Question

How to handle backend updates on UI

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
July 28, 2025
12 replies
0 views

Hi All,

Currently we are having a workflow which consists of a task which will be worked by a user. When any updates to the workflow occur from external system, we cannot show the updates to the user in the UI when user has the UI already open since the data cannot be refreshed. We are thinking of either cancelling and creating a new workflow with the latest updates or completing the task using smart service and recreating the task within the same workflow. Any insights on which will be better approach will be useful.

harshas2775

Instead of cancelling/completing the task can you consider adding a refresh icon in the UI and train users to click on it intermittently to fetch latest data into the UI. Basically on click query latest data into the form using link configuration. Additionally on Submit button of form you can compare the latest data in db with the UI data to confirm if data is up to date or not. Form submission can be restricted if data doesn't match.

If the above doesn't suit your use case then you can configure exception timer in the UI node to end the process and provide users with an action to retrigger the action.

sarathkumr268295Author

Thanks for your reply Harsha. Business do not want do any additional clicks on the UI and again there is always a chance for updates after the last click and before task submission. We cannot perform the data comparison because there is a chance user might modify the data due to some reason and the data from external system might be something different. Exception timer also cannot be used since its not a start process and its a workflow so if exception was added, it will close the workflow which we do not want to occur.

Again this is an insurance process so it might take some time for the user to complete the process.

stefanhelzle0001

You could add a banner message to the UI which is only shown if there is an update. Then allow the user to see what has changed and load the new data.

This is a bit more complex, but should result in a much better UX.

mathieud0001

There is a recipe that could be helpful for this: https://docs.appian.com/suite/help/25.2/recipe-refresh-until-asynchronous-action-completes.html

You can also go further and have events pushed to the UI in realtime via this plugin: https://community.appian.com/b/appmarket/posts/sail-events-field

sarathkumr268295Author

Thanks [mention:f5e81b8502fa4e77ad12697686a4fc56:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] . First recipe will be useful if the updates are done within Appian but unfortunately, the updates are occurring in the backend unknown to the front end user.

The plugin might be the one which might help us solve the issue. I will discuss with my team and proceed further

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