Create Group Smart Service (a!createGroup)

This activity allows you to display a form for your users to fill out, which creates a group based on the information they submit. Alternatively, you can also set all the required node inputs at design time.

Note:

This smart service was previously called Create Custom Group.
This smart service has been enhanced to support Group Type as opposed to just Text. As a consequence, group types can be tracked as precedents.

Permissions needed

The Assignment tab allows you to specify a user account that is assigned the activity, or to run the activity automatically, taking the process designer or the process initiator's user account for security purposes. You can only run this activity as a user that is a system administrator or in the process administrator's role. (Other users, such as members of the Portal Administrators group cannot execute this activity.)

Attempting to execute this task as a basic user causes a runtime exception that pauses the process and sends an alert to the process administrator.

Properties

Category: Identity Management
Icon:
Assignment Options: Attended/Unattended

Configuration options

This section contains tab configuration details specific to this smart service. For more information about common configurations see the Process Node Properties page.

Data tab

Node inputs

Name	Type	Required	Multiple	Default Value	Comments
Name	Text	Yes	No		The following characters are not allowed in group names. `/ \ < > " , . * '`
Description	Text	No	No
Group Type	Group Type	Yes	No		You must select a group type for the node input. This data cannot be collected from users at runtime, from an associated form.
Delegated Creation?	Integer		No	0 (No)	The default values are Yes or No. The integer 1 equals yes. 0 equals no.
Parent Group	Group	No	No		The user account that activates this activity must have Administrator rights for the parent group in order to add this new group as a child.
Membership Policy	Number	Yes	No	Closed	Default value options: Closed, Exclusive, Automatic
Visibility	Number	Yes	No	Public	Default value options: Public, Personal, Restricted
Privacy Policy	Number	Yes	No	Low	Default value options: Low, High

If the activity is run without being assigned to a user (or a group) you must specify values for each of the required node inputs listed.

Selecting a Personal visibility input value sets other associated node input values automatically. Be aware that the node input lists on the Data tab and the dropdown lists displayed task form are not automatically filtered when this happens to show only valid options for the Visibility. Any invalid selections (made by you at design time, or by your users at runtime) are ignored when the group is created.

If the Visibility input is set to Personal, the following settings are configured automatically.

The Group Type input is set to Custom
No value can be specified for the Parent Group node input.
The Membership Policy node input is set to Closed.
The Group Privacy node input is set to High.

Node outputs

Name	Data Type	Description
New Group	Group	This activity returns the group created.

You can save this group into a process variable in the following manner.

Select the Outputs property sheet (tab).
Click group on the Results list. The result properties display.
Create a new process variable to store the result, or select an existing process variable with a Group data type from the available list.

a!createGroup()

The Create Group smart service is available as an expression function that can be executed inside a saveInto on a Interface Component or as part of a Web API.

Syntax

a!createGroup( name, description, groupType, delegatedCreation, parent, membershipPolicy, securityType, groupPrivacy, onSuccess, onError )

Parameters

Keyword	Type	Description
`name`	Text	The name of the group.
`description`	Text	The description of the group.
`groupType`	Text	The type of the group.
`delegatedCreation`	Boolean	Should administrators of this group be permitted to create additional groups as children? Default is `false`.
`parent`	Group	The group's parent. You must be an administrator of this group.
`membershipPolicy`	Text	The membership policy of the new group. Valid values include `CLOSED` (default), `EXCLUSIVE`, `AUTOMATIC`. See Group Membership Policy for definitions of the membership policies.
`securityType`	Text	The security type of the new group. Valid values include `PUBLIC` (default), `PERSONAL`, `RESTRICTED`. See Group_Visibility for definitions of the security types.
`groupPrivacy`	Text	The privacy policy of the new group. Valid values include `LOW` (default), `HIGH`. See Group Privacy Policy for definitions of the group privacy rules.
`onSuccess`	Any Type	A list of saves or an HTTP response to execute after the smart service executes successfully. Created with `a!save()` or `a!httpResponse()`. When configuring this input, the `fv!group` function variable (Any Type) is available to specify the group that was created. For more information, see Function Variables.
`onError`	Any Type	A list of saves or an HTTP response to execute when the smart service does not execute successfully. Created with `a!save()` or `a!httpResponse()`.

Returns

Save

Example

The following is a simple example that allows you to create, edit, and delete a group using an interface.

These actions need to be performed in the order mentioned above as the edit and delete actions use the group returned by the Create Group action.

=a!localVariables(
  local!group,
  local!groupName,
  local!groupDescription,
  local!groupType: "Custom",
  local!groupSecurity: "PERSONAL",
  local!groupPrivacy: "LOW",
  a!formLayout(
    label: "Create / Edit / Delete Group Test",
    contents: {
      a!sectionLayout(
        label: "Create Group",
        contents: {
          a!columnsLayout(
            columns: {
              a!columnLayout(
                contents: {
                  a!textField(
                    label: "Name",
                    value: local!groupName,
                    saveInto: local!groupName,
                    refreshAfter: "UNFOCUS"
                  ),
                  a!paragraphField(
                    label: "Description",
                    value: local!groupDescription,
                    saveInto: local!groupDescription,
                    refreshAfter: "UNFOCUS"
                  )
                }
              ),
              a!columnLayout(
                contents: {
                  a!textField(
                    label: "Type",
                    value: local!groupType,
                    saveInto: local!groupType,
                    readOnly: true,
                    refreshAfter: "UNFOCUS"
                  ),
                  a!dropdownField(
                    label: "Security",
                    choiceLabels: {"PUBLIC", "PERSONAL", "RESTRICTED"},
                    choiceValues: {"PUBLIC", "PERSONAL", "RESTRICTED"},
                    value: local!groupSecurity,
                    saveInto: local!groupSecurity
                  ),
                  a!dropdownField(
                    label: "Privacy",
                    choiceLabels: {"LOW", "HIGH"},
                    choiceValues: {"LOW", "HIGH"},
                    value: local!groupPrivacy,
                    saveInto: local!groupPrivacy
                  )
                }
              )
            }
          )
        }
      )
    },
    buttons: a!buttonLayout(
      primaryButtons: {
        /* CREATE GROUP */
        a!buttonWidget(
          label: "Create Group",
          style: "NORMAL",
          saveInto: {
            a!createCustomGroup(
              name: local!groupName,
              description: local!groupDescription,
              groupType: local!groupType,
              delegatedCreation: false,
              securityType: local!groupSecurity,
              groupPrivacy: local!groupPrivacy,
              onSuccess: {
                a!save(local!group, fv!group)
              },
              onError: {}
            )
          },
          submit: true
        ),

        /* EDIT GROUP */  
        a!buttonWidget(
          label: "Update Group",
          style: "NORMAL",
          saveInto: {
            a!editGroup(
              group: local!group,
              name: local!groupName,
              description: local!groupDescription,
              groupType: local!groupType,
              delegatedCreation: false,
              securityType: local!groupSecurity,
              groupPrivacy: local!groupPrivacy,
              onSuccess: {},
              onError: {}
            )
          },
          disabled: if(isnull(local!group),true,false),
          submit: true
        ),

        /* DELETE GROUP */  
        a!buttonWidget(
          label: "Delete Group",
          style: "NORMAL",
          saveInto: {
            a!deleteGroup(
              group: togroup(local!group), /* Converts the local variable from Any Type back to Group */
              onSuccess: {},
              onError: {}
            ),
            a!save(local!group, null),
            a!save(local!groupName, null),
            a!save(local!groupDescription, null)
          },
          disabled: if(isnull(local!group), true, false),
          submit: true
        )     
      }
    )
  )
)

Feature compatibility

The table below lists this smart service function's compatibility with various features in Appian.

Feature	Compatibility	Note
Portals	Partially compatible	Can be used with Appian Portals if it is connected using an integration and web API.
Offline Mobile	Incompatible
Sync-Time Custom Record Fields	Incompatible
Real-Time Custom Record Fields	Incompatible	Custom record fields that evaluate in real time must be configured using one or more Custom Field functions.
Process Reports	Incompatible	Cannot be used to configure a process report.
Process Events	Incompatible	Cannot be used to configure a process event node, such as a start event or timer event.

Create Group Smart Service