Workflow Admin Manager – Welcome!

 

Congratulations on joining the WAM family! We are excited to help enable you to manage and control your Alteryx workflows quickly, easily, and efficiently. We look forward to your feedback!

Communicating Issues:

We have multiple means of communicating problems and desires with the WAM team, and we are always open to feedback, large and small.

1.     Email: Please contact WAMHelpDesk@capitalizeconsulting.com and provide details of your issue, including the severity of impact, and your contact information. If the severity is high, please also contact Christina McLuckie -christinamcluckie@capitalizeconsulting.com.

2.     Ticketing System: Upon onboarding with WAM, you will be registered with our online ticketing system Zoho. You will receive instructions from Zoho on how to activate your account. Here, you can enter tickets, view our knowledgebase and communicate with the WAM team. Ticketing portal: https://workflowadminmanager.zohodesk.com/

 

Type	Description	Initial Communication Regarding Resolution Plan
Severe	Inhibits business functions, such as API errors (post-implementation), widespread failures *Note: WAM Support highly recommends frequent backups of the parse_db, which is the parsed WAM content. With frequent back-ups of this database, and re-parsing of workflows when prompted by the WAM team on targeted changes, failures of WAM are highly unlikely.	8 business hours
Moderate	Inhibits the ability to perform a functional task that is important, but doesn’t impair vital business operations	20 business hours
Mild	Not vital, but desired feature	40 business hours (feature enhancements will be discussed, scoped and evaluated separately)

A note on WAM support/Alteryx involvement and the implications: WAM performs analysis from Alteryx workflow XML and the Alteryx Mongo database. Because of this, there may be times when a problem is with the Alteryx architecture, and the WAM team must work with Alteryx on this resolution. Most times, we can accommodate a workaround using WAM.

Enablement:

Our documentation provides a user with instructions on how to use, set-up and configure WAM modules. Currently, WAM Desktop has a certification course through Kajabi. Users will receive instructions on accessing the course from Kajabi. WAM Server will have a course in the coming months.

We want to make sure you are successful with WAM, and we are always here to help!

Releases:

Releases will be announced via email. Users will be directed to a central download repository housed by Capitalize and will receive documentation and release notes that correspond to the release. The executable file will likely override the existing installation of WAM. In cases where an uninstallation is required, we will let you know.

Releases are issued quarterly. Bug fix releases will be issued at Capitalize’s discretion, and you may choose whether to install the bug fix release or wait until the quarterly release.  All releases have an accompanying newsletter, which is emailed to all licensed users.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting Started:

In the WAM User Guide, you’ll find a dedicated section to configuration in the Initial Setup section.

WAM Prerequisites

·       Users must have Alteryx API Access and Curator access to perform updates, using the palette and scheduling using WAM.

·       Users must be able to access the Swagger site and return a call in order to ensure that the machine where WAM is installed has access to the Alteryx API. See Alteryx’s Help for more information.

·       Machine Requirements:

Component	Requirement
Computer and processor	Minimum 1.8 GHz or faster, 4 core
Memory	16.0 GB RAM
Hard disk	1.0 GB of available disk space
Display	1920 x 1080 screen resolution
Operating system	Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016

 

Parsing

Once you are successfully configured in the WAM settings, the first thing you will want to do is parse the WAM database. You can accomplish this by applying the filters in the workflow viewer to show the workflows you’d like to analyze, then performing an open search in the Search/Update module. Depending on how large/complicated your data set is, this initial parse can take several hours to days to run. After the initial parse, however, WAM will only parse any new or changed data from Alteryx.

 

 

 

 

Initial Settings

 

Adding a License Key

 

When Workflow Admin Manager is opened for the first time, you must enter your license key under Settings, located on the right side of the application. The features of WAM will be locked until a valid license key is entered.

 

To add a license:

1.      Under Settings, navigate to File > General > Enter License Key.

2.      Hit Save and Close.

 

Set Directories

 

Next, we will set up paths to the directories used within WAM. The paths include the following.

 

·        Output Path – where reports and workflow backups will be placed once created. All outputs from WAM will appear in this folder or subfolders based on the report type.

·        Alteryx Installation Path – the location of the Alteryx GUI executive file. If the default path were used during the Alteryx Install, this would be located under Program Files > Alteryx > bin > AlteryxGui.exe. Make sure to use AlteryxGui.exe and NOT AlteryxGui.exe.config.

Note: This setting is reserved for future use when users can open Alteryx workflows from WAM.

·        Parse Database Path – this is the directory where the WAM parsed database will reside. If defined, a restart of WAM is required for the setting to take effect. This moves the entire database, so previously parsed data should not be lost. Users can choose this or keep the defaulted location of:

C:\Users\[your user path]\AppData\Local\Workflow Admin Manager Server

Note: If you do not see your AppData folder, you may need to configure File Explorer to show hidden items. You can do this by going to the View tab in File Explorer and clicking the 'Hidden Items' check box.

·       Enable Automatic Workflow Backups -- Once the directories are set, you will need to determine if backups should be automated using WAM. In the same General tab, you will define backup preferences. If checked, WAM will create a backup of the workflow when the checked processes are generated.

Note: Upon running workflows through most of the features in WAM (Reporting, Search, Migrate), the related Alteryx Asset (workflow, app, macro) will be downloaded to the User's a hard drive under the Gallery Workflows folder in their specified output path. The downloaded files will include the timestamp of the upload date and are backups of the workflows then. An XML copy of each workflow file will also exist in this location. This process dramatically increases the performance of any subsequent WAM activity.

·        Clean Database  – removes extraneous, unneeded data from the parsed database, sometimes necessary if the database needs a “vacuum.”

·        Option to Use In-Memory Database for Parsing  – If your computer has adequate memory and storage, using your computer’s in-memory database can significantly increase the speed at which WAM parses workflows. If your machine is low on memory, it is best to leave this unchecked. Note: it is best to leave this setting the same during the initial database parse.

·        SVG Flow Graph – provides the threshold to WAM where a push to SVG instead of PDF makes sense as a global setting. This overrides choices made on the Audit Report options and the Flow Graph generation under Other Reports.

 

After all the General Settings are saved as desired, hit Save.

 

Gallery, API, and Mongo Settings

Adding a new Gallery

Navigate to Settings > Gallery, Add New

Configuring a unique Gallery Setting

·        Name the Gallery something unique inside of WAM for identification.

·        Enter the Gallery URL. Note: the URL should NOT contain “/Gallery.”

·        One Gallery must be the Primary Source in the Set as Primary Gallery setting. This Gallery will be the source of items in the Workflow Admin Manager Viewer and is how you interact with workflows inside of WAM. Entering other galleries is helpful if you intend to use WAM to migrate between galleries or if you intend to view workflows from different galleries.

·        The 'Bypass SSL' option should only be selected for trusted, insecure connections that lack a security license. Note: this does not apply to servers with expired security certificates. WAM will not interact with the API in this scenario.

·        Daily Refresh allows a user to schedule the parsing of the WAM database daily. This is set to a 24-hour clock.

·        The API Settings must match the configuration defined for the licensed user in the Gallery settings under “My Profile.” WAM follows the same permissions as the Gallery.

o   The user MUST have API access to use WAM.

·        The API Timeout and the Override Workflow Request Iteration settings all relate to the amount of time the API needs to return data. If API errors are received, and the user is confident that the settings are correct, try increasing the timeout.

·        The next section is for the default POST settings that will be applied to any workflow posted through the Mass Update, Migrate, Palette, and Scheduler Modules.

·        Enter the Mongo Connections details. These are optional settings, but the user will need to configure them if they wish to be able to run the Mongo Reports in the Other Reports section under the main Reporting tab. This data is found on your Alteryx Server in the Alteryx System Settings under Controller > Persistence. The Password is needed, not the Admin Password.