How to insert multiple records using an editable grid in Appian

Hi, Appian Developers! I hope you all are doing well and safe. Today we are going to learn to insert multiple records for customer in a database table named tbl_customer using an editable grid in Appian. I would clear in the starting, you must be certified with Appian Associate Developer, so it will be easy for you all. First I will tell you the whole requirements and what we are going to implement here.

Requirement:

Let’s consider, that we have a tbl_customer in the Appian cloud database. And this table has the following fields as

·      customerID
·      customerName
·      emailID
·      phoneNumber
·      profilePicture
·      description
·      createdBy
·      createdDate
·      isActive

You can see the below screenshot for how does your table looks like.

Now, we want to insert multiple customer details in one go instead of adding them one by one. It means we will add the multiple customer data from an interface using an editable grid in Appian.

e.g., Customer1, Customer2, Customer3, and Customer4 will have their own CustomerID, CustomerName, emailID, and so on. By implementing this, we are not required to add the n number of customer details one by one. So, without wasting our time, let’s switch to Appian Designer Console. As I am using the free community edition of Appian, I have my own Appian Designer console. You can also request your instance by clicking on this link https://community.appian.com/

 

I am creating a new application named “Practice for Appian” as below screenshot.

As I have checked the box in yellow highlighted in the above screenshot.

It will create some default folders and groups for me. This feature is available in only Appian version 21.4 release or later. Now click on the save button and you will see your application is created with default objects with folders and groups as below.

First, we will create our Data Store for our application which helps to establish a connection between our database and application. To create the Data Store, please click on the new button and select Data Store as below screenshot.

You must enter your datastore name and description as below.

Now click on Create button and choose your security for datastore object and click on the Save button as below.

Note: Once your CDT is created, do not forget to verify and publish your Data Store.

As we have already created our database table, so now we will create our CDT. To create a CDT, please click on the New button and select Data Type as below screenshot.

We will create our CDT using "Create from a database table or view" and select your Data Source name and table as below.

Now you must enter your CDT name and select your Data Store which we have created as above. Please see the below screenshot for your reference.

Once your CDT is created, now we will create a Constant for our entity as below.

Both Datastore and CDT have been created, now we will create our interface using an editable grid. To create an Interface, please click on the New button and select Interface as below.

Please enter your Interface name below.

Now click on Create button, and you will see the below window.

Now switch to expression mode and paste the below code into your Interface.

Once you pasted the above code, you will see what your interface looks like as below screenshot.

Wow, Congratulations!!! Our interface is ready to insert the multiple customer data into our database table tbl_Customer.

Let's add a few customer details to the form and click on Submit button as below.

Congratulation...!!! 💓💓💓

Successfully, we have inserted our 5 customer details into the database table. As you can see from the below screenshot for our table record.

Note:

I have created two constants, one is to save the customer profile picture, the constant type is a folder, and the second is for CDT, the constant type is the Data Store Entity. And Please add one rule input as items to your interface.

I have used a!writeToDataStoreEntity function on Submit button in the interface to save the customer data into the database table.

Please see my below objects for the application.

I hope, this blog will help you to understand the use of an editable grid within the interface.

Thank you so much for your time.

Please comment if you have any issues regarding the same.

Happy Coding! ✌💓

Appian Associate Developer | Certification Exam Questions-Answers | L1-Certified Developer

Hi all, 

I hope everyone is doing well in this pandemic. Today I come up with an interesting topic about Appian Associate Developer which talks about the questions and answers for the L1 certification exam.

It might be some of few haven't heard about Appian, so I would like to tell you in short about What is an Appian?

Appian is a technology that is a low-code automation platform that enables customers to automate the most important aspects of their business. Oh! it might be not meaningful, in a simple way we can say that Appian is a tool where we can build applications rapidly with the help of drag and drop features as it has a low-code platform. Appian is the best BPM tool to develop the business workflow rapidly. Low-code enables building the apps rapidly, building once, and running/deploying anywhere as it is platform-independent. 

So, it is the overview of an Appian whatever I have explained above it. Many of you might be completed their training through Appian Community or their company, so this blog gonna help you a lot for your certification exam preparation for Appian Associate Developer.

I have tried to cover most of the questions asked in my certification exam and some of them I added as I am learning.

Let me tell you about the online exam first, there will be 60 MCQ questions and you will have 60 minutes to complete the exam, there are no negative marks. You have to score 62% to pass the exam. After the exam completion, you will receive an email where you could see your result as a Certified Associate Developer.

I am giving the right answer for each question, so you have to remember and please read the questions carefully before choosing the answer.

You will have the question from 3 topics, Appian, Database, and the Agile methodology.

Q1: How many pages we can use in Sites?

Ans: 5

Q2: Who will prioritize backlog refinement?

Ans: Product owner

Q3: How to send alerts to user groups?

Ans: By using custom error alert setting

Q4: How to start a process model from an Interface?

Ans: a!startProcessLink

Q5: User wants to select one particular color from a group of colors, what is the best approach?

Ans: Dropdown component

Q6: What is the batch size to retrieve all the data?

Ans: -1

Q7: What is the lowest level of permission required to delete a folder?

Ans: Administrator

Q8: Which environment is most common for user acceptance testing?

Ans: Staging environment

Q9: In the life cycle of scrum master, what is the definition of ready?

Ans: A list of criteria that a user story needs to meet in order to be added to a sprint.

Q10: A product owner and some or all of the team are reviewing our planning to the product owner's feedback. Which Agile ceremony is being described?

Ans:  Sprint Planning

Q11: Most accurate reason to use database view?

Ans: Views definition automatically update when dependent data structure tables are changed

Q12: When should you select the option to Create a new version of the XSD file?

Ans: When datatype (CDT) configurations are not acceptable through a datatype CDT designed

Q13: Primary key contains null values?

Ans: False

Q14: You want users to get back-to-back tasks, what will you apply in-process model?

Ans: Activity chaining

Q15: You want to generate documentation for a process model which two security permission can achieve this?

Ans: Editor and Administrator

Q16: If you enable more than one language in the user input task

Ans: configure the form tab of the task in each language

Q17: Which statement regarding starting a process is true?

Ans: Process messaging must be used to start a new process from within a running process

Q20: There is already data available outside the Appian. How do you get this data to Appian to create a record?

Ans: Service Backed

Q21: What is the output of ("="(Len(HELLO,5)) ?

Ans: =10

Q22: How to pass the input from the interface to the nested interface?

Ans: Rule Input

Q23: Life cycle of Appian Delivery Methodology?

Ans: Initiate, Build, Release, and Optimize

Q24: Which function allows you to trigger a process on interface revaluation and remain on the task?

Ans: a!startProcessLink

Q25: Process has multiple end nodes where each node is configured with the default in which situation will this process be terminated?

Ans: When the system administrator manually terminated the process

Q26: Appian best practices, what is the naming convention for an Interface?

Ans: <app_prefix>_NewRuleName

Q27: Appian best practices, what is the naming convention for a Constant?

Ans: <app_prefix>_NEW_CONSTANT_NAME

Q28: What purpose do default test values serve when creating an interface?

Ans: Pre-populated rule inputs give designers a representation of what end-user will see

Q29: Which option is most appropriate to assess the performance of a single interface?

Ans: Performance View

Q30: Existing record type, where do you go to select between a grid or a feed view?

Ans: In the list tab of the record

Q31: Given a direct URL to access a record view which configuration would allow the user this access?

Ans: Record type security is all that is required

Q32: Which Appian's objects don't have any security?

Ans: CDTs and Group Types

Q33: What does the recordType! domain do?

Ans: References data from a record

Q34: You are adding a new related action to a record which statement is true about this task?

Ans: After selecting a process model the context section is used to populate process model parameters

Q35: You need to create a record list that displays a link in one of the column cells which field property should you use for the link?

Ans: Display Value

Q36: You are looking for helpful checklists, tools, techniques, examples, and best practices for implementing Appian and managing Appian, which Appian resource should you use in this scenario?

Ans:  The developer playbook

Q37: Three roles of Agile?

Ans: Product owner, Scrum Master, and Developer

Q38: Deployment rollback is possible in the Appian?

Ans: No

Q39: What is Agile?

Ans: Agile is a Software development methodology

Q40: We can use JavaScript and Bootstrap in the Appian?

Ans: False

Q41: Interface cannot be reusable?

Ans: False

Q42: Which smart service will you use to save the data in the database?

Ans: Write To Data Store Entity

Q43: Daily scrum meeting for?

Ans: 15 minutes

Q45: CDT stands for?

Ans: Custom Data Type

Q46: What are the primitive data types in Appian?

Ans: Integer (Number), Integer (Decimal), Text, Boolean, and Date

Q47: Can we trigger a sub-process from the main process?

Ans: Yes

Q48: Name some functions which have no parameters?

Ans: loggedInUser(), now(), today() etc

Q49: Which function will add the new item in an array?

Ans: Insert()

Q50: Which function will you use to merge to array?

Ans: merge()

Mostly I have covered the important questions and answers for the Appian Associate Developer certification exam. I hope it will help a lot. If you found any wrong answer kindly comment. If it is helpful for you please share it as much as possible. All the best for your Exams.

Thank you for your time to read this blog😊.

Please comment if you want more articles about any technologies.