In the following, we’ll examine some of our favorite features that in the newest release of Alteryx – let’s get into it!
Alteryx Designer
We’re at the last main release for Alteryx in 2020, and while many of us are “waving” this year goodbye, Tessellation is WELCOMING many of the features released – so let’s take a look.
AMP. IT. UP!
My favorite feature (that I truly valued when renewing my Advanced certification) was 2020.2’s release of AMP: Alteryx Multi-threaded Processing.
This is new architecture of the Alteryx engine that can’t be highlighted enough. As the name implies, AMP is a multi-threaded concept of processing your data in parallel packets. In contrast, the original engine architecture processes your data record-by-record and sequentially when running the workflow.
In 2020.4, AMP is expanded even further:
- Runtime tab is now available via the Workflow Configuration window.
- Complete Formula function support
- Sort/Join Memory and Threads Improvements
- Full functionality for the Summarize and Download tools
- and loads more!
Python...
In 2020.4, Alteryx upgraded the Python version embedded in Alteryx from Python 3.6.8 to Python 3.8.5.
This is an important change to note, and all of us that have custom Python tools should learn how this upgrade could impact us.
Alteryx also laid out a good path to make our upgrades as smooth and easy as possible. For example, us Python tool developers can validate our tools for other users via the previously linked pages.
Final Python note: I thought there might be even more additions to the awesomeness of Python in Alteryx in this release, so I am very much looking forward to the upcoming 2021 releases of Alteryx, in terms of Python SDK enhancements!
Data + Data + Data
MORE DATA PLZ
Sample Datasets are now accessible directly via the Designer Help menu. Go to Help > Sample Datasets.
Here’s what John Emery, Weekly Challenge extraordinaire, likes about this new feature in 2020.4:
Alteryx 2020.4 has made access to their 200+ data sets much easier. Gone are the days of hunting for hours to find the perfect data set: just hop into Alteryx, head into the Help menu, and they are right there at your fingertips. I love this new improvement. After writing hundreds of pages of training material for Tessellation, I have amassed a collection of several dozen real-life data sets. Collecting the data for my Alteryx training materials took many hours; if I did not have to search for it, my writing and example creation process would have been much simpler.
Alteryx Server
Enough with the those Alteryx Designer updates...Aidan is already skipping ahead to the server enhancements. Let’s try to keep up!
Server + AAH (Alteryx Analytics Hub)!
Here’s what Tessellation’s resident server guru, Aidan Bramel, had to say about server and AAH:
First of all: I love the new Analytics Hub, in general. But an underrated feature that I'm REALLY excited to see is the ability to add workflow credentials from the Designer while publishing. As an admin, I can't tell you how many support cases I got asking why the workflow validation showed a failure when connecting to a shared drive, when the issue was almost always just that workflow credentials needed to be added to run on server. I'm excited to see one very common point of confusion resolved with this awesome solution!
And why not assign the use of RunAs credentials to custom user groups with Server to grant a group RunAs permissions to run workflows as if they were under a specific user account? We can now!
Enhance...enhance...
So many enhancements to current Server, make sure to check them all out!
- Share Credentials with User Groups
- Add User Groups to Collections
- Better Credentials User Experience
- New API Schedule Forecaster Endpoint
- Improvement to Oauth in Interactive Gallery API Documentation
But wait, there's more!
Make sure to also check out TJ’s recap of the latest features on the community. For every detail and technical update, make sure to refer to the release notes located at Alteryx’s documentation page.
Next up for Alteryx? 2021.1! Join me as a BETA program participant where we can explore the “What’s Next” of the Alteryx Platform.
