Background

The Folder Browse Help documentation says: "The Folder Browse Interface tool is not supported for running apps in both the Community Gallery (gallery.alteryx.com) and Alteryx Server."

There are several reasons for this:

1. It is considered a security risk to allow users to browse the folder structure on the Server machine.
2. The Server is designed to run in a multi-node environment, so there would an issue as to which server machine the user would be browsing the folder structure for.
3. Many browsers do not support folder browse.

 

Workaround

Though it may not be as clean as being able to use the Folder Browse Tool, the simple workaround for this is to use the Text Box Interface Tool instead. This will allow the user to copy a directory path from Windows Explorer and paste it into the Text Box. In the workflow, all you need to do is connect the Text Box Tool to an Output Data Tool and have the Action Tool update the path portion of the Output Data Tool. You can even enter in a default path in the Default Text section of the Text Box if there is a path that is most commonly used.

 

Example:

 

 

1. In the Output Data Tool, make a placeholder (in this example, "__DIR__" is used) for the directory:

 

 

2. In the Action Tool, configure so that the placeholder in the Output Data Tool gets replace with what the user entered in the Text Box Interface Tool:

 

 

An example workflow created in version 2024.1 has been attached.

 

Common Errors encountered when using the Folder Browse in Server UI

Problem Loading App

Unknown error, TypeLoadException RequestID: ____________________