Use Converted Alteryx Apps

PlaidCloud converts Alteryx analytic app questions into controlled workflow variables. Users can set those variables before a run, then PlaidCloud applies the values to formulas, filters, file paths, conditions, macro parameters, and downstream step settings.

The App Runner Front-End

Converting an Alteryx analytic app (.yxwz) also materializes its interface as a published Panel “App Runner” — a working input form that collects the same values the Alteryx questions did and runs the converted workflow with them. You get this front-end automatically as part of conversion; an app with no input widgets is skipped.

The app’s questions become App Runner controls: text, numeric, date, check box, radio button, drop-down, list box, tree, file browse, and folder browse. Each control writes to the workflow variable the converted step reads, so a run from the App Runner drives the same logic as setting the variables by hand. A control that does not bind to a real workflow variable is shown with a visible note rather than silently collecting a value that goes nowhere — review it and point it at the intended variable.

The form is laid out in the app author’s own grouping — the tabs and labelled boxes the author built the app with — and the author’s explanatory text (Alteryx Label tools) is shown on the form alongside the questions it describes. A question the app fixed at design time, such as a Detour with no interface question driving it, is not shown as a question at all.

The form opens on the answers it was last run with, so a routine run needs no re-entry. A question that has never been answered shows the author’s saved default, or is blank if the author set none. If a remembered answer no longer matches one of a question’s choices, it’s ignored rather than shown as a stale selection. A numeric question enforces the minimum, maximum, and step the author set, so a question constrained to a small range cannot be answered outside it.

Where the converted workflow branches, the App Runner shows the branch as a labelled choice, so the path a run takes is picked at run time the way the Alteryx app picked it.

File And Folder Questions

Each file or folder question has a Browse button that opens a document browser, so you pick the path instead of typing it from memory.

Browse offers the Document accounts you can reach, defaulting to the app’s own account, and lets you switch between them.
It opens at the folder the question’s current answer names; if the question has no answer yet, it opens at the top of the account.
A trail across the top walks back up. Choosing a folder in the list opens it; choosing a file selects it.
Select shows the path it will fill in before you press it. With nothing highlighted, Select takes the folder you are looking at — this is how you choose an account’s top level.
If a folder cannot be listed, the list says so and names the reason, and Select will not fill in a path you did not see. A listing that gets no answer within 20 seconds says the account did not answer.

Run The App

Fill in the form and press Run.

Answers are checked before the run starts. Choice questions that were never answered stop the run before it starts and are named, rather than being discovered part-way through a run that may take the better part of an hour.

While a run is going, the form shows a progress bar, N of M steps counted against the workflow’s total step count, the elapsed time, and the step or steps running now. Pause and Stop appear beside Run only while a run is going; Pause becomes Resume while the run is paused.

A step that fails is named on the form as soon as it fails, and when the run ends the form quotes what each failed step said. You do not have to open the workflow to find out why it stopped. Steps that could not run because a step before them failed are shown separately as not run rather than as failures, and they still count toward the progress bar, so it reaches the end.

A run keeps going if you close the page or lose the connection. Opening the app again while that run is still going shows the run in progress, with Pause and Stop, instead of an idle form.

An Open workflow link beside Run opens the underlying workflow in PlaidCloud in a new tab — on its canvas when it is a DAG workflow. It works even if the form’s own view of a run has stopped updating.

You can still run the workflow directly by setting its variables, as below; the App Runner is an additional, app-style way in.

Converted Input Types

PlaidCloud converts common Alteryx app controls to typed workflow inputs:

Text boxes become text variables.
Numeric controls become numeric variables.
Date controls become ISO date variables.
Check boxes, radio buttons, drop-downs, list boxes, and trees become controlled choice variables.
File browse controls become Document file variables.
Folder browse controls become Document folder variables.

The converted workflow uses these variables anywhere the Alteryx app used the original question value.

Set Values Before A Run

Before running a converted app workflow:

Open the converted workflow.
Review workflow variables.
Set required text, numeric, date, choice, file, and folder values.
Confirm Document file and folder paths point to the imported dependency location or another approved Document path.
Run the workflow.

For scheduled runs, save the variable values that should be used each time the schedule runs.

Conditions, Warnings, And Errors

Alteryx app conditions and error checks convert to PlaidCloud step conditions. A condition can:

Allow the workflow to continue.
Emit a warning message.
Stop the workflow with a clear error when the app rule calls for it.
Route execution through a different branch.

Use this behavior to preserve app-level validation while running the workflow in PlaidCloud.

File And Folder Inputs

File and folder questions use Document paths:

File inputs select a file from Document.
Folder inputs select a Document folder.
Imported desktop dependencies are stored at the Document path selected during import.
Dynamic input steps can use variables to resolve the final Document path at runtime.

This keeps converted apps portable across users and scheduled runs.

Macro Parameters

When a converted app calls a macro, app variables can feed macro parameters. PlaidCloud passes those values into the generated macro workflow through macro input and control parameter handling.

Concurrent macro runs are isolated, so multiple workflow runs can use the same converted macro without sharing intermediate state.

Validation Checklist

For each converted app, confirm:

Every expected question appears as a workflow variable.
Defaults match the original app where defaults were configured.
Controlled lists contain the expected choices.
File and folder variables point to Document paths.
Conditions produce the expected messages, warnings, or stop behavior.
Output parity passes for the selected variable values.