| This content applies solely to Requirements Management, which must be purchased separately from the Appian base platform. This content was written for Appian 21.4 and may not reflect the interfaces or functionality of other Appian versions. |
The Appian Requirements Management (RM) solution is designed to be customized to your organization's particular needs. The various interfaces in the out-of-the-box solution contain dropdown lists. You can modify the values of these lists to reflect the data that is unique to your processes by modifying reference data tables. For example, you can add or delete values that display in the Requirement Status dropdown list.
This page outlines how to modify the values that can be chosen from dropdown lists in the various interfaces of the RM solution.
See the Reference Data Tables page for descriptions of the table structures.
Most dropdown values for RM are stored in the AS_RM_R_DATA table. Updating this table allows you to control what dropdown values and lists display to end users moving through the requirement process. See the RM-only reference data table on the Reference Data Tables page for a description of the table structure.
To add a value to a dropdown list:
AS_RM_R_DATA table.After the row is inserted, this value will be available in any of the dropdown lists that have the same reference REF_TYPE as the value you inserted.
To add a new dropdown value, you could use the following SQL statement, replacing the values in brackets (< >) with your data. Note that this example uses MySQL syntax.
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INSERT INTO `AS_RM_R_DATA` (`REF_DATA_ID`, `REF_LABEL`, `REF
_TYPE`, `IS_ACTIVE`, `CREATED_BY`, `CREATED_DATETIME`, `MODIFIED_BY`, `MODIFIED_DATETIME`)
VALUES (null, '<New Label>', '<Type>', 1, '<Username>', CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(), '<Username>', CURRENT_TIMESTAMP()),
(null, '<New Label>', '<Type>', 1, '<Username>', CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(), '<Username>', CURRENT_TIMESTAMP());
If there is a value in a dropdown list that is no longer needed, deactivate the value by changing the IS_ACTIVE value in the AS_RM_R_DATA from 1 (true) to 0 (false).
Note: Deactivating a requirement status or item status is not recommended, as it will negatively affect other aspects of the application.
After the update is made, this value will no longer display in any dropdown list. The value will still display for already active requirements and historical requirements.
Note: Deleting data from the table is not recommended except during the initial set up. If the application is already in use, deleting data rather than deactivating it may cause issues.
To deactivate a dropdown value, you could use the following SQL statement. Replace <ID Being Updated> with the R_DATA_ID value. For example, to deactivate the Low priority in the following example table, <ID Being Updated> would be 11.
| R_DATA_ID | LABEL | TYPE | IS_ACTIVE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | High | Requirement Priority | 1 |
| 10 | Medium | Requirement Priority | 1 |
| 11 | Low | Requirement Priority | 1 |
Note that this example uses MySQL syntax.
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UPDATE AS_RM_R_DATA SET IS_ACTIVE = 0 WHERE R_DATA_ID = <ID Being Updated>
If you want to add a new dropdown list, you need to create a new dropdown list type.
There are two main steps to adding a new dropdown list:
AS_RM_R_DATA table. See Adding new dropdown values for instructions on how to add new rows.
REF_TYPE column, enter a name for the new dropdown list, such as Entity Region.After a new dropdown list type has been added to the AS_RM_R_DATA table, it will need a constant to point to it in order to be used in interfaces.
AS_RM_REF_TYPE_<NEW_DROPDOWN_LIST_TYPE>. For example AS_RM_REF_TYPE_ENTITY_REGION.
REF_TYPE column of the AS_RM_R_DATA table. For example, if the name in the REF_TYPE column is Entity Region, the value here must be the same.After the dropdown list constant has been created, the list is ready to be used by the AS_RM_QE_getRefDataByTypes rule. This rule pulls all of the reference data onto the interface that needs a reference value. AS_RM_QE_getRefDataByTypes takes in a typelist—an array of text—corresponding to the type values in the database you need to use.
To pull in the Requirement Status, Requirement Category, or Requirement Priority dropdown lists, you would use the rule as shown below:
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local!refData: rule!AS_RM_QE_getRefDataByTypes(
typelist: {
/* Requirement Status */
cons!AS_RM_REF_TYPE_REQUIREMENT_STATUS,
/* Requirement Category */
cons!AS_RM_REF_TYPE_REQUIREMENT_CATEGORY,
/* Requirement Priority */
cons!AS_IO_REF_TYPE_REQUIREMENT_PRIORITY
}
)
As shown in the example, you can pass in either text or a constant of type text with the corresponding dropdown list type.
Tip: Remember that AS_RM_QE_getRefDataByTypes is a query. In order to minimize the number of queries, it is best practice to avoid calling your reference data in sub-interfaces. Instead, query for all of the reference data on the main form and pass it to the sub-interfaces using rule inputs.
There are several other tables that contain reference data that appear in lists. The information stored in these tables is universal and shouldn't change often. However, if you ever have to change the list of countries, currencies, industry classification codes, or states, refer to the below tables.
Modifying Dropdown Lists
