Define Record Views

This page describes how to define a record view and style your record header.

Overview

Once you've configured the source of your record type, each row of your source data will be displayed as a record. To extend your data, you should consider what users will want to see and do from the context of each record.

Specifically, you'll want to think about:

  • Who will view the record?
  • What information will they want to see when they view the record?
  • What will users want to do from the context of the record?

Let's break it down with an example. If you are working with a Customer Support record type, first consider who will want to view the information on each record. In this example, support engineers and case managers need to view and monitor each submitted customer case.

Once you know who will view the record, what information they will want to see? The support engineer may only need to view who submitted the case, the details about the issue, and the date the case was submitted. The case manager, on the other hand, may want to view the total number of supported cases from the customer, their sentiment score, and their payment plan.

When you know who will view the records and what information each type of viewer will want to see, you can define your record views. Record views are design elements that you can use to tailor record data to a user's interests and needs. You can have multiple record views to create a more comprehensive view of your data that benefits many users.

In the Customer Support record type, you could create two different record views: one for support engineers that displays the details of the case, and another for case managers that contains information about the customer's sentiment score, case history, and payment plan.

Support Engineer View

Once you define your record views, learn how to create record actions so users can take action from the context of a record.

If you are working with an existing record type created in 20.2 or earlier, update the record type to use new record type object components, features, and functions.

Define a record view

A record view is defined on the record type object and is composed of an interface that displays information from a single record to end users. You can have multiple record views to surface different insights about each record depending on a user's interests and needs.

Although each record in the record type will contain the same record views, the layout and data that display for each record is determined by the expressions used to define the views. By default, each record type will have at least three views:

  • Summary view
  • News view
  • Related Actions view

The Summary view is displayed by default as the first view on a record. You can define the Summary view and up to 20 additional record views on your record type. The News and Related Actions views are configured out-of-the-box on the record type to display any news related to a record and any related actions associated with the record type. These two views are pre-configured to save development time, so they cannot be modified.

In order to define a record view, first create an interface object to display the record data. To easily pass data into your interface object, use the record type as a rule input in your record view interface. To learn more about creating an interface for a record view and passing the record data, see Create a Record View Interface.

Define the Summary view

By default, each record will have a Summary view. This is typically the first view a user sees when clicking on a record in the record list. Users can navigate to this view from a column in a grid-style record list, or from the main text in a feed-style record list.

If your record type has data sync enabled, you can automatically configure the Summary view by clicking GENERATE INTERFACE. This option appears the first time you configure the Summary view, and whenever the view is empty or null.

generate-summary-view

When you generate an interface, a new interface object is created with all your record data, including any related record data. You can then use this interface as a quick starting point to build and enhance your Summary view.

Once you create the interface, the Interface expression will populate with your new interface rule and pass in the rv!record variable to display your record data. For more information on rv!, see Domain Prefixes.

To define the Summary view:

  1. In your record type, go to Views and Header.
  2. In the views grid, click next to Summary.

    Record Views Edit Dialog

  3. For Interface, enter an expression that calls your Summary view. In the example below, the expression rule!AT_Employee_summaryView(record: rv!record) is used to call the interface and pass in the record.

    Record Views Interface Expression

  4. For Visibility, enter an expression to set the visibility for the view. The view will only be visible when the expression evaluates to true for the user.
  5. (Optional) Configure related action shortcuts for the view:
    • Under Related Action Shortcuts, select the related actions you want to display as buttons for this view. This section is blank if you haven't added any related actions to the record type yet.
    • Under Open Actions In, select whether the related actions for this view open in a dialog, a new tab, or the same tab.

    You can bulk update this setting for all views. Learn how to bulk update launch styles for related actions.

  6. Click OK.
  7. Click SAVE CHANGES.

Add a record view

In addition to the Summary view, you can have up to 20 record views.

To add another view:

  1. In your record type, go to Views and Header.
  2. In the Views section, click NEW VIEW.

    image_24

  3. For View Name, enter the name you want the user to see. This is an expression field, so encase text values in quotes.
  4. For Interface, enter your interface expression or an expression rule that calls your interface. For example: rule!AT_Employee_departmentView(record: rv!record).
  5. For Visibility, enter an expression to set the visibility for the view. The view will only be visible when the expression evaluates to true for the user.
  6. (Optional) Configure related action shortcuts for the view:
    • Under Related Action Shortcuts, select the related actions you want to display as buttons for this view. This section is blank if you haven't added any to the record type yet.
    • Under Open Actions In, select whether the related actions for this view open in a dialog, a new tab, or the same tab.

    You can bulk update this setting for all views. Learn how to bulk update launch styles for related actions.

  7. Click OK.
  8. Click SAVE CHANGES.

The Open Actions In property for each view controls whether the related action shortcuts for that view open in a dialog, a new tab, or the same tab.

You can configure this property one view at a time. You can also bulk update this property for all actions in all views at the same time.

To bulk update the Open Actions In property for all your views:

  1. In your record type, go to Views and Header.
  2. In the Views section, click UPDATE LAUNCH STYLES.

    Record Views Update Launch Styles button

  3. Under Open All Actions In, select whether the view opens in a dialog, a new tab, or the same tab.

    Record Views Related Action Launch Style

  4. Click APPLY. Appian sets the Open Actions In value for all related action shortcuts in all views to the option you selected.
  5. Click SAVE CHANGES.

After bulk updating, you can change the Open Actions In property in individual views or again in bulk as needed.

Configure the display of default record views

A record type has two record views that are configured out-of-the-box and displayed by default on each record:

  • News view: This view shows the 20 most recent news events related to that record. Users can view and add comments to these news entries.
  • Related Actions view: This view displays all related actions configured on the record type. Users can initiate related actions from this view.

Since these record views are auto-populated with related news events and related actions, they cannot be modified.

There may be cases when you don't want to display the News view or the Related Actions view on your records. For example, you may want to hide these views if your application doesn't utilize the News feed, or you've used the record action component to display related actions on your interfaces.

When you don't want to display the News or Related Actions views, you can hide them to prevent users from navigating or seeing these views on the records.

To control whether or not Appian displays the News or Related Actions view for the record type:

  1. In your record type, go to Views and Header.
  2. Under Default Views, select or clear the Show News view and Show Related Actions view checkboxes.

    Record Views Set Default View options

When you choose to show or hide either of these views, you are determining the view's visibility. This means that if you configure the record type to hide a view, users will not be able to see or interact with the view anywhere in the application. For example, if you configure a site to display the News view, but you've hidden the view on the record type, the News view will not display on the site.

Hiding the Related Actions view does not determine the security of the related actions. Users can still perform related actions from related action shortcuts, the record action component, or by navigating to the URL for that related action if they have the proper security permissions to do so. To restrict permissions on related actions, configure the underlying process model's security.

Style the record header

Once you've created your record views, think about adding some final touches on the record's presentation. To start, each record will need a title that displays in a record header.

Record title

The record title appears at the top of each record view, in record tags, and in the hover card for that record.

The way you define the record title will vary depending on whether you plan to display your list of records as a grid-style or feed-style list.

For grid-style record lists:

  1. Go to the Views and Header page of the record type.
  2. In the Header section, select one of the following options:
    • Guided Configuration: Select a field from your record to use as the title. By default, the selected field is the first non-primary Text field from your record type.

      This option is only available for record types with data sync enabled.

    • Expression: In the Record Title field, use the Expression Editor to define an expression for the title. For example, the image below uses the expression rv!record[recordType!CSA Customer.fields.firstName] & " " & rv!record[recordType!CSA Customer.fields.lastName] to display the first name and last name for the customer record.

    screenshot of header section

  3. Click SAVE CHANGES.

For feed-style record lists, the record title comes from the title parameter in a!listViewItem when you define the record list. Learn more about the listViewItem function

Record header

The record header appears at the top of each record view as the background and contains the title, breadcrumbs, and related actions.

Record headers can be styled using colors or a billboard image. By default, the record header style is NONE.

Color backgrounds

Headers can display one background color for all records in a record type, or different colors based on an expression or variables within the record.

The record header will display the selected color style with the record title, breadcrumbs, and related action buttons in the card.

Screenshot of selecting a header color

You can use one of the following options to set the background color:

  • Static: Use the color picker to select the appropriate color or enter a hex code.
  • Variable: Use the Color dropdown to select the record variable of your color. This picker returns the record variables of type TEXT.
  • Expression: Enter an expression that evaluates to a valid hex color code.

Image backgrounds

You can configure headers to display one image or multiple images. One image from a document or a URL can be used for all records in a record type. Similar to color backgrounds, you can also configure image backgrounds to display different images based on variables within the record or using an expression.

The record header will display the billboard image of your choice, where you can style the overlay, height, and background color. The overlay will contain the record title, breadcrumbs, and related action buttons.

To configure the style of an image background:

  1. Go to the Views and Header page of the record type.
  2. In the Headers section, under Record Header Background, click IMAGE.

    /Create Record Type/create a record type image header

  3. Select one of the following sources for the image:

    Image Source Description
    Document Select an image using the document picker.
    URL Enter a secure URL of a static image you want as your billboard image.
    Variable From the dropdown, select the record field where you've stored a color value. This picker returns record fields of type TEXT, INTEGER, and DOCUMENT.
    Expression In the Expression Editor, input an expression that evaluates to a valid document or image URL.

    If you use Variable or Expression to configure the image background, the live preview will not display the selected image.

  4. Configure the following additional properties:

    Property Description
    Image Height Select Short, Medium, Tall, or Auto.
    Overlay Type Select Bar or Full.
    Overlay Position Select Top, Middle, or Bottom.
    Overlay Style Select Dark, Semi-Dark, None, Semi-Light, or Light.
    Background Color Specify any valid hex code. This color appears if your image is null, is an invalid value, or the user does not have permission to see the image.
  5. Click SAVE CHANGES.
Open in Github Built: Fri, May 26, 2023 (08:43:37 PM)

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