Executing external programs/batches/scripts from inside a workflow

Even when there are some operations that Alteryx won’t do for you, it offers tools to perform them. One of these tasks, which is very frequent when working with files, is to create folders and copy or move existing files.

In this recipe, we’ll use the Run Command tool to execute external commands, also called shells, from within Alteryx. Doing this leverages our potential to build, call, or execute external applications from within a workflow.

Getting ready

We have a test set for you to follow along with here: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Alteryx-Designer-Cookbook/tree/main/ch12/Recipe1.

You can try this recipe with your own data without any prerequisites, so feel free to do so.

To use the bonus feature of zipping files, you need to have 7-Zip installed on your computer. You can download 7-Zip from here: https://www.7-zip.org/.

We are going to use a dynamic batch file, which we...