What's New in Designer

We've added a new option that lets you partially execute your workflow up until a specific tool. Simply right-click a tool on your workflow canvas and choose Run Until Selected Tool. The workflow runs immediately, and any tools after the selected tool are displayed as inactive in the workflow. This option helps you develop, test, and modify specific sections of your workflow without the need to execute the entire workflow. It saves time and simplifies the workflow development process, especially when working with large workflows. For details, go to Build Workflows.

We've added functionality to the Write Data In-DB, Data Stream In (Pre SQL only), and Data Stream Out tools to support Pre and Post SQL statements.

We’ve created a new Data Cleanse tool that is natively supported by AMP engine. Data Cleanse Pro improves performance and provides new functionality (for example, the ability to strip HTML and XML tags). For details, go to Data Cleanse Pro tool.

The Generate Rows tool now uses the same new expression editor as the Formula and Filter tools. The new expression editor has a more modern UI, syntax highlighting, and predictive text.

We've added new formula functions:

You can find these anywhere functions are available.

We've added Concatenate Distinct functionality to the Summarize tool options. You can now consolidate your data by concatenating it into one row without duplicates, without resorting to multiple-tool workarounds.

We've added Count Distinct aggregation methods to the Cross Tab tool. You can now calculate Count Distinct or Count Distinct Non Null values within a group of data quickly, without the need to resort to multiple-tool workarounds.

In the 24.2 release, we added a new setting in the Output Data tool options that lets you suppress the output of data if the Output Data tool doesn't receive any records (XLSX and XLSM file types). This option is now available for CSV and YXDB files as well. Go to File Format Options for details.

We have added an Apply button in User Settings to let you apply your changes while leaving the dialog window open. This button lets you view and adjust changes you've made without closing the User Settings dialog window. This is especially valuable for settings that have a visual change, such as themes and languages.

We’ve updated additional Designer alerts and system dialog messages to use a modern interface that improves user experience and provides consistency with other Alteryx products.

We’ve added a workflow configuration runtime setting to let you set a default time zone for executing your workflow. You can use your machine’s local time or customize the time zone. This setting affects the Date Time Now tool and DateTime functions that use time zones (DateTimeNow, DateTimeNowPrecise, DateTimeStart, DateTimeToLocal, DateTimeToUTC, DateTimeParse, and DateTimeFormat).

We've added a One Tool Example for the recently released Rank tool and updated it to address unexpected configuration behavior when no Ranking Type is selected. Additionally, the Use Dictionary Order setting now pulls from your User Settings.

We've fully converted the Make Columns tool to work with the AMP engine.

We’ve made several updates and enhancements to the save/open options between Designer and Alteryx Analytics Cloud (AAC):

The new Cloud Link Wizard streamlines the setup and management of cloud connections in Alteryx Analytics Cloud (AAC). With a simple, guided workflow, you can easily configure connections by selecting a predefined region or entering a custom cloud instance URL. Connections are authenticated through a secure browser flow and are automatically saved with labels for easy identification and reuse. Go to Cloud Link Wizard for details and configuration information.

Alteryx Designer now supports Azure Synapse and SQL Server deployments within Microsoft Fabric when data is stored in Delta format on OneLake. With this enhancement, both input and output operations are now fully supported.

Qlik Cloud is now a supported data source in Alteryx. This update enables seamless integration with Qlik Cloud, allowing users to connect, browse Spaces and collections, and retrieve files directly within the Output tool. For more information, go to Qlik Cloud.

Alteryx users can now leverage the Starburst Data Source Connector to seamlessly access and interact with data across multiple sources through the Starburst data virtualization platform. This integration offers a secure, unified connectivity experience, allowing you to read and write data to all your underlying sources using a single connector. For more information, go to Starburst.

Alteryx Designer now supports service account authentication for ODBC data sources using the OAuth client credential flow. This feature enables secure, token-based authentication, allowing you to connect to databases without using individual credentials. Supported technologies include MS SQL Server, Snowflake, Google BigQuery, Databricks, Azure Synapse Analytics, and more. With this update, you can streamline authentication, enhance security, and simplify access management across multiple data sources. For more information, go to Generic Service Account Authentication.

The Download tool now supports NTLM authentication.

We will gradually end support for several file formats. We have added warning messages in Designer to alert you of the upcoming changes and encourage you to migrate to a suitable alternative file format. Additionally, we removed Read and Write support for these files in new workflows. This involves removing these options from the Single Access Point menu. You can still enter the file format via file browse or enter it in a path.

These file types will be phased out:

For details, go to Deprecation of MDB, SZ, MID/MIF, GEO Connectors.

The new proxy options are supported for all web API calls made by Designer (with the exception of any calls made to Alteryx Server). Additionally, Designer components that use Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) support the new proxy options. This includes Global Search and the Start Here window.

You can now configure PeerValidationBypass.txt with Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN) that contain one or more instances of the wildcard * (asterisk) and the '?' (question mark) character. For details, go to Peer Validation Allow List.

You can now apply a Sensitivity Label ID and ID of the Purview Tenant via the Output Data tool (output to Excel file) or the Email tool (applies to the email message). The Label ID and Tenant ID can be obtained from your IT team/Azure Admin. Labels that require encryption are not supported.

The Alteryx Marketplace feature is now Dark Mode compatible. Additionally, tool configuration windows for the In/Out, Preparation, Parse, Join, and Transform tool categories are now Dark Mode compatible. We will continue to update the remaining tool configuration windows to be Dark Mode compatible in future releases.

We have upgraded the embedded Python version to 3.10.15.

These tools are no longer automatically installed with Designer.