Issue Rendering Formatting in an Output Workbook

[shaantrika]

Hi there,

Hope everyone is doing well.

I am creating this post as I am having an issue with a simple workflow I am trying to put together. I've seen a couple other posts on this topic but neither really addressed the original question that was asked, nor did they apply to my specific flow.

I have attached the workbooks "Fruits", "Veggies", "Formatter", and "Expected Output".

The first 3 workbooks are used in the flow I have created, while the "Expected Output" workbook represents what I would like the final outcome to look like.

Essentially I want to keep the formatting that is rendered in the first step of the block until done tool, but add that formatted output to a final workbook called "Current Output".

I have attached the flow that I have used to reach this point. The result that I currently am receiving after running the flow appends the combined fruits and veggies spreadsheet to the output workbook as desired, however it only applies the formatting to the "Formatter" sheet, and not in our appended output. Instead, in our appended final output ("Current Output"), it creates a column called "Table" that has many HTML div class tags underneath and does not apply the formatting (not sure why it is doing this, maybe styling tags that aren't being applied for some reason?). I have attached a screenshot of this issue as well in a reply to my own post as it only allows 5 attachments at a time.

What's the simplest way to reach my "Expected Output" using this flow method? Would greatly appreciate your help.

Thank you,

Shaan

[shaantrika]

Screenshotted issue attached as a reply to myself (max of 5 attachments per post).

[kathleenmonks]

Hi @shaantrika 

The render tool is needed in order to output a formatted table (as you did with 'formatter.xlsx'). I've attached a screenshot that shows the data on the input anchor of the output tool. The "Table" column is going to output as html div tags unless you use a render tool instead. Let me know if this helps or if I am misunderstanding your problem!

[shaantrika]

Hi Kathleen,

Thank you for your response.

I understand that the render tool outputs to a formatted table. What I need to do is take this formatted output from the render and append it to a new sheet in an existing workbook (for the purposes of this question I have tried to append it to a workbook that was created with the output tool called "Current Output", in my larger situation it will be appended to an existing workbook as a sheet tab at the end). This way I have my formatted output as well as previously existing sheets (which may be unformatted) in the same workbook.

So the two questions are:

1. How do I keep the formatting from our formatted render, which exists in our rendered "Formatter.xlsx" file, and append it properly to an existing workbook?

2. How can I we output to an xlsx with formatted output from the render tool? If it won't work properly with the append, is there another approach to this?

Please let me know if this makes a bit more sense.

Thank you,

Shaan

[kathleenmonks]

Ah @shaantrika , I see now. Thank you for the clarifications. The render tool will always overwrite the existing excel file. In order to do what you mentioned above, you can create the formatting you want in the destination sheet (do this inside of Excel and not Alteryx so that the whole workbook isn't overwritten every time) and then in the output tool, check the box for "Preserve formatting on overwrite." The output option will also have to be set to "Overwrite Sheet or Range." 

[apathetichell]

One approach would be - block until done - create two sheets in Render - 1) your formatted output. 2) a placeholder sheet for your raw/unformatted data. 2) from a different part of your block until done output data over your placeholder sheet.

[Amol_Telore]

Hey @shaantrika 

I have created a a workflow which may solve your concern. I have followed below steps.

1. I have created Formatted output using new data.
2. Transferring data from existing file (Current Output File in your scenario) to formatted file.
3. Transferring data from formatted file(New data with formatting + Old data W/o formatting) to final file using blob input as it retains the formatting.

Hope this solves your concerns. Attached is the workflow.

Edit 1: Attached workflow. It was missed to attach last time.

Regards,

Amol Telore