KB-1273 "Duplicate items are not allowed in the choiceValues array, but choiceValues was <titles>" error thrown when creating a new user or editing an existing user in the Admin Console

Symptoms

Upon creating a new user or editing an existing user in the Admin Console, users will encounter a pink box error similar to the following:

An Error Has Occurred

Expression evaluation error at function a!admin_adminConsoleMain: An error occurred while executing a save: Expression evaluation error : A dropdown component [label=“”] has an invalid value for “choiceValues”. Duplicate items are not allowed in the choiceValues array, but choiceValues was Associate; Associate; Manager; President; Sr. Manager; Vice President.

The following error can be seen in the application server log:

INFO  [stdout] (http-/0.0.0.0:8080-6) 2016-11-02 19:50:48,001 [http-/0.0.0.0:8080-6] ERROR com.appiancorp.rest.shared.AppianExceptionMapper - Internal Server Error on REST API invocation.
INFO  [stdout] (http-/0.0.0.0:8080-6) com.appiancorp.process.expression.ExpressionRuntimeException$AppianExceptionWithRootCauseProvider: Expression evaluation error at function a!admin_adminConsoleMain: An error occurred while executing a save: Expression evaluation error : A dropdown component [label=“”] has an invalid value for “choiceValues”. Duplicate items are not allowed in the choiceValues array, but choiceValues was Associate; Associate; Manager; President; Sr. Manager; Vice President. (APNX-1-4198-019)
...
INFO  [stdout] (http-/0.0.0.0:8080-6) Caused by: com.appiancorp.suiteapi.common.exceptions.AppianException: An error occurred while executing a save: Expression evaluation error : A dropdown component [label=“”] has an invalid value for “choiceValues”. Duplicate items are not allowed in the choiceValues array, but choiceValues was Associate; Associate; Manager; President; Sr. Manager; Vice President. (APNX-1-4198-019)
...
[stdout] (http-/0.0.0.0:8080-6) Caused by: com.appiancorp.core.expr.exceptions.IssuedException: com.appiancorp.process.expression.ExpressionRuntimeException$AppianExceptionProvider: Expression evaluation error : A dropdown component [label=“”] has an invalid value for “choiceValues”. Duplicate items are not allowed in the choiceValues array, but choiceValues was Associate; Associate; Manager; President; Sr. Manager; Vice President. (APNX-1-4198-000)
...

Cause

There are duplicate user titles within the environment. This is caused by the UserService API that allows the creation, using a custom plug-in, of new titles, even if a title with the same name already exists in the environment.

This issue has been reported to the Appian product team. The reference number for this issue is AN-77373.

Action

To remove the duplicate titles, work with Appian Technical Support to perform the following:

1. Download the latest version of Personalization Utilities. Note: Version 3.5.0 and above of the Personalization Utilities plug-in prevents the creation of titles that already exist in the environment. Use this new version to fix duplicate tiles as explained below and continue to use it to create new titles in a safe way.
2. Create a process model using the Rename Custom Title smart service under Appian Smart Services > Identity Management.
3. Pass in a duplicate title in the "Title Old Name" field. Pass in a string of characters such as "ZZ_DO_NOT_USE1" as the "Title New Name".
4. Run the process one time for each additional duplicate name (if there are 4 copies of a name, run the process 3 times), updating the "Title Old Name" and "Title New Name" each time as needed.

Workaround

Create new users/edit existing users in the People tab in /designer. This can be done in Appian 16.3 and earlier.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 16.2 and later.