Before working on my recent project, I didn’t know that wireless connections in Alteryx were a thing. I ran around telling people and from the reactions I got, I realized that wireless connections are like pie charts in that you either love them or hate them.
Wireless connections can be super useful when working with a HUGE workflow that has lots of those noodle looking connections criss-crossing from every direction you can think of. But, wireless connections make debugging pretty hard when you have to figure out where the data went wrong.
To make a connection wireless, simply right click on the specific tool and choose “make incoming connections wireless” or “make outgoing connections wireless”:
For example, I chose to “make outgoing connections wireless” and the connection has now been replaced by two wireless symbols (looks like a sideways wifi symbol):
In this example, since we’re working with a low number of tools, it’s easy to see where the connections are even when wireless, however, when there are more tools on the canvas and you want to be sure which tools are connected, then click on one of the anchors and the line will reappear (clicking off will then hide the line again):
If you want to change all your connections to wireless connections, simply select all the tools (either Ctrl+ A or drag your mouse and highlight everything) and right click for the menu to appear:
By clicking on either “make incoming connections wireless” or “make outgoing connections wireless”, all connections will become wireless:
To make all connections wired again, which you might need to do for troubleshooting or debugging a workflow, simply highlight all the tools again, right click and choose “make incoming connections wired” or “make outgoing connections wired” to make all the connections wired again:
You can also select individual tools and make the connections wired again one by one, whichever is more appropriate for your situation!
Hope this helps you better understand wired and wireless connections in Alteryx and with that let’s analyze away!