Microsoft Azure Data Lake File Input Tool

Use the Azure Data Lake (ADL) File Input tool to read data from files located in an Azure Data Lake Store (ADLS) to your Alteryx workflow. The supported file formats are CSV, XLSX, JSON, or Avro.

Important

This tool is not automatically installed with Alteryx Designer. To use this tool, download it from the Alteryx Analytics Gallery.

Authentication Methods

To sign in to Azure Data Lake Store, you need to specify which kind of storage you would like to connect to. In case you are not certain what type of storage you are using, you can ask your Azure administrator or check on your Microsoft Azure Portal.

End-User (Basic) Authentication

This method can be used only for the Public Azure cloud. For connecting to an National Cloud or a custom URL, use the End-User (Advanced) method.

You need the assistance of your Azure Administrator to allow public Alteryx applications in your organization’s Azure tenant. The Microsoft documentation describing the steps can be found on Construct the URL for granting tenant-wide admin consent on Microsoft Azure Portal.

Tenant: common

ADLS Client ID for the Gen1 Alteryx application: 7fa1a397-27aa-40ad-b47c-a47fa9e600bd

ADLS Client ID for the Gen2 Alteryx application: 2584cace-63ff-47cb-96d2-d153704f4d75

After this setup, you can use your normal Microsoft credentials to access the ADLS data. To sign in, simply select Connect, then enter your Microsoft credentials to access the ADLS data.

End User (Advanced) Authentication

The advanced End-User authentication supports single- and multi-tenant authentication, and can be used with both public and private applications. Credential setup in the Azure Portal.

  1. Choose the Authentication Authority Endpoint, or set a Custom one, by filling in the Endpoint URL, starting with http:// or https://.

  2. Fill in the Tenant (directory) ID - the unique identifier for the Azure Active Directory instance. This identifier governs the Azure subscription to which the ADLS belongs. More information about locating your tenant ID, see Get tenant ID in the Microsoft Azure Documentation. For public applications, you can use “common”.

  3. Client (application) ID

  4. Client Secret is mandatory for private applications. For Designer versions earlier than 2020.3, the Redirect URI field will appear and will be pre-filled. No further configuration is needed in the normal usage mode.

  5. Select Connect.

Service-to-Service Authentication

The Service-to-Service authentication is suitable for publishing workflows on Server and Hub. For the Credential setup, see the instructions on Azure Portal.

  1. Choose the Authentication Authority Endpoint, or set a Custom one, by filling in the Endpoint URL, starting with http:// or https://.

  2. Fill in Tenant (directory) ID - the unique identifier for the Azure Active Directory instance. This identifier governs the Azure subscription to which the ADLS belongs. More information about locating your tenant ID, see Get tenant ID in the Microsoft Azure Documentation.

  3. Client (application) ID

  4. Client Secret is mandatory for private applications.

  5. Select Connect.

Shared Key

The Shared Key authentication can be used only with Gen2 storages. With an Azure storage account, Microsoft generates two access keys that can be used to authorize access to your Azure Data Lake via Shared Key authorization. You can find more information about the Shared Key and its usage on Azure Portal.

  1. Choose Storage Endpoint, or set the Custom one, by filling in the Custom Storage Endpoint.

  2. Fill in Storage Account Name - the unique name given to your storage.

  3. Enter Storage Account Key - the access key to authorize the access.

  4. Select Connect.

Configure the Tool

In the Data tab, you can specify the data you would like to use:

  1. Specify the Storage Account Name. This storage needs to be the same type (Gen1, respectively Gen2), as selected on the Authentication page.

  2. For Gen2 storages, select the File System Name.

  3. Once the storage and file system for Gen2 have been selected, you can configure the path of the file you would like to read. You can specify the path either by direct input in the File Path field or using the file browser.

  4. For Excel files, the sheet name can be specified in the Sheet field located under the file browser. If left empty, the first sheet will be automatically selected. In case of new files, the sheet will be given the default name “Sheet”.

In the Options tab you can set the input options (following options are specific to some extension used):

  • File Format (the supported file formats are CSV, XLSX, JSON, or Avro)

  • Max Field Length

  • Delimiter - the specific boundary between fields

  • Start Data Import on Line

  • Quote Characters

  • Code Pages - an input character encoding