Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

Shubham Aware — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 16:27:16 GMT

Anytime! Glad I could Help.

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

Mike Schmitt — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 16:13:08 GMT

So it turns out - in 25.3 they have now Enhanced the Document() Function such that it allows access to just-uploaded files, meaning we no longer need to hassle with trying to submit the uploaded file before determining on-form behavior. It's not QUITE as elegant as the "fv!files" approach I was envisioning (which would have worked similarly to the same property in the validations parameter for instance), but it effectively overcomes all other obstacles.

(thanks to Shubham Aware for pointing out what I'd obviously missed in the 25.3 release notes! lol...)

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

nunof466265 — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 14:57:08 GMT

6 Years ago someone tried to improve Appian in a way... This week i got a problem where a saveInto with the fv!files could solve everything and we cant use it...

I needed to use the a!submitUploadedFiles() function so i cant use document() function after to save property "size" of the document. And this is just an example... More and more people need to use it for other rules and in other ways...

Please listen and solve this "little" problem so we can use Appian easily!

Appian Website
Appian AppMarket

Appian Max Team

Appian AppMarket

Thanks!

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

Mike Schmitt — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 18:08:29 GMT

[quote userid="262622" url="~/discussions/f/general/17496/feature-request-a-fileuploadfield-should-allow-access-to-file-properties-fv-files-within-its-saveinto-parameter/122520"]create a local variable inside the validations to check whether current file is pdf or doc , not sure how it will be accessible in the another uploaded file [/quote]

It won't - the scope of any such local variable would not reach a separate uploaded file, as far as I know. Depending on your exact use case, you might be able to utilize the "content object details by ID" plug-in function as a work-around, though it can be a bit of a pain.

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

venkatesanr7469 — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 18:05:28 GMT

I am also looking for an approach to save the 2 different file name and compare the type pdf,doc , is there a way to save the extension in save and compare it with another file ? i searched the existing validation of pdf and docs shows we can create a local variable inside the validations to check whether current file is pdf or doc , not sure how it will be accessible in the another uploaded file , any help is greatly appreciated

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

Mike Schmitt — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 13:51:36 GMT

[quote userid="40682" url="~/discussions/f/general/17496/feature-request-a-fileuploadfield-should-allow-access-to-file-properties-fv-files-within-its-saveinto-parameter/118518#118518"]a!submitUploadedFiles[/quote]

I too was very excited (at first) about the new possibilities this seemed like it would open for us - until it was pointed out to me by others here that it is intentionally (and i suspect, superficially) disabled when used on a Task or a Start Form - i.e. it will only work on Site and Portal interfaces. That's a terrible disappointment because it would've made certain "abandoned file handling" chores (i.e. removing lines of an editable grid with freshly-uploaded docs attached) a LOT more straightforward.

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

Mike Schmitt — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 13:49:49 GMT

I used this trick (encapsulated into its own expression rule) to grab the uploaded file's extension, many years ago - back before the 'fv!files' capability was added to the Verifications parameter, because we HAD to verify on uploaded extension and there was NO other way to do so at that time. But I abandoned that as soon as an official method became available.

My current workaround (for your situational awareness, in case it helps) uses much less of an unsupported approach than this - namely, the getContentObjectById plug-in function can get a set of details (in plaintext) from any doc ID, whether or not just uploaded - so I have a special expression rule designed to grab the filename of a just-uploaded file when needed, and break it down into name and extension (which is a giant pain in the butt to parse, tbh). But my overall point with this feature request post, of course, is that these extreme (and/or less-extreme) workarounds should NOT be necessary in a robust system with robust capabilities.

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

MR O R G POWER — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 12:12:55 GMT

a!submitUploadedFiles is a better more stable approach for customers on the recent Appian version, but this component can be used and updated (when version is increased) for customers on older versions of appian. As, clearly, there is no chance of it breaking between eg 21.X and 22.1 (which i when i think it was added).

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

Stefan Helzle — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 10:58:59 GMT

That is an already known and dirty hack that could break any time. Definitely NOT recommended.

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

MR O R G POWER — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 10:50:05 GMT

Hi Mike, there is a possible solution that allows you to solve this without any need for plug in.

Simply evaluate an additional fileupload field in the save into and index into values.

I have provided an example below:

(Here, PRO_UXL_Index is simply performing a repeated index. You can of course simply wrap 3 layers of index() around the fileUploadField instead).

I hope this helps, until Appian provide a robust solution. Of course, the same solution can be used for extensions.

a!fileUploadField(
  label: "File Upload",
  labelPosition: "ABOVE",
  value: ri!documents,
  maxSelections: 2,
  saveInto: {
    ri!documents,
    a!save(
      target: ri!fileNames,
      value: touniformstring(
        rule!PRO_UXL_Index(
          data: a!fileUploadField(
            label: "File Upload",
            labelPosition: "ABOVE",
            value: ri!documents,
            maxSelections: 2,
            saveInto: ri!documents,
            validations: {}
          ),
          path: { "contents", "value", "fileName" },
          default: {}
        )
      )
    )
  },
  validations: {}
)

For anyone reading wondering: This works as the temporary files are only supported by the file upload field, hence you can leverage that by evaluating a file upload field as a dictionary and extracting any required data from it.

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

Mike Schmitt — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 14:01:05 GMT

Sad to see there's still no movement on this, even though there are posts in Community at least once every few weeks asking how to do something which would be easy if this were implemented, but impossible (or requires unsupported workarounds) without...

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

mohammedwarishb7086 — Wed, 13 May 2020 11:12:13 GMT

oh okay..Got it..accessing the file properties in saveinto will really help..

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

Mike Schmitt — Tue, 12 May 2020 15:14:45 GMT

I believe it was intentionally set up this way for security reasons, so I would not expect an update that undoes this. The feature request I originally wrote about in this post is for added functionality to overcome particular limitations of this, since similar functionality had been added a while ago to be able to perform property-based validation on newly uploaded files.

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

mohammedwarishb7086 — Tue, 12 May 2020 15:12:33 GMT

yeah understood. Hopefully appian provides an update to over comes this technical limitation.

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

Mike Schmitt — Tue, 12 May 2020 15:00:59 GMT

The standard way to handle this is to have the user submit the form to commit newly-uploaded documents, at which point you can gather the document info and write it to the DB, and then (usually) loop back to the same form and display the previously-uploaded documents. Prior to the form being submitted, for example, the document can't be used in a document download link because freshly uploaded documents are stored in a special non-accessible folder in the Appian filesystem (hence the failure of the document() function).

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

mohammedwarishb7086 — Tue, 12 May 2020 14:57:31 GMT

ACtually it's for storing the document name ,document id and other audit fields..But using an work around I was able to upload the data to db but I couldn't show the document name and couldn't use download link in the grid .As the document information is not saved in appain server , when I tried document function to fetch document name .It says document doesnot exist. Is there any work around for this scenario? I

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

Mike Schmitt — Tue, 12 May 2020 13:22:41 GMT

That's an interesting additional use case. Out of curiosity, is this DB table for auditing purposes, capturing every file someone uploads via the upload field, even if they remove it before submitting the form? Otherwise it seems like it would potentially introduce some confusing complexity to do this every time a new file is put into the upload field, since then it might be difficult to clear that information after the document is removed.

RE: Feature Request: 'a!fileUploadField' should allow access to file properties (fv!files) within its SaveInto parameter

mohammedwarishb7086 — Tue, 12 May 2020 13:04:00 GMT

yeah.. I too had a similar scenario where in I have to save the file name in db when I upload a file.Hope fv!files will be made accessible in saveinto in future updates.