Working with the underlying XML

So far, we have used Action tools and a formula to modify/replace existing values of a connected tool. Alteryx offers a more complex (and powerful) way to accomplish operations within macros and Analytic Apps that involves changing the XML that Alteryx uses to shape the workflows.

We’ll use the same customer spend data we used in the previous recipe, but now, we’ll create an Analytic App that uses the Modify the underlying XML feature, allowing the user to select which fields to use to calculate total visits and spending.

Figure 10.114: The tool we’ll create

Because of how Alteryx works, we need to architect our app in a way that we can handle the requirements smartly, and since we need to build the new XML based on the input selected by the user dynamically, we need some mechanism that allows us to do that. A Batch Macro is a special type of macro that allows you to pass parameters for its execution...