Appian Step-by-Step #12

Exercise to Accompany
Sites: Create a Custom and Focused User Experience

The Appian Step-by-Step series consists of 12 exercises that accompany

the courses in the Appian Developer learning path. Exercises build upon
each other. Complete exercises in order and keep the app and all
objects until you are done with the project.

1 Welcome to the Appian Developer Learning Path

2 Create an Application

3 Manage Users and Groups

4 Expressions

5 Records Part 1: Accessing Your Data

6 Records Part 2: Record Type Relationships

7 Query Entities

8 Process Modeling 101: Part 1

9 Process Modeling 101: Part 2

10 Reports

11 Sites

12 Task Report

© Appian Corporation, 2021

Exercise 12: Task Report 3
Create a Process Report 3
Modify the Process Report 4
Create a Constant for the Process Report 4
Create an Interface for the Task Report 5
Create Links to Process Tasks 7
Create the Status Filter 8
Create the Task Report 11
Add the Task Report Page to the AX Site 11
Export the Application 12
Review Security Summary 12
Check for Missing Precedents 12
Export the Application 13

Notice of Rights

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Copyright 2021 by Appian Corporation. All rights reserved. Information in this document is subject to
change. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, without
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or excerpts, contact Appian Training at academyonline@[Link].
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Exercise 12: Task Report
In this exercise, you’ll learn how to create a Supervisor Task Report that will allow Supervisors
to view and perform their vehicle approval tasks. Once your task report is assembled, you’ll add
it as a page to the AX site. Supervisors will use this page to view tasks, filter them by status,
and navigate to the UIs holding specific tasks by clicking the hyperlinked task name. Your final
site page will look as follows:

To build a task report, you’ll start by building a process report that will help you to pull data
from the AX New Vehicle process model. At a high-level, you’ll complete these steps to create
the task report for Supervisors:

● Create a process report

● Create a constant to point to the process report
● Build an interface to display tasks, link tasks to individual approval forms, and add a
Status filter to this interface
● Create a task report
● Add the task process report as a page to the Acme Exercise Site

Follow the steps below to build a task report.

Create a Process Report

Let’s create the task process report to show the tasks that are assigned to the Supervisor
group:

1. From within the AX Document folder, click New, and select Process Report.

2. Retain the Duplicate existing process report selection, and search and select My
Tasks in the Process Report to Duplicate box. If no suggestions appear for My
Tasks, use active_tasks instead.

3. Name it AX Supervisor Process Report, and then change the description to “A list of
tasks for the AX Supervisors group.”

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 4. Make sure the Save In folder is set to AX Documents, and click Create.

Modify the Process Report

In the previous step, you created the AX Supervisor Process Report by duplicating the
out-of-the-box My Task report, which by default displays all tasks for the logged in user. In this
section, you’ll modify this process report to display tasks assigned to the AX Supervisor group:

1. Locate and open the AX Supervisor Process Report.

2. On the top menu bar, select All next to Status, and then click Edit.

3. Navigate to the Filters tab, and click New Rule. In the first dropdown menu, select
Assigned To, and then type AX Supervisors in the text entry field.

4. Click Save to to close the dialog box, and then click the save icon on the report
menu bar to save the process report.

Create a Constant for the Process Report

Before you create the task report interface, you need to create a constant for the AX Tasks
Process Report. This constant will be used in the interface that you will create in the next step.

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 1. From within the AX Constants folder, click New, and select Constant from the
dropdown menu.

2. Type AX_SUPERVISOR_TASK_PROCESS_REPORT_POINTER for the Name, and

add a description: “Points to the AX Supervisor Process Report object.”

3. In the Type field, select Document.

4. In the Value field, type and select AX Supervisor Process Report. Click Create.

Create an Interface for the Task Report

In this section, you’ll create an interface to display all tasks in a grid. Later, you’ll use this
interface to create a task report.

1. From within the AX Interfaces folder, click New, and select Interface from the
dropdown menu. Name it AX_SupervisorTaskReportInterface, and add a brief
description “Interface to display tasks to Supervisors.” Make sure the Save In folder is
set to AX Interfaces, and click Create.

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 2. First, you will use the a!queryProcessAnalytics() function to populate the empty interface
with data from the active tasks process report. You will do this in order to figure out
what columns you want to display to Supervisors. In the interface, click Expression
Mode, and enter the following expression into the Interface Definition:

a!textField(readOnly: true, value: a!queryProcessAnalytics(

report: cons!AX_SUPERVISOR_TASK_PROCESS_REPORT_POINTER ))

3. Scan the data in the Preview tab. You’ll notice that it is the text representation of the
process report data.

The columns you want to display in the grid are:

● C0 - Task name
● C2 - Date Time
● C5 - Task Status

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 4. Now that you know which columns you want to display, you are ready to set up your
read-only grid. Delete the code in the Interface Definition, and then replace it with
the following expression:

a!sectionLayout(
contents: { a!gridField(
label: "Supervisor Tasks",
instructions: "A list of all tasks for the Supervisor
group",
labelPosition: "ABOVE",
data: a!queryProcessAnalytics(
report: cons!AX_SUPERVISOR_TASK_PROCESS_REPORT_POINTER,
query: a!query(pagingInfo: fv!pagingInfo)),
columns: {
a!gridColumn(
label: "Name",
sortField: "c0",
value: fv!row.c0 ),
a!gridColumn(
label: "Status",
sortField: "c5",
value: fv!row.c5),
a!gridColumn(
label: "Date",
sortField: "c2",
value: fv!row.c2 ),},
rowHeader: 1)})

5. Switch back to Design Mode and click Save Changes.

Create Links to Process Tasks

The grid you just created displays the task name but users do not have a way to open the task.
In this section, you’ll link the Name column to the actual task.

1. Select the Read-only Grid component, then under Columns in the Component
Configuration panel, click Name (Grid Column).

2. Click Display Options, then select Process Task Link.

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 3. Click the Expression Editor icon next to Display Value, and replace the existing
expression with the following expression:

a!linkField(
links: {
a!processTaskLink(
label: fv!row.c0,
task: fv!identifier
)
}
)

4. Click OK, then Save Changes.

Create the Status Filter

In this exercise, you’ll format the status column to show meaningful values instead of numbers,
and you’ll add a filter to the interface to allow Supervisors to filter tasks by the most common
statuses.

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 1. From the Components palette, grab a Columns layout, and drop it above the
read-only grid.

2. Next, let’s add a local variable to this interface to hold the task status values that you
will use in the dropdown component. This component will allow Supervisors to filter
tasks by status. Click Expression Mode.

3. Click the arrow next to line 1 to collapse the existing expression, and press Enter. In
line 1, type the following expression:

a!localVariables(
local!statusFilter: null,
local!taskStatuses: {
"Assigned",
"Accepted",
"Completed"
},

4. Scroll to the last line of code in the interface definition pane and add a right parenthesis
“)”. Now, our entire expression is encapsulated within the a!localVariables function. This
is required so that local variables declared in the beginning can be referenced by other
encapsulated code further down:

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 5. Return to the Design Mode, and click Save Changes.

6. Next, let’s drag and drop a Dropdown field from the Components palette into the first
column layout on the left.

7. In the Component Configuration pane, configure the dropdown field as follows:

● Type Status in the Label field.

● Click the Expression Editor icon next to Choice Labels, and type the following
expression: local!taskStatuses. This populates the Choice Labels with the list
of statuses defined in Step 4.
● Click the Expression Editor icon next to Choice Values, and type the
following expression: enumerate(3).
● In the Selected Value and Save Selection To fields, use the dropdown menu
to select local!statusFilter.

8. Next, let’s add a filter to the read-only grid, so that once the Supervisor selects a value
in the Status dropdown, the grid refreshes to display only the selected statuses. Select
the Read-only Grid component, and in the Component Configuration pane click the
queryProcessAnalytics link (located in the Data Source section).

9. Click the query link in ContextGroups, and then click the Edit link below filter. Enter
the following expression into the filter (QueryFilter) dialog box:

a!queryFilter(
field: "c5",
operator: "=",
value: local!statusFilter,
applyWhen: not(isnull(local!statusFilter))
)

Click OK. Your filter should now work. Test the filter by selecting different values in the
dropdown status menu.

10. Select the Read-only Grid component to replace the numbers in the Status column
with labels like Assigned and Completed. In the Component Configuration pane, click
Status (Grid Column) under Columns.

11. Click the Expression Editor icon next to Display Value, and replace the existing
expression with the following expression:

a!forEach(
items: fv!row.c5,
expression: if(
not(isnull(fv!row.c5)),

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 fn!index(
local!taskStatuses,tointeger(fv!item)+1,"Other"),
tostring(fv!item)))

12. Click OK, then Save Changes to save the interface.

Create the Task Report

Now that you have the AX_SupervisorTaskReportInterface, let’s create a task report object.
Once you have a task report, you’ll be able to add it as a page to the Acme Exercise Site.

1. In your application, click New, and select Report. Name this report AX Supervisor
Task Report, and add a description: “Task report object to show Supervisor tasks.”

2. Type and select AX_SupervisorTaskReportInterface in the Interface field, and

select the Save as Task Report checkbox. Click Create.

3. To set security for this report, click Add Users and Groups, and add AX All Users as
Viewers, and AX Administrators as Administrators. Click Save.

Add the Task Report Page to the AX Site

Next, add the AX Supervisor Task Report to the Acme Exercise Site.

1. Open the Acme Exercise Site, and click Add Page. Configure this page as follows:

● Title the page Supervisor Tasks.

● Click the dropdown menu for the icons, and then browse or search for an
appropriate icon.
● Select Report in the Type field.

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 ● Select AX Supervisor Task Report in the Content field.
● Select Only show when under Visibility, and enter the expression:

a!isUserMemberOfGroup(loggedInUser(),
cons!AX_SUPERVISORS_POINTER)

● Click OK.

2. Click Save Changes. To preview the new Supervisor Tasks page, click the URL for the
site, and select the new Supervisors Tasks tab. Now, the Supervisors are able to see
their tasks in a single place, filter them by status, and approve or deny the addition of
vehicles to the fleet.

Export the Application

The import and export of applications is disabled for Appian Community Edition. However, for
applications outside of Appian Community Edition, you will want to export your finished
application as a zip file. Once you export the app, you can store the file, or import it into a
different environment. In order to export the app, you will prepare for the export by:

● Reviewing your app’s security settings

● Checking for missing precedents, or objects

These two quick checks will ensure that your app is export-ready and will work as expected in
its new environment. When you export future applications, follow the steps below.

Review Security Summary

1. Check the security summary of the app to ensure that every object has been secured

correctly. Click the Settings menu at the top right of the app, and select
Security Summary from the dropdown menu.

2. All objects should have a security setting, and only groups and not individual users
should be used for security. Review your Security Summary, making sure that there
are no unsecured objects, and all objects are secured at least through the AX
Administrators group. Review that the AX All Users group is assigned the Viewer
rights.

Check for Missing Precedents

A missing precedent refers to an object referenced in your application that belongs to a
different app. Usually, this happens when you reuse a shared object. To prevent problems,
always check for missing precedents, and add the shared objects to your app before exporting
it. Follow the steps below to complete this important check.

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 1. Click the Settings menu at the top right of the app, and select Missing
Precedents from the dropdown menu.

2. If there are any missing precedents in your app, review them to verify whether you need
to add the objects to your app, or the dependency should be removed. For example,
sometimes developers may include an erroneous object into their app by clicking the
incorrect auto-suggestion. There are other reasons why you may get a missing
precedent message:

● Many teams create a dedicated application for deploying shared components.

This is done to avoid clutter. If this is your scenario, you may need to ignore the
missing precedent message. The app with shared components is usually
deployed separately, or it might be already present in your target environment.
● Missing precedents can also occur if you erroneously create an object from within
a different app. In this instance, add the object to your app.

3. If you find a precedent that should be added to your app, select the precedent and click
Add to App. Alternatively, you can add multiple precedents by clicking Add all to
application. Click Check Again to run another missing precedents check that no
further dependencies were discovered.

Export the Application

Once you complete the above checks, export your app.

1. Click the Settings menu at the top right of the app, and select Export
Application from the dropdown menu. Verify the name of your app, and update it to
include the date of the export.

2. Click Export, and then click Download Package.

3. If you receive an error message, open the export log and correct any problems.
Download the newly created zip file, so you can take your work with you to a different
environment.

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