Content Tools

Overview

These functions extend Appian content and offer document/folder search, directory listing, and the ability to get/set the searchable attribute of a folder.

Functions are designed for and only work on Appian content, not the local filesystem. All search functions assume the root folder and all subfolders are searchable. Search functions will not return results contained within non-searchable objects.

All functions use the serviceContext of the user account executing the expression at runtime.

Key Features & Functionality

Data Types

contentSecurityRoleMap: CDT that backs the returnContentRoleMap function

Smart Services

Copy Document (Change Extension)
Delete Document Version
Delete Folder Contents
Delete Files Older Than
Delete Files Created Before
Delete Multiple Documents
Remove Member From Folder Security
Inherit Security From Parent for Folder
Inherit Security from Parent for Document
Remove Member From KC Security
Delete Rule/Constant Versions
Set Folder Security
Create Document Version
Create expression rule
Update expression rule expression
Update expression rule parameters

Functions

getfoldersrequiringchangesapproval
getsubfoldersfromfolder
getdocumentsfromfolder
getdocumentinternalidsfromfolder
getfilesolderthandate: Get files older than a particular date
getfileslargerthansize: Get files larger than a particular size
finddocumentsbyname
getconstantorruleuuidbyname
findcontentbyattribute
getcontentdetailsbyuuid
getcontentdetailsbyinternalname
getcontentobjectdetailsbyid
getcontentobjectswithnumofversions: function to find rules or constants with a given number of versions. Useful to find out objects that can increase memory usage in the collaboration engine. See https://forum.appian.com/suite/help/16.3/kb/kb-1226.html
getcontentobjectrevisionhistorydetails: Retrieves the revision history of a content object formatted as "[version id, date created, date updated, size, author]"
getconstantsfromfolder
getconstantsbyname
setfoldersearchability
getfoldersearchability
getdownloadersfromgroup
returncontentrolemap
getprocessmodeldetailsbyuuid
getrulereferencebyname
generateuuid

andrewm231 17 hours ago

According to our latest Appian Health Check, this plugin is using deprecated Appian APIs. Is there a plan to upgrade this plugin to support the newer versions of Appian and cease the use of these deprecated APIs?
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Joseph H 3 months ago in reply to paulc919

We also are experiencing this in our environments with the function. Appian advised us to send an email to appmarket@appian.com regarding the issue since they do not support the plug-in. We did that back in December and have not seen anything.
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paulc919 3 months ago

We are on Appian 24.4 using Content Tools v1.11.1 and the function getContentObjectsWithNumOfVersions appears to have stopped working.

There are no errors in the logs - it just returns a message of No constants with more than XX found ... where XX is the number of versions.

I know there are plenty of objects in our DEV environment with more than 20 versions so I think something internally is wrong in the plug in. Has anyone else encountered this issue ?
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Ana Roa 3 months ago

Hello,

Could you please confirm whether version 1.9.2 of this plugin is compatible with Appian version 24.4?

Thank you in advance.
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davidn0007 4 months ago

We are seeing the following exception on our self-managed servers:

ava.lang.ClassCastException: class java.lang.Long cannot be cast to class java.lang.String (java.lang.Long and java.lang.String are in module java.base of loader 'bootstrap') at com.appiancorp.ps.plugins.contenttools.ContentUtilities.getRevisionHistory(ContentUtilities.java:101) at com.appiancorp.ps.plugins.contenttools.functions.RulesAndConstantsRevisionHistory.getContentObjectRevisionHistoryDetails(RulesAndConstantsRevisionHistory.java:31) at jdk.internal.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor2222.invoke(Unknown Source) at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:569)
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balavamsikrishnav3101 4 months ago
Hi Team,

I have installed the Content Tools plugin and am using the getappobjectuuids function to retrieve version details. I am passing a UUID and filtering the results by the modifiedOn date. However, I am encountering an issue where the modified date field is not correctly reflecting the changes made.
For example, when I select the modified date as 2/6/2025, the result from getappobjectuuids is null because it is returning same as created date value, but it should give latest version details as per 2/6/2025 date which i have given in version details below. This can be seen in the information below:

creator "Balavamsikrishna_vinnapala@contractor.amat.com" (Text)

createdon "1/29/25 AM GMT" (Text)

modifiedon "1/29/25 AM GMT" (Text)
- Version details of one object
- Created
  2/6/2025 10:08 AM by bala vamsi Krishna Vi...
  1/29/2025 lo:ss AM by bala vamsi Krishna
  1129/2025 9:57 AM by bala vamsi Krishna Vi...
  1129/2025 9:13 AM by bala vamsi Krishna Vi...
  1129/2025 9:08 AM by bala vamsi Krishna Vi...
  1129/2025 8:53 AM by bala vamsi Krishna Vi...
Could you please check this issue with that field Appian AppMarket Content Tools Appian Community
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Trupti Pargaonkar 4 months ago

We are on version 24.3 , I am trying to use getprocessmodeldetailsbyuuid function but gives an error as "Expression evaluation error at function 'getprocessmodeldetailsbyuuid' [line 19]: The function 'getprocessmodeldetailsbyuuid' is unavailable." Content Tool plug in version is 1.9.2
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Gaurav Kataria 5 months ago in reply to stephene9003
KB-1226 Content (collaboration) engine consumes high memory
Symptoms
The Content (Collaboration) engine's database process occupies high memory on RAM when compared to the size of the .kdb file on disk. The general rule of thumb is that the .kdb files should consume roughly 2.5 times the amount of RAM as they do disk space, in gigabytes.
Cause
This issue is usually caused by a large number of versions of a single constant, which increases the memory footprint of the Content engine and can also cause slowness.
Action

Download and install the latest version of Content Tools.

Run the following command to identify all objects with 100+ versions getContentObjectsWithNumOfVersions(100,all,true).

Note: Only run this off-hours on production systems to avoid potential user impact.

Export, delete, and re-import all objects in the list to clear out excessive versions.

Restart Appian to reclaim memory.

For each constant identified with too many versions, update the application to stop creating new versions:

Search the constant's dependents in Appian Designer to find the process model where the constant is updated.

Update the Update Constant Smart Service to not create versions by setting input Create New Version: false.

Alternatively, if the constant is just used as an incrementing counter, use the Increment Constant Smart Service instead, which does not create versions.
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Dai Williams 8 months ago in reply to umarm7858

bump ... same issue as above, constants are not showing any objects with greater than one version
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ogomes 8 months ago

Hi everyone,

I have installed version 1.11.1, and it seems that getconstantsbyname() function is not available anymore. Anyone facing the same issue?

It's possible to have a function similar with getrulereferencebyname() but to retrieve a constant reference by name (something like getconstantreferencebyname())?
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