use a new line as the separator by typing in \n.   Now that the prep work is done, all we need to do is pass this new variable list into the Allocate Append tool through XML. This can be achieved with a simple Batch Macro. For the Control Parameter you want to use the Variable list that we just created. The Control Parameter gets connected to the Allocate Append tool which adds the Action tool as shown below. In your Action tool, select the option to “Update Raw XML with Formula”, expand the options under Allocate Append until you see “Variables” and highlight that section. You’ll want to update the Inner XML, and the formula to use is the connection from the Control Parameter as shown below.        Once you have this set up, simply add your Macro Input (for your incoming data stream) and Macro Output (to feed back into your workflow) to complete the macro set up.   Return to your original workflow, insert your newly created Batch Macro and connect your inputs. Your variable list stream will feed into the ¿ input, and your main data stream to the other.   You’re now set to dynamically change the variables you are pulling! Simply run your process for selecting relevant variables, build your XML strings through the Formula tool and pass them into your macro.

If you need more geographical information on a coordinate, try converting it into a spatial object and using the Find Nearest Tool to find coinciding Experian geographical data from an Allocate Input Tool.

How to troubleshoot when the Allocate Append tool returns zeros. 

You just reverse geocoded latitude/longitude coordinates, now you need structured address fields, right?

What to do when you see the "CASS engine appears to not be installed" error.

Do you pull in demographic variables from the Allocate toolset and then use a formula tool for some basic math functions on those variables? Summing them together for example?

Ever wonder about the “behind-the-scenes” calculations of Alteryx’s drive times?  How does Alteryx know how long it would take to travel from Point A to Point B?  This post explores the “speed” variable used to calculate Drivetimes.

This note is to alert users of 2010 Census SF1 Data in the Core and Spatial Data Bundles (including Q4 2015) of the reversed values in a report template. The report SF1 2010 Report - US Census 2010 Overview Comparison reflects reversed values for % Hispanic and % Not Hispanic. The corrected report will be included in Q1 2016.  This report can also be updated in a desktop install now by overwriting the existing report template with the corrected report template.   Action required: Replace the incorrect report template file Close open instances of Alteryx or Allocate Download, unzip and extract US Census 2010 Overview Comparison.rptx from the Community Article to the local Alteryx location. A typical install location is C:\Program Files (x86)\Alteryx\DataProducts\Portfolio\ALTERYX_US_Census_2010_SF1_15D\Reports Overwrite the existing template dated from 2011 with the updated templated dated 4/18/2016 Launch Alteryx or Allocate and generate output for the report SF1 2010 Report - US Census 2010 Overview Comparison  If you have other concerns or need assistance with these instructions, please contact our Customer Support team at support@alteryx.com.   How do you know if the report is corrected? Generate the report SF1 2010 Report - US Census 2010 Overview Comparison for the United States and review the fields % Hispanic and % Not-Hispanic. Depending upon the version of data installed the values may differ slightly but the proportions will be similar to the image below.     If you have other concerns or need assistance with these instructions, please contact our Customer Support team at support@alteryx.com.  

Behavior Analysis users installing Q3 2016 US Experian data should read!

The 2021 scheduled release dates for the standard Data packages.

UK-ROI Geocoder relies on TomTom web services, so make sure to whitelist api.tomtom.com at the firewall or proxy level!

Access is denied when user attempts to install CASS datasets both Locally and at the Network level

The Q2 2020 Business and Location Insights data packages are now available for your analysis. The packages include analytics-ready data from a variety of vendors as well as data-specific analysis tools which will empower users to get the most from the packaged data. Here’s what you have to look forward to in this release!

The Q3 2020 Business and Location Insights data packages are now available for your analysis. The packages include analytics-ready data from a variety of vendors as well as data-specific analysis tools which will empower users to get the most from the packaged data. Here’s what you have to look forward to in this release!

The Q1 2021 Business and Location Insights data packages are now available to plug into your analytic processes.

This article will be taking a look at the underlying formulas that constitute built-in and virtual variables

You know what really stinks? Working with addresses that aren’t standardized or verified. Whether human-input, or one of the many address formatting standards in the U.S., being stuck with an address you can’t either (1) identify or (2) ensure it exists can be a real pain in the… well…\n  \n CASS is here to help!

How to find the latest CASS datasets

Have you recently updated your Alteryx version, and now are getting an error when you try to run workflows that use Spatial Data? This article outlines the symptoms, diagnosis, and solution for the Error: “The Designer .x64 reported: InboundNamedPipe::ReadFile: Not enough bytes read. Overlapped I/O operation is in progress.” message associated with Spatial Tools.

The ConsumerView Matching macro enables users to match their customer file to the Experian ConsumerView data. Starting with customer information such as name and address you can leverage the ConsumerView macro in Alteryx to append a variety of information about your customers such as household segmentation, home purchase price, presence of children in a home, estimated education and income levels, length of residence, and many more!

There are thousands of unique coded values in ConsumerView: 4,070 to be exact! It can be overwhelming to have to look them up. Fear not! The ConsumerView Output Decoder brings back the functionality of the ConsumerView Renaming Macro, but is now included with our data releases as of Q4 2019.