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Standard Object Names

Overview

This page provides standard Appian design objects and object property naming conventions that you can adapt to your environment and organizational guidelines as needed. The design objects and properties in this page are listed in the order they appear in the NEW menu in the Build view.

Note:  For many design objects, we recommend starting object names with a short, unique prefix specific to the related application. Initialisms, such as HRO for an HR Onboarding application, work well as application prefixes. You can specify the prefix you want to use when you create an application from scratch, and the prefix will pre-populate name fields for certain objects.

Application

Object Naming Standard Example
Application
  • Published applications contain navigation items that are visible to end users. For example, Appian uses the application name to group together Actions in Tempo. If you intend to publish your application to users, do not use the application prefix in the name. Instead, use a short, descriptive name that is meaningful to end users.
  • Unpublished applications are commonly used to promote artifacts between environments. If you don't intend to publish your application to end users, start the name with the application prefix. In addition, the name should include the following:
    • The type of the application, for example, CDTs and Data Stores or All Contents.
    • A version number as a suffix, such as v1.0.
  • For both published and unpublished applications, the name can be the same as another object's name in the same environment.
  • unpublished: HRO HR Onboarding All Contents v1.0
  • published: HR Onboarding

Data objects

Object Naming Standard Example
Data Store
  • Start the name with the application prefix.
  • Use title case with spaces.
  • The name must be unique in the Appian environment.
 HRO Employee Data
Custom Data Type
  • Start the name with the application prefix.
  • Use title case with underscores.
  • Names must start with a letter or an underscore, and may contain only letters, numbers, hyphens, periods, and underscores.
  • The name must be unique in the Appian environment.
  • Use a custom namespace for your CDTs to group them and associate them with a specific application.
  • name: HRO_Employee_Data
  • namespace: urn:appian:hro
Record Type
  • Start the name with the application prefix.
  • Use a short, descriptive, singular name. Appian creates a plural name (without the prefix) that is displayed to end users.
  • The name must be unique in the Appian environment.
 HRO Employee

Process objects

Object Naming Standard Example
Process Model
  • For most process models, process model folders, and running process instances, start the name with the application prefix. However, if you've configured a related action to use the process model name for the action's display name, don't use the prefix in the process model name.
  • Use title case with spaces.
  • For running process instances, include key data points in the name to help identify the process instances in a process report.
  • The name can be the same as another object's name in the same environment.
  • main process model: HRO Onboard New Employee
  • running instance: HRO Onboard John Doe - 2014 01 01
Process Report
  • Start the name with the application prefix.
  • Use title case with spaces.
  • The name can be the same as another object's name in the same environment.
 HRO Process Report
Robotic Tasks
  • Start the name with the application prefix.
  • If the robotic task isn't associated with an Appian application, use a prefix that can be used for all related object names.
  • The name must be less than 100 characters.
  • Use letters, numbers, underscores, periods, and dashes only.
  • The name must be unique in the Appian environment.
 HRO-I9-retrieval

Note:  For additional information about Appian RPA, see the Appian RPA documentation.

User objects

Object Naming Standard Example
Interface
  • Start the name with the application prefix.
  • Use Pascal case.
  • Do not use special characters or spaces.
  • Use an underscore between the application prefix and the rest of the name.
  • The name must be unique in the Appian environment.
 HRO_AddNewEmployee
Report
  • Do not start the name with the application prefix, because the name is intended to be seen directly by end users.
  • Use a short, descriptive name that is meaningful to the end users.
  • Because a report is composed of several graphical elements (grids and charts) as well as editable fields used to filter and sort the report data, the report name should not be narrowed down to a specific timeframe or subset of the data.
  • Do not suffix the report name with Report.
  • The name can be the same as another object's name in the same environment.
 HR Onboarding Department
Site
  • Start the name with the application prefix; the site name is internal and won't be seen directly by end users.
  • For the site display name, don't start the site display name with the application prefix, because end users will see it directly in the site navigation menu and browser tab.
    • Use a short site display name that is meaningful to end users.
    • Use title case for site display names.
    • When you create a site, Appian uses the site display name to construct a web address identifier for the site by default. To define the site URL, edit the default web address identifier. The web address identifier must be unique.
    • After you've created a site, the web address identifier (URL) won't automatically update if you edit the site display name or define it using an expression.
  • Site Name: HRO Onboarding
  • Site Display Name: Onboarding
Portal
  • Start the name with the application prefix; the portal object name is internal and won't be seen directly by end users.
  • For the portal display name, don't start the name with the application prefix, because end users will see it directly in the browser tab.
    • Use a short display name that is meaningful to end users of the portal.
    • Use title case for portal display names.
    • When you create a portal object, Appian uses the portal display name to construct a default web address identifier for the portal. To define the portal web address, edit the default web address identifier. The web address identifier must be unique in the current environment and any environments that you deploy the portal to. For more information on portal web addresses, see Portal Object.
    • After you've created a portal object, the web address identifiers won't automatically update if you edit the portal display name.
  • Portal Object Name: HRO Registration
  • Portal Display Name: Account Registration

Rule objects

Object Naming Standard Example
Constant
  • Start the name with the application prefix. Optionally, use an additional prefix to group related constants.
  • Use uppercase for all letters.
  • Do not use special characters or spaces.
  • The name must be unique in the Appian environment.
 HRO_IMG_CAREER_HISTORY_ICON
Decision
  • Start the name with the application prefix.
  • Use Pascal case.
  • Do not use special characters or spaces.
  • The name must be unique in the Appian environment.
 HRO_DetermineEligibilityStatus
Expression Rule
  • Start the name with the application prefix. Optionally, use an additional prefix to group related rules.
  • Use Pascal case.
  • Do not use special characters or spaces.
  • The name must be unique in the Appian environment.
 HRO_ComputeBaseSalary
HRO_GetEmployeeOnboardingTasksStatus

Integration objects

Object Naming Standard Example
Connected System
  • If the connected system will be used by a single application, start the name with the application prefix. Otherwise, do not use an application prefix.
  • The name must be unique in the Appian environment.
  • single application: HRO Google Drive
  • multiple applications: Google Drive
Integration
  • Start the name with the application prefix.
  • Use Pascal case.
  • Do not use special characters or spaces.
  • Use an underscore between the application prefix and the rest of the name.
  • The name must be unique in the Appian environment.
 HRO_getApplicationInformation
Web API
  • Start the name with the application prefix.
  • The name can use special characters and spaces.
  • The name must be unique in the Appian environment.
 HRO Get LinkedIn Profile

Group objects

Object Naming Standard Example
Group
  • Start the name with the application prefix, except when the group is intended to be seen directly by end users. For example, you would not use the prefix for a Tempo audience group.
  • Use a short, descriptive name for each group.
  • Create a parent group named for each application.
  • Name child groups according to their security role.
  • Each application should include the following child groups at a minimum:
    • Application Administrators
    • Application Users
  • The name must be unique in the Appian environment.
  • parent group: HRO HR Onboarding
  • child groups: HRO Administrators, HRO All Users, HRO Human Resources
Group Type
  • Start the name with the application prefix.
  • Use a short, descriptive name that clearly indicates the business purpose that connects the groups in the group type.
  • The name must be unique in the Appian environment.
  • HRO Corporate
  • HRO Finance
  • HRO Sales

Content-management objects

Object Naming Standard Example
Document
  • Start the name with the application prefix, except when the document is intended to be seen directly by end users.
  • The name must be at least four characters long (including the three character file extension, such as .doc).
  • If you use any of the following characters in the name, Appian replaces the character with an underscore: \ / ; : | ? ' < > *
  • If you include the file extension in the name, make sure it matches the file type by which the file was saved. If the extension in the name does not match with the uploaded file, it may not display properly.
  • The name can be the same as another object's name in the same environment.
 HRO_ProfilePhoto_Employee223
Folder
  • These recommendations apply to all folder types, including knowledge centers and document folders.
  • Start the name with the application prefix.
  • Use title case with spaces.
  • Use standard names across applications for folders that serve the same purpose. For example, you would use HRO Process Models to store process models in the HRO application.
  • For rule folders, the name must be unique in the Appian environment. For any other type of folder, the name can duplicate another name.
  • HRO Constants
  • HRO Expression Rules
  • HRO Interfaces
  • HRO Integrations
  • HRO Knowledge Center
  • HRO Employee Name Documents

Notification objects

Object Naming Standard Example
Feed
  • Do not start the name with the application prefix, because the name is intended to be seen directly by end users.
  • Use a short, descriptive name that is meaningful to end users.
  • The name can be the same as another object's name in the same environment.
 New Hire Feed

Object properties

Object Naming Standard Example
Action
  • These recommendations apply to application actions (visible in the Actions tab in Tempo) and record actions (visible in record views).
  • Do not start the name with the application prefix, because the name is intended to be seen directly by end users. For example, in Tempo, application actions are grouped by application names using filters, and in record views, record action names appear in buttons and links.
  • Use a short, descriptive name that is meaningful to the end users.
  • application action: Start New Employee Onboarding
  • record action: Update Employee
Variable / Rule Input
  • Do not start the name with the application prefix.
  • Use camel case to differentiate words without adding clumsy underscores.
  • Use the suffix List to indicate that the variable is a multiple.
  • Do not accept the following characters !@#$%^&*()-=+~[]{}|\/'"";:<>.
  • firstName
  • salaryAdvanceAmount
  • generalExpenseList

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