Alteryx 9.0 is released!

April 24th saw the release of Alteryx 9.0.  Which is absolutely jam packed with fantastic new features and tools!  So many features in fact, that I'm not going to be able to cover all of them in a single article, but I will give you a brief tour of some of the highlights:

New Tools

This release sees a massive 38 new tools!  Helped in no small part by the new Analytic App authoring process.

Here they all are:

App and Macro Authoring Redesign

The App and Macro Authoring process has seen a complete overhaul this release and is one of my favorite new features.  The process is no longer hidden away on multiple properties tabs, but built up on the canvas using the new "Interface" tools.  Look out for more on this topic in a future blog post.

New Data Formats

As ever there are even more data formats supported this release including:

• SAS data files (.sas7bdat)
• SPSS data files (.sav)
• Output to QlikView data files (.qvx)
• Read and write to Marketo
• Read Google Analytics data

There are also four new social media connectors:

• Twitter
• Foursquare
• Gnip
• DataSift

Improved Download Tool

The download tool has had a lot of new features added this release and now should let you interface with any web API out there.

This is how the four new social media tools (which are in fact macros) work.  So if you want to see an example of the new download functionality in action, open up one of the social media macros and take a look.

Private Cloud Server

The private cloud version of Alteryx has seen a huge update this release.  Now you can get the functionality of the Alteryx public gallery on your own private server inside your firewall.  A fantastic way to deliver Analytic Applications and insights to your wider business.



That is a very quick round up of just some of the new features.  Look out for some more detailed blog posts on specific features over the coming weeks.

Macros - Version

Before starting this post on the Version macro I would like to share with you a new page which I have added to the blog which will contain a consolidated list of the macros which I have built and published here. It is easily accessed from the Macros link on the menu bar above.

And the first macro to be released to that page is the Version macro:

Version.yxmc

This macro can be embedded into other macros to allow checking of the version against an XML file stored on the web.

Download
Help

What Does it Do?

I had the idea for this macro several years ago and actually presented it at the developer part of the Inspire conference in 2012.  But it never actually made it to this blog until now.

The idea behind the macro is that it allows other macros to be versioned and to check against a web page to see if there is a newer version available.  Now my initial plan was that this check would be done every time the macro that used it was run.  Unfortunately downloading the web page that contains the versioning information, while not terribly slow (a few seconds), is slow enough that I don't want to do it every time one of my macros is used.  I think this limitation is some of what stopped me posting this macro until now.

So in the released version of the macro I have come up with a compromise.  The macro is embedded in other macros as intended, but by default it does nothing. (All of its tools are disabled by a tool container).

Usage by End User

Here it is being used in the Dynamic Formula macro:

Then when a user wants to check that their macro is up to date they:

1. Open the macro they want to check
2. Click on the version macro
3. Check the Check Box to enable checking (see screenshot right)
4. Run the module.

They then get messages in the log which tells them if the macro is the latest version available:

or a message telling them I have released a new version:

Usage by Macro Developer

If you would like to use this in your own macros then feel free.  To set it up you just drop it into your macro, point it to an XML file you have hosted somewhere on the web and enter the version number to match the version number in your XML file.  The XML file needs to look like this:

You can copy the example here: versions.ChaosReignsWithin.com\Example.xml

Then when you update your macro in the future, you just need to bump up the number in the version macro and in the XML file and include whatever message you would like to tell your users in your XML file.  Then anyone who has an old version of your macro and checks for updates will get your message.

How does it work?

The module is fairly simple

The two text inputs on the left get updated from each of the two questions in the macro and the tool container which contains the whole module gets enabled/disabled by an action which is fed by the check box.

From there:

• A download tool grabs the XML from the web
• We use an XML parse tool to digest the XML
• A join tool brings in the version number from the parent macro
• We then compare the versions and use a series of message tools to display the various messages to the end user.