As we already know from reading other blogs on the phData website, Alteryx Designer is a process automation platform enabling users to prepare, blend, and analyze data from various sources.
If you are new to this world and want to understand more about the Alteryx Designer universe, please see our comprehensive blog, Getting Started With Alteryx Designer.
In late 2024, Alteryx released a new version of Alteryx Designer and Alteryx Server, 2024.2. In this blog, we will cover the major new features of Designer, including demonstrations of how to use the newly added tools. If you are an Alteryx Server administrator/user, don’t worry! We will soon have a blog covering the new features and installation procedures.
Without further ado, let’s start this new journey of knowledge!
New features in Alteryx Designer 2024.2
Beforehand, we will not cover all the new features. Only the most relevant ones, in our humble judgment. Let’s go to them:
Proxy Authentication Updates
Updated Expression Editor
Addition of the Rank tool
Google Cloud Storage Data Source
Custom Tool Defaults
Custom Tool Connection Colors
Multi-line Captions for Containers
Suppress Blank Files in Output Data Tool
Group By Functionality in Record ID Tool
Retain Special Characters within Columns in Cross Tab Tool
JSON Parse Tool Handling of Semi-structured Data
SSH Authentication Support for Download Tool
New Tool Palette Preset: AMP Compatible Tools
Override ODBC Connection Timeout
Proxy Authentication Updates
The Designer’s User Settings’ proxy configuration and authentication options have been improved. Among the enhancements, now you can choose between different proxy methods such as (Internet Options, PAC script, Manual configuration, and/or even use Data Connection Manager (DCM) to create connections and authentication credentials for use with proxies.
Remember that the IT/Security team usually provides proxy settings. It is important to consult them and ask for help deciding which settings should be applied.
Additionally, keep in mind that those enhancements to the proxy configuration are specific to Alteryx Designer only. The new proxy settings in Designer and DCM are not synced with Server.
Updated Expression Editor
The new feature here uses the same expression editor as the filter and formula tools, but this time, it is in the Multi-Field Formula and Multi-Row Formula tools.
Since the first versions of Designer, writing formulas and expressions in these tools has always been almost entirely manual and without any indication of visual coloring for syntax validation/correction. This should help new users looking to use these more advanced tools.
Addition of the Rank tool
The Rank tool is a new addition to the Preparation tool category in Designer. It has built-in ranking functionality and lets you rank your data quickly and accurately without the need for complex workarounds or multiple tools.Â
In the example above, we are ranking a list of students based on 2 criteria: grade (descending) and age (ascending). Note that there are several ranking type options, and we can even combine more than one simultaneously. The same applies to the group by section. Additionally, using the Dictionary Order according to the desired language is still possible.
This is an excellent addition to save time. After all, we all have needed to create some kind of ranking at some point, and we have certainly had to use more than one tool for this.
Google Cloud Storage Data Source
From now on, it is also possible to consult and write data from Google Cloud Storage using the already native and well-known Input Data and Output Data tools. But keep in mind that this feature is only supported while using DCM!
Additionally, pay attention to the supported file formats. Please check the official documentation to understand how to configure the necessary parameters for your environment.
Custom Tool Defaults
When you modify a tool’s configuration, you can save your settings as a default. With that, the next time you use the tool, it will default to your custom configuration. To do this, click the pencil icon in the lower-left corner of the desired tool’s configuration screen. See the demonstration in the screenshot below:
You can restore the tool configuration to the system default from there.
I don’t particularly find the idea very useful, as this option will be used in an extremely specific way.
Custom Tool Connection Colors
Now, you can customize the color of individual workflow connection lines between tools. This customization option theoretically improves workflow readability, documentation, and overall workflow organization. But of course, depending on the size of the workflow, the number of connections can become a huge tangle of wires that makes visibility very confusing and limited.
Always remember to organize your workflow tools using all the best practices techniques, such as annotations, comments, wireless connections, and containers!
And since we’re talking about containers…
Multi-line Captions for Containers
When you add a new container, you have additional formatting control. You can manually enter multiple lines of text in the container title. In theory (again), this can condense the space a workflow takes up on your canvas, resulting in an improved overall Designer experience and allowing users to review workflows faster.
Suppress Blank Files in Output Data Tool
A new setting in the Output Data tool options lets you suppress the output of data if the Output Data tool doesn’t receive any records. But this works only if the output file is XLSX or XLSM. This means, for example, that a blank tab with header labels isn’t written to Excel if there are no records to be written. You can select the Suppress Output if No Records Exist setting when you output to Excel file types.
Again, this feature is only available for Excel output files. When trying to use another option, such as CSV, it is not even listed in the tool’s configuration menu.
Group By Functionality in Record ID Tool
Now, you can group your data by column in the Record ID tool. The first record for each group is assigned the value you specify in the tool’s configuration’s Starting Value field.
Retain Special Characters within Columns in Cross Tab Tool
You can now elect to retain special characters within column/field names in the Cross Tab tool. See the screenshot below:
I’m using a very simple dataset as an example here:
Previously, these characters were automatically converted to underscores. See the screenshot below:
And now, with the Retain Special Characters in New Column Names option selected:
Note: This Cross Tab tool configuration option is only available when the AMP engine is enabled!
JSON Parse Tool Handling of Semi-structured Data
If you are a user who needs to deal with semi-structured JSON files, these new features can be quite useful. The JSON Parse tool has added two new functions: Unnest JSON Field and Flatten Array.
The first option allows JSON objects to be unnested in columns. It goes only one level deeper into the JSON object.Â
The second allows you to expand a JSON array column by removing the square brackets. It creates a separate row for each element separated by a comma and assigns an ID for each row. This applies only to columns that have array values.
You can access​​ the specific documentation for these features here to​​ better understand the topic and see practical examples, access the specific documentation for these features here. And remember that they also only work with AMP enabled.
SSH Authentication Support for Download Tool
For the older ones (like me) who needed to access some Unix machines remotely via the command line in the past, SSH is a well-known protocol we use. Younger people have likely already used this protocol to authenticate on SFTP servers.
Age differences aside, now you can use an SSH key as an authentication method with the Download tool to connect to your SFTP. First, you must create your SSH Key File by generating an SSH Key Pair.
Once you have the file, you just need to click on the Setup a Connection button in the tool configuration and then select the Credentials section on the left side. After that, you just need to put the respective information about your credentials and the key pair file. See the screenshot below:
To see all the details about this feature, please access the official documentation: SSH Authentication Configuration.
New Tool Palette Preset: AMP Compatible Tools
A new tool palette preset allows you to quickly configure your Designer tool palette to display only AMP-compatible tools. Just click on the gear in the top right corner of your Designer to open the Tool Palette configuration screen shown below:
In the Preset dropdown, select the AMP Compatible option and click OK.
Override ODBC Connection Timeout
Last but not least, a new user setting lets you increase the connection timeout limit (in seconds) to ensure that you can connect to remote data sources that might not respond on time.
Only change this setting if absolutely necessary in a situation such as high network latency or even connection delay due to some network factor that justifies the connection delay, such as VPN tunnels.
To change that setting, you just need to open the User Settings menu and scroll down to the bottom of the General section:
Closing
As described at the beginning of this blog, we intended to briefly demonstrate some of the new functionality added in the 2024.2 release of Alteryx Designer. But if you are interested in checking them all and delving even deeper into the topic, always use the official Alteryx documentation as a reference: What’s New in Designer 2024.2.
If you’re looking for professional help to develop your Alteryx Designer workflows or simply getting the most value out of the Alteryx Server platform and its features, phData would love to help!
Reach out to us for any questions, advice, or best practices.
