Phil on 03 Oct 2017 04:18:03
Provide a Step Name field when doing things like adding a column, which automatically names the Applied Step. Make this optional, defaulting to the existing default values if not used.
- Comments (5)
- Merged Idea (3)
RE: Add Step Name field when creating Applied Steps
Adding a comment here since this is an old thread - Especially if you want dataflows Gen2 to be utilized (You should it's cool!) make it less painful to visually audit the steps!
RE: Add Step Name field when creating Applied Steps
While performing a new step from UI (for ex Merge) there should be an option to Name that step right away as doing it after wards unnecessarily takes time in case of large number of records. Also after merging during column expansion there should be an option to set new names of columns without creating new step. We can do that by modifying "Expand" step itself by changing new column names but that can only be done after Expand step is executed which is time taking in case of large number of records.
RE: Add Step Name field when creating Applied Steps
PowerQuery queries tend to get quite long. Some suggestions on auto-naming improvements that may help manage all the steps:
When creating Custom column rather than naming step "Added Custom" use the name of the column set by the user (example user adds column "Difference", the step should read "Added Difference"
The same goes for Invoke Custom Function. Add either column or function name into auto generated name
For MergeQueries use name of QueryMerged ("Merged Mapping" instead of "Merged Query")
Add a setting to remove all spaces from auto names in steps. This will be useful when writing code, as you don't have to use #"" (ex. you can use AddedCustom, not #"Added Custom").
When uding "Group by" function please add automatic name generation for aggregates. It can use the same algorithm as PivotTables use (ex. if we take Sum of column "Value" it shoud automatically populate the name as "SumValue"). Sometimes you need to make Group by with 15+ aggregates. It takes a lot of time to copy all the names.
RE: Add Step Name field when creating Applied Steps
Currently adding a column adds a step labeled 'Added Custom'. This is very generic and not transparent.
Rather using the column name that is added to automatically name the column would make it clear what the step does. Now this has to be maintained manually by the designer.
RE: Add Step Name field when creating Applied Steps
Being able to see what the "Applied Steps" is being applied to would really help. I cannot keep track of when I removed which column or which column split.