Sending an email reminder to a user group

Certified Associate Developer

Hello,

I am basically looking for something very similar to triggers in databases.

In my asset management app, employees have been assigned some assets. Some assets have a returnOn date.

I want to send email reminders to every employee (employee user group)u if any of their assets is approaching their return date. Maybe 1 day before the returnOn date.

I am aware of the escalations and exceptions in the process model. But I do not need to do anything else just send email reminders.

What will be the best approach for this?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!!

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  • You can create an expression rule to get all the assets whose return day is 1 day after the current date. Then create a scheduler process with Timer Recurrence set to Daily at some time in which you fetch all the assets closing to their returnOn date using the created rule and use OOTB Send E-mail smart service to send emails to Employee group if there is any asset returned by the rule o/w end the process.

  • 0
    Certified Lead Developer

    I would still consider starting a process and assigning a task. This way you allow that employee to take action, including a prolongation.

  • 0
    Certified Associate Developer

    Adding to above,

    1. A Start Event that triggers the process model to run.
    2. A Timer Event and Query Node that retrieves all assets that are approaching their return date (e.g., return date is within 1 day) and Loop Node that iterates over the list of assets
    3. An Email Node that sends an email notification to the assigned employee for each asset.

    In the Email Node, you can use a predefined email template that includes the details of the asset and the return date, along with a message reminding the employee to return the asset on time.

  • 0
    Certified Associate Developer
    in reply to Mallepu Prashanth

    Hello,

    Thank you for your suggestions. I understand the process flow now. Can you also confirm the nodes that you suggested:

    1. Start event (Add trigger that re-occurs every day)

    2. Query Node (Use Query database?)

    3. Email Node (Send Email)

    Do I need to you the query database smart service here? What's the loop node? I understand its requirement but I'm not sure which node exactly.

  • 0
    Certified Senior Developer
    in reply to poorwak017

    1. You can configure your process model to launch an instance automatically at a certain time with the recurrence interval and other conditions set in the Start Event triggers >> Timer Event on Start node. Please check out documentation on how to configure a timer trigger on a Start Event.

    2. No, Although you can use it but I would not recommend, instead you should add a Script Task node and call an expression rule in the node outputs which will get you all the assets approaching to their return date.

    3. Appian provides OOTB Send E-mail smart service which you can use to send emails to the Employee group users.

    There is no such thing as Loop node, if we want to repeat the execution of some nodes in our process then we can create a loop flow and control it using gateways.

     Another way to perform an iterative task in process model is to configure Multi-Node instances for the node in question, in your case, Send E-mail node. If we want this action to be performed on a list of items then we can create a subprocess for these items and configure MNI on Subprocess node in main process.

  • However, I still think it would be worthwhile to begin a process and assign tasks to it. The employee has the option of taking action, such as extending the workday, in this way.