Hi community,
In our application there is a need of creating 800+ groups. To avoid that we started maintaining group information in table. In our database table we have user id, group id and the branch name. Based on the branch and group id we are retrieving the list of users and assigning tasks to them. The issue is when a task is assigned for users of branch1 and group 1 and then later when I add new member in the table, the new member is not one of the assignees of the task. The client is not okay with creating 800+ groups. Anyone have solution for this?
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In my experience, it is best to go with OOTB Appian functionality instead of replicating this somehow. Having lots of groups in Appian is not a big performance risk. I would recommend Appian groups. Then your assignment issue is gone.
Stefan Helzle if the number of groups increases in future will it have any impact?
Depends on the number of groups. What do you plan? But maybe there is an alternative approach which does no require thousands of groups ...
Please explain me the alternative approach. Old tasks should be assigned to new members. When I add a member in table. I can't find any solution.
Alternative solutions depend on what you want to achieve. Can you elaborate?
I have 800 branches so instead creating 800 groups I'm maintaining user list in database table. When I query for branch A for example then my query will return list of usernames. In my process model I have this list of usernames in a process variable. In assignment tab of user-input node I added the process variable as Assignment. And the task is now assigned to list of users. When I add a new member in the database table. Its not assigned to the new member as its not appian group. Stefan Helzle
Out of my experience I would go with Appian groups under the assumption that the number of branches will not grow to a five-digit number. If your client sees this as a risk, get an architect from Appian for consulting.
Okay Thank you for your suggestion Stefan Helzle
I think the issue is the actual design pattern implemented. If you just used Appian Groups natively, when you created a new User and assigned them to the relevant Group they would instantly see all Tasks that are waiting to be claimed for the assigned Group.
An alternative design pattern would be to not use native Appian Tasks, but implement the Task concept as a Related Action on an Appian Record. The visibility of the Related Action could be controlled by the same logic that you're implementing to select Users for Tasks. You'd have to implement strict locking so that only one User could run the Related Action at any time (same as only one User can claim and complete a Task); and you'd have to consider how to replicate Task Escalations/Exceptions so as to manage against any SLAs you might have on the logical Task.
Stewart BurchellThis worked. Thank you so much.
Good to hear. Could you elaborate on what solution you applied, so that the rest of the Community understands and can learn from your experience?
thanks
I used a process start form and added the visibility condition. Stewart Burchell