Challenge #5: HR Position Finder Application

We hope you enjoyed last week's challenge. For the fifth challenge let’s look at building an analytic application.

An HR department has a defined hierarchy for job identification across the organization. Depending on the job, the position within the hierarchy can change.

The goal is to create an analytical application that allows a HR rep to enter a position # (in this example, 33333) and return all records where the position is found within the hierarchy system.

We have listed this as an intermediate challenge since parameterizing a workflow and converting it to an application is slightly more advanced however the workflow to answer the question should be beginner level. As always, we love to hear your comments. We hope you are having fun with the challenges!

UPDATE 12/14/2015:
The Solution has been uploaded.

challenge_5_start_file.yxmd

challenge_5_solution.yxwz

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Accepted answers

All comments

TaraM

The Solution to this Exercise has been uploaded.

KatieA

Debug mode in the Interface Designer definitely helped me on this one. Displaying the values that were being passed in by the Action tool helped me figure out where I was going wrong.

Solution attached!

KA_challenge_5.yxwz

SeanAdams

Thank you for this exercise - well worth the time.

Things in my solution that are different to the provided solution:

Spoiler

focused on making this data-aware to practice reading values from DB for interface

- Created a simple process to write all the positions in the provided dataset to a file
- Interface dropdown then reads from a data query (the file in first bullet) - this matches what we'd do if reading the positions from an HR database.   The provided solution uses a static list.
           - QUESTION: I couldn't get the interface component to read direct from a text input - is there an easy way to do this?
- The provided solution hard-codes a formula based on 4 levels.    I used a transpose and searched across the full space (feels like this would be more flexible in the case that more HR levels are added)
- I write the responses out to a file so that the user has some way to see the output
           - QUESTION: Do Analytical apps have the ability to bring up a simple results screen?   Similar to providing the output of a browse window to the Analytical App user so that they can see the result?

Solution attached

challenge_5_seanSolution.yxwz

MarqueeCrew

Good Morning @JoeM

challenge_5_MarqueeCrew.yxzp

NicoleJohnson

My solution.

@SeanAdams- you had a couple question about the app interface. See below my workflow image in the Spoiler for some thoughts/answers I might have found for both your questions?

Spoiler

APP INTERFACE QUESTIONS:
1. Question regarding text input directly to the app interface... I found an article that at least explained why I COULDN'T do it the way I wanted to (i.e. create the list of positions in the workflow and then use that to populate the drop-down list directly). Which is I think maybe what you were trying to do too. Sounds like you have to either manually input in the drop-down configuration screen, or bring in the list from an external source. Article

2. Question about browse results window popping up in app when finished. You can select the browse tool you'd like to display results for in the Interface Designer configuration... see image below. I think that's what you were asking for? Hope that helps!

challenge_5_NicoleJohnson.yxwz

WeeklyChallenge5PositionDB.yxdb

Laurap1228

Finished challenge 5! I created an output .csv file to check the app was working, there are probably other ways to validate this that I am unaware of.

Spoiler

challenge_5_LP.yxwz

estherb47

Spoiler

challenge_5_EHB_solution.yxwz

DE0413

This was a little bit of a challenge because I haven't worked with the interactive tools very much. First I had to review the "Build an App" tutorial in the Alteryx help menu. After that, I was able to solve and pretty much did the same as the posted solution but included an output to Excel.

AlteryxWeeklyChallengeWeek5.yxwz

Phil_L57

Annoying about not being able to populate the drop-down tool with input rows

challenge_5_start_file vPL.yxwz

LordNeilLord

I put off doing this one because I'm not so confident with Apps & Macros but this was actually OK, I even added an additional "save as" dialog for good measure:

Spoiler

challenge_5_LNL.yxwz

KOBoyle

Solution attached. I wasn't aware you could capture the drop-down selection with the Text Input tool. That was useful to learn after seeing the solution.

Ken

challenge_5_solution_KO.yxwz

JORGE4900

Here the solution for week five.

challenge_5_Jorge_solution.yxmd

JORGE4900

@KOBoyle I like that you give the option to select a file where to store the output; in this way, the user can actually view the results of the app.

nick_ceneviva

Solution attached

challenge_5_solution_Ceneviva.yxwz

JORGE4900

Hey @nick_ceneviva

I like the way your app works; do you mind sharing the workflow?

JORGE4900

For some reason the app did not get saved; here they are.

challenge_5_Jorge_solution.yxmd

challenge_5_Jorge_solution.yxwz

philipmannering

Had some trouble automatically updating the user selection from an input tool. Turns out you have to have the values in the headers...which is bizarre. Anyone confirm that I've done this correctly?

Anyway here's my solution...

Spoiler

challenge_5 - My First App.yxwz

Amarendra

Anyone has a solution as a direct input from the select tool? I had to manually enter the values. Solution attached.

Amar_challenge_5_start_file.yxwz

philipmannering

@Amarendra You mean a bit like my solution posted just before yours?

dheerajpoojari

Attaching my solution which is dynamic based on the input.

Spoiler

challenge_5_start_file_Dheer.yxwz

jamielaird

Here's how I approached this one. Solution file attached.

Spoiler

1) Created a unique set of position numbers and transposed them to field names for use in a Drop Down tool.

Screen Shot 2017-08-20 at 18.34.34.png

2) Passed the selected value into the workflow and appended to the original source table, to create a 'match' value.

Screen Shot 2017-08-20 at 18.34.45.png

3) Found and filtered the matched records and outputted to a YXDB.

Screen Shot 2017-08-20 at 18.34.55.png

challenge_5_solution_jamie-laird.yxzp

Natasha

Love the header trick from @PhilipMannering

Spoiler

challenge_5_NK.yxwz

patrick_digan

Spoiler

I like passing interface tools like %Question.Name% since it uses one less tool (no action tool). I used the arrange and crosstab tools to reorient the data so I populate the dropdown.

challenge_5_start_file.yxwz

jdunkerley79

Don't build apps that often, nice example. And like the dynamic drop down solution

Spoiler

challenge_5_jd.yxwz

vkarthik21

Used the transpose alongside Row number method to obtain the result set. I still can't understand what tehse apps are all about. Will read up on them. Solution attached

challenge_5_VK.yxwz

JoshKushner

Please find my solution to challenge #5 attached. This was a great introduction to analytic apps!

challenge_5_start_file.yxwz

michael_d

Fairly self explanatory this one, good practise for those who are unfamilar with building an Analytical App.

The only thing I don't like about them is I always find myself using the Fields from a connected tool option, would be nice to able to use unique records from a selected field or something like that!

Another down side with that option is that you must run the App as a workflow first, before you can see any options in the Apps dropdown menu, caught me out a few times.

Thanks,

Michael

challenge_5_start_file.yxwz

dsmdavid

Also with output to file to check later

solved#5.yxwz

peter_gb

I also went for the somewhat hacky approach of feeding the values into the drop down tool via reshaping data values to field names. However I don't believe this to be the best solution, as the workflow has to run in order to populate the dropdown, running the isolated app (having no instance of alteryx open and clicking the yxwz), brought up a blank drop down. The best solution would probably be writing the values to a yxdb, the copy and paste values feels a bit too manual.

I made use of the [field] IN (x1,x2,x3) function which is an underused favourite of mine.

For the app output I rendered a basic html table as .pcxml, just because I use this on a few apps hosted on alteryx server to immediately display a rendered output.

Spoiler

challenge_5_pgb.yxwz

samN

Not sure if i was supposed to have it dynamically pull in unique options for user to choose from so set up some logic for that. Rest was pretty simple.

challenge_5.yxwz

aclaxton

Well I definitely did this the hard way!

Spoiler

Waynemk

challenge_5_waynek.yxwz

ggruccio

Great exercise! I don't do much app development, so stretched me a bit.

challenge_5_gg_finish.yxwz

NurulShi12

Scratched my head a bit on the Analytics App part. Attached is my solution.

NS_Challenge 5.yxwz

LandonG

First time to create an analytic app!

challenge_5_start_file.yxwz

jasperlch

A good exercise on Analytic App.

Solution attached.

challenge_5_JL.yxwz

Treyson

The Alteryx gallery is a crazy awesome tool to allow users to create their own data based on how the app was developed!

challenge_5_TM.yxwz

MMehdi

Hi Nicole,

Actually, it is possible to dynamically update the Drop Down component using a position list created in the worflow.

I made it work, see the right structure below :

Spoiler

Required structure for Drop Down

MMehdi

Hi Phil,

Actually, it is possible to dynamically update the Drop Down component using a position list created in the worflow.

I made it work, see the right structure below :

Spoiler

jvansistine

challenge_5_solution_jvs.yxwz

mceleavey

Ok, having just written my little macro that scrapes the challenges index and which ones I've done I can now see the gaps.

So, starting back near the beginning and working my through...

Spoiler

First, I gave each line a record ID and transposed to get all values in one column. I then took one stream, filtered out the nulls and created a dummy value to use in the cross-tab. I then cross-tabbed the data and this became the values on the drop-down I was to use as a selector. This I then fed into a filter which was attached to the original stream. This applies the filter to the position number. This narrowed down the records to those that contain the value selected, joined it back to the original stream on the record ID and cross-tabbed back.
A simple dynamic rename tool sorted out the column headers.

challenge 5 workflow.PNG

challenge_5_solution_mceleavey.yxwz

asteryx

@SeanAdams With analytic apps, you don't get output unless you go to the Interface Designer (View menu) and select the tools whose output you want displayed.

Check the box "On Success - Show Results to User" and then choose the tools you want shown. (When you select a tool, its assigned number shows up at the top of its Configuration window.)

I'm not sure about your other question.

NapasornCh

To avoid manually set the drop down value

Spoiler

1. Use 4 select tools to rename all the fields to be the same name (e.g. position number, key, etc) and then union these four streams into one column.