Python 3rd-party Dependencies

Adding 3rd-party Packages

In many cases, it is useful to add 3rd-party Python packages that can be used in your plugin. To do this, add dependencies to the requirements-thirdparty.txt file in the tool workspace directory.

There are 2 options:

1. Manually add dependencies. If you use this approach, make sure to include all dependencies (including any sub-dependencies).

2. Use pip freeze > requirements.txt to generate a new requirements.txt file in the workspace. You will need to prune this file to remove any dependencies that aren’t explicitly imported or required by your plugin. Do this before you copy or overwrite the contents to the requirements-thirdparty.txt file

Using 3rd-party Packages in Code

When you use 3rd-party packages in Python, you typically import these packages at the top of a file. However, if the packages that you use are large (like numpy, pandas, scikit-learn, etc.), then these imports can take a long time.

Since the update-only mode of Alteryx Designer should be as fast as possible, these import statements can be a bottleneck. Because of this, instead of putting import statements at the top of a file, you should include these inline so that they only occur just before they are needed. See the example below for an Input-type tool that uses pandas to generate its data (note that pandas is imported in the on_complete method):

class ExampleInput(Plugin):
            """Concrete implementation of an AyxPlugin."""

            def __init__(self, provider: ProviderBase) -> None:
                    """Construct a plugin."""
                    self.provider = provider
                    self.tool_config = provider.tool_config
                    self.config_value = self.tool_config["Value"]
                    self.output_anchor = self.provider.get_output_anchor("Output")

                    self.output_metadata = Metadata()
                    self.output_metadata.add_field("x", FieldType.float)
                    self.output_metadata.add_field("y", FieldType.v_wstring, size=100)
                    self.output_metadata.add_field("z", FieldType.float)

                    self.output_anchor.open(self.output_metadata)

                    if float(self.config_value) > 0.5:
                            raise WorkflowRuntimeError("Values greater than 0.5 are not allowed.")

                    self.provider.io.info("Plugin initialized.")

            def on_incoming_connection_complete(self, anchor: "Anchor") -> None:
                    """Initialize the Input Connections of this plugin."""
                    raise NotImplementedError("Input tools don't have input connections.")

            def on_record_batch(self, "pa.Table", anchor: "Anchor") -> None:
                    """Handle the record batch received through the input connection."""
                    raise NotImplementedError("Input tools don't receive batches.")

            def on_complete(self) -> None:
                    """Create all records."""
                    import pandas as pd
                    import pyarrows as pa

                    df = pd.DataFrame(
                            {
                                    "x": [1, 2, 3],
                                    "y": ["hello", "world", "from ayx_plugin_sdk!"],
                                    "z": [self.config_value, self.config_value, self.config_value],
                            }
                    )

                    table = pa.Table.from_pandas(df)

                    self.provider.write_to_anchor(table)
                    self.provider.io.info("Completed processing records.")