So we’ve generated our list of Key Values (in Part 1) to be read by the Tree Interface tool and when we look at the Tree Interface it looks correct.
Figure 1
So, how can we use these selected values in a workflow?
As a review, our original data consists of very pretend pet data.
Figure 2
Now we need to associate the Key Values to our data so that our data can be queried. This can easily be done by adding a couple steps to the workflow we create in Part 1 (updated workflow is attached).
By adding a Transpose tool, the table can be manipulated to get each possible Key Value for each record. Then a Select Tool to rename the Value field to Key. Those results are saved to a new file (Pet data with key values.yxdb) that will be used in the app.
Figure 3
When values are selected in a Tree, a list of the Key Values are returned with a line break between each value. In the above Tree Interface example (Figure 1) the Key Values 111 and 26 are returned as a string data type and would look like this:
Figure 4
Setting up the App
We now have all the parts we need to create the app: Pet Key values.yxdb (from Part 1) and Pet Data with Key Values.yxdb
The start of the app is a Tree Interface tool that points to the Pet Key Values.yxdb file, and an Input tool pointing to the Pet Data with Key Values.yxdb file.
Figure 5
We know the Tree Interface returns a list of Key Values, so we can then filter our pet data on the Key Values. A Filter tool is added with a template filter that will ultimately be updated by an Action tool, once we connect the Tree Interface to the Filter tool.
Figure 6
Now let’s connect the Tree tool to the Filter tool and configure the Action tool.
Figure 7
We are going to select the Action Type ‘Update Value with Formula,’ and update the full Expression. Now for the Formula: click on the ellipsis (…) to add this formula:
'[Key] in ("' + REGEX_Replace([#1], ' ', '","') + '")'
Figure 8
This expression will build an IN statement (Figure 5) based on the selected values from the Tree Interface. If the returned values from the Tree tool are, as in Figure 4:
111
26
The expression will build a string starting with: [Key] in (“
The REGEX expression looks for all line breaks (or newlines) in the connection 1 ([#1]) value, denoted by the , and replaces those occurrences with: “,”
And then finishes the expression with: “)
The final expression looks like this: [Key] in (“111”,”26”)
This will replace our template expression when the app is run.
To test your Action tool expression, use the Interface Designer’s Debug tool. Open the Interface Designer from the View menu in Alteryx. This Community article goes into more detail on how to use the Debug tool.
With that, the tree tool is complete. The Key Values from the selected Tree Interface items are used to select the desired records from the dataset for further processing.
Add a Browse tool to the True output of your Filter to view the results when the app is run. Be sure to configure your app to show the results of the Browse when the app completes. This setting can be found in the Interface Designer, under Properties.
Figure 9
As with many things in Alteryx, there is usually more than one way to accomplish a task. In the attached App example workflow, there is an additional method to take the results from the Tree tool and query the pet dataset.
All related workflows are attached to the post and saved in Alteryx 10.0 format.