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Index() or dot notation?

Jamal Case
Certified Lead Developer

Hi All,

I just wanted to know what's Appian best practices when it comes to retrieving data from a data subset. Should I index into the data subset or use dot notation? I noticed that when I use index() it doesn't throw an error for a null result set but does throws an error if I use dot notation. I know dot notation would cause a pink screen error on the tempo interface but debugging this would be quite simple since we know exactly where the error is coming from. For index(), this wont throw an error on tempo but will be harder to debug and would be a silent fail if a user doesn't raise the issue that that data is coming null when it shouldn't. 

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  • I cannot think of a single reason why I would ever, ever want pink box error over some other functionality. Verbose errors, such as Appian likes to display in these cases, open up your whole architecture and design to malicious users who can use your error messages to find out how to crack your system.

    Users report error messages and often don't distinguish between them, which makes it hard to explain how these are separate issues and not the same one. You spend time fixing one pink box, and they tell you that you haven't showing you a completely different one, thinking it's the same thing.

    Using other methods allows you to try again, or go through a different process flow, or wait, or as they have stated display some meaningful information to the user, or do any number of things you could think of to allow process to continue. When you get a pink box, it comes do a dead halt and only sys admin or someone with designer privilege can get it going again.
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  • I cannot think of a single reason why I would ever, ever want pink box error over some other functionality. Verbose errors, such as Appian likes to display in these cases, open up your whole architecture and design to malicious users who can use your error messages to find out how to crack your system.

    Users report error messages and often don't distinguish between them, which makes it hard to explain how these are separate issues and not the same one. You spend time fixing one pink box, and they tell you that you haven't showing you a completely different one, thinking it's the same thing.

    Using other methods allows you to try again, or go through a different process flow, or wait, or as they have stated display some meaningful information to the user, or do any number of things you could think of to allow process to continue. When you get a pink box, it comes do a dead halt and only sys admin or someone with designer privilege can get it going again.
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