Finding object properties

#DesignerTip

Have you ever been working on a rule, and not been sure how to find out simple information like what its parent folder is? There are two ways to find out!

#1: Starting in Appian 7.5, all of our modern object design interfaces offer access to basic object metadata by clicking on the object's name in the top left. As of Appian 7.9, this includes interfaces, expression rules, data types, web APIs, sites, and applications.

See it in action here: www.screencast.com/.../od0AtDvn

#2: Starting in Appian 7.9, you can select any object in the application designer and click Precedents. Its parent folder shows up in the resulting list. Starting in Appian 7.10, this works from the Objects view as well.

See it in action here: www.screencast.com/.../CKVX95kN

Cheers!

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OriginalPostID-237906

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  • In my project to track and audit components, a module is being developed that must have the list of objects and their versions so as not to have to enter object by object and see what version it is in. Due to technical limitations you cannot use the content tool, it is very unfortunate, but it is what it is. So, I have investigated and perhaps by consulting the Appian primary database I can get some answer but I don't see in which table the information I am looking for can be found.

  • Still not understanding the "why" here.

    Your idea (to query the Appian Primary DB) initially sounds like a good one but I'm pretty sure the Appian Object data is held in one or more files and not DB tables...

  • 0
    Certified Lead Developer
    in reply to Stewart Burchell

     I can't speak to why he can't use content tools.

    But on my end, I can see some potential uses cases for getting the object revision history and in my experience, the function in the Content Tools plugin isn't a reliable option. I've mentioned it before but no one has ever responded to me.

    Please see my comment here: community.appian.com/.../content-tools

  • Conceivably (although it's a roll-your-own solution and has a relatively high start-up level of effort) you could use RPA to automate what I think you've been doing manually so far. Your design would:

    • have a list of object types that support versioning
    • would iterate through that list
    • for each object type:
      • check the relevant box in Designer
      • select each object in your list (if there are multiple pages of objects you can grab the count at the bottom right of the list and calculate how many pages you need to process)
      • select the "More" button and select 'Versions'
      • retrieve the relevant information from the versions pop-up pane)

    As I suggest this should work in theory, but you'll need RPA enabled in your environment and a server to host your bot on. Which all sounds way harder than just installing Content Tools and getting some basic info that way.