Multiple Select to Start Action on a Record

Usecase: I have a record of Accounts which display a grid of related customers populated from a view.

Now, I have a use case where the customer wants to select one or more customer to carry out an action on their information.

Also, another use case where the the user needs to be able to Add a new customer using a button on the record.

I understand the record view is for rendering information and that a link to related action is the cleaner way available for a user to take an action on a record related information.

What is the neatest way to implement the the use case? (links on table rows that start processes in the background is not an option)

Appreciate your input?

OriginalPostID-212711

OriginalPostID-212711

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  • +1
    Certified Lead Developer
    The add new customer can be a button on the top of the page (related action).

    For the other (select multiple and do some process), you have two options:
    1. Recreate your record as an action. Pick the account for a grid, display the customers in a selectable grid, allow selection then submit into remaining workflow.
    2. Use startprocesswriter plugin to allow selection from record dashboard to then start workflow (but this won't take the user into the task).

    Just a couple of ideas.
  • As Christineh mentioned,
    Create a reusable flag for the "Parties Associated With Account" section, with a mode option - read / edit
    pass - read while displaying in the record
    1. create a related action
    2. on the sail interface in the user input task, pass the "edit" for mode
    3. depending upon the mode "edit" / "read" control the Action column in the grid & the "Create" Button.
  • In this scenario I would suggest an action to be created which will be available in actions tab which start form displays all the details of customers in a paging grid with selection option. In this way you can add buttons to perform actions on multiple customers . And to add a customer can be a separate action in Actions tab or button on the form you just created. Appian does not provide option to combine multiple records for relation actions.
  • 0
    Certified Lead Developer
    I agree that using a related action would be the neatest solution. However, with 16.2 they added Smart Service Functions which allow you to execute Smart Services within SAIL code. You might be able to use these new Smart Service Functions (a!writeToDataStoreEntity() in particular) to add new customers directly from your Record. Another new Smart Service is a!startProcess(), which provides an OOTB way to start processes from records. This allows you to do what Christine mentioned, but without using the startprocesswriter plugin.

    Here's some more info on the new Smart Service Functions: forum.appian.com/.../Appian_Release_Notes.html
  • Thanks ALL - We are not on 16.2 yet :) so will have to build it under Actions as you suggested. I think this is the best solution possible for now.

    Thanks again!
  • We have the exact case asked by the client but a bit different, we would have a grid with a multiple select (a new column at the end with a check box to multi select) and at the botton of the grid we would have like buttons. One "Complete" and one "Cancel", each row would actually represent a task and the client could bulk complete/cancel tasks displayed within the grid.

    My only problem is the multi select in this case ...
  • If anyone has an idea or a way to multi select please don't be shy because my though would be to provide an expression rule that would have a list of IDs as rule input, being the IDs of all the tasks and for each would do the operation (either complete or cancel). Quite simple, but it's obtaining all rows of the data within the grid where the row was "checked" the problem.