The Write Records smart service is a powerful tool that allows you to easily insert or update data in your source system and then automatically sync those changes in Appian.
To write data using this smart service, you must use a record type that meets the following conditions:
You can update records in your record type and your related record types. See the specific usage considerations for writing related records.
The user executing this node must have Viewer permissions to all record types where data is created or updated. If the user does not, the node will fail and pause the process with an exception.
For example, if a user is creating a new Order, they need Viewer permission to the Order record type. When the Order is updated with line items, the user will need to write both the Order and the Order Item, so they will also need permission for the Order Item record type.
This section contains configuration details specific to this smart service. For more information about common configurations, see the Process Node Properties page.
The Setup tab is where you'll configure the records to write, as well as any corresponding record events to write. If your record type does not have record events configured, you will only specify the records to write on this tab.
To configure the Setup tab:
Go to the Setup tab.
Tip: If you do not see the Setup tab in your node, replace the current node with a new Write Records node.
For Records Input, select a process variable or write an expression to specify the records to update. You can write a combined total of 50,000 records, related records, and events per node.
Note: If you include custom record fields in the Records Input, they will be ignored. Custom record fields are defined by and exist only in Appian, so attempting to write values for them will have no effect.
Select the values to write for the event. The field inputs are populated from the related Event History record type. You must map values for the following field inputs:
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Event Type | Use the dropdown to select an event type or use an expression to specify the event type. The dropdown list is populated from the values in the Event Type Lookup record type. If you use an expression, you must use the event type identifier to indicate the type of event. Learn more about conditionally choosing event values. |
| User | Use the dropdown to select the Process Initiator or a process variable of type User or Text, or use an expression to specify the user. If the event will be completed by an automated task, set the value to Null (Set as System Event). |
| Automation Type | Use the dropdown to select the type of automation that will complete the event, or use an expression to specify the automation type. If the event isn't automated, set the value to None (User) to indicate it will be completed by a user. Learn more about measuring automation. |
| Timestamp | Use the dropdown to select Now (the date and time when the node is executed) or a process variable of type Date and Time, or use an expression to specify the date and time. |
The Data tab allows you to add additional inputs and store the resulting node outputs.
| Name | Data Type | Description | Required | Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pause On Error | Boolean | Determines whether the node should pause by exception if an error occurs writing to the source. Default: true. |
No | No |
| Name | Data Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Records Updated | Any Type | A list of records containing the input data, the primary keys of any newly created records, and any new event records (if you chose to write record events). Its data type is the record type configured on the Setup tab. If you save this output to a process variable, you can examine the results in the Process History. If a record field is marked with a gray circle icon, the field was written successfully (or not modified at all). If a record field is marked with a yellow arrow icon, Write Records ignored the requested change because of the relationship configuration. |
| Error Occurred | Boolean | Returns true if any write to the source system or Appian fails; returns false if all writes succeed. |
| Error | Text | The error that occurred when writing the records and the list of records that failed to write. This is only returned when the Pause On Error input is false. |
| To learn more about… | See… |
| Passing data to and from the smart service. | |
| Writing records and related records. | |
| Writing events. | |
| Automatic behavior. |
To pass data into the Write Records smart service or function, you must use a record data type. This means that when you build a start form, you should use record types as your rule inputs or local variable, and any process variables should have a Type of Record Type.
If you're not passing data from a variable, you can use a record type constructor to pass in the record data type and the data to write in a script task.
Note: You only need to pass in the data you want to update, not all record fields and their values. This smart service will only update the data you provide. It will not write null values for any fields that are not provided. See Update existing records for an example.
When your process needs to use or act on the data written by a Write Records node, you can often complete the process using data provided in the Records Updated output. This output includes everything from the input plus the primary keys of any newly created records. If the node is configured to write record events, the output also contains any new event records. Returning this combination improves performance of the Write Records node. For simple processes, you may only need to know that the node completed without error.
If your process is more complex and needs data not immediately available in the node output, you can query the record type after a Write Records node. For example, if a later node uses a custom field value, you must run another query to retrieve its latest value. The value in the Records Updated output will not be refreshed.
If you need to get the latest record data after writing, you can quickly build that query using a Script Task.
To use the Records Updated output in a Script Task:
Create a new process variable with the following properties:
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | recordsUpdated |
| Type | Select the same record type used in the Record Input. |
a!queryRecordType() or a!queryRecordByIdentifier() to query for the data you need.recordsUpdated.recordsUpdated as needed to work with your newly written data.A new record will be created when one of the following is true:
AUTO_INCREMENT the primary key column and you omit the primary key field or set it as null.AUTO_INCREMENT or use a sequence and you provide a primary key value that does not exist.To update existing data, the record must include a primary key value. For example, if you want to update an employee record, you must pass the employee's Id to the Write Records smart service.
When you update an existing record, only the changed data is written. For example, imagine your Employee record type has fields for firstName, lastName, and other personal information, but you only need to update an employee's last name from Anderson to Kwan. You can pass just the record's identifier and the new lastName, and only the changed field will be updated in the source.
In this example, we query the entire Employee record. When we pass the updated data, only lastName is updated in the source; the employee's first name and other data remains unchanged.
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recordType!Employee(
recordType!Employee.fields.id: 233,
recordType!Employee.fields.firstName: "Alice",
! recordType!Employee.fields.lastName: "Kwan"
)
You can update records in one record type or you can include related records with a one-to-many or one-to-one relationship to the base record type.
To write data for a base record and related records, the following conditions must be met:
The Write Records node executes all of the writes as a single transaction. This ensures that either all of the input data is written or none of the data is written. This helps avoid incomplete writes (such as where an Order is written, but an Order Line Item is not).
Each record type with data sync enabled can sync up to 4 million rows of data.
If your record type exceeds the synced row limit after the Write Records smart service executes, the write will be successful and the sync will succeed as long as:
Otherwise, the write will succeed but the sync will fail and your record data will be unavailable.
If the record type selected in the Records Input has record events configured, you can write records and events at the same time, in the same node. This means that when the node executes, the record type will be updated, as well as the related Event History record type.
For example, let's say you configure a Write Records node to create a new order. If the Order record type has record events configured, you can specify that when a new order is created, a new event is also created to capture who created the order and when.
If you are updating multiple records in one node, then each new record will have a corresponding event created. For example, if you create order 1, order 2, and order 3, each order will have its own unique event created.
The Write Records smart service only writes events for the record type associated with the Records Input value. Event data is not automatically create for any related record data, but it can be created using a separate Write Records node.
You can also include events for a related record type by adding the data to the process variable. Events will be written for the record and the related record when then node executes. See Write events for multiple record types in one node for an example.
Note: You can only write records and events using the Write Records smart service. You cannot use the a!writeRecords() function to write records and events at the same time.
When you're capturing automation types in your event data, you can configure your Write Records nodes to write the type of automation that completed each event. Remember, even though a process might involve multiple users or automation types, you want your event data to show the user or automation type that actually completed the task.
In general, use the following guidelines to configure the User and Automation Type properties when writing events:
If the event was completed by a human, set the User property to the appropriate field from the Event History record type. Then, set the Automation Type property to None (User).
If the event was completed by automation, set the User property to Null (Set at System Event). Then, select the appropriate automation type for the Automation Type property.
Learn more about capturing automation types.
You can conditionally set the value for any event input, like Event Type, User, Automation Type, or Timestamp. This approach is useful when you use a single Write Records smart service to add and update data, or when you want to write different event values depending on a value in the record.
For example, when you generate Create and Update record actions at the same time, Appian will create a single process model to perform both actions. If you selected the Include Common Event Types option when you generated your event record types, the generated process model is automatically configured to write events correctly. As a result, "Created record" events are only written when a new record is created, and "Updated record" events are only written when a record is updated.
You may also want to write different event types depending on the value of a record. For example, let's say an order is updated to have a status of "Reviewed" so you want write an event called "Reviewed Order" instead of "Updated Order".
To conditionally set the event type for this example:
Write an expression using an if() statement and the order status value. Use the event type identifier to specify the event type. For example:
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if(
pv!record[recordType!Order.relationships.status.fields.name] = "Reviewed",
/* The ID for the "Reviewed Order" event type */
3,
/* The ID for the "Updated Order" event type */
2
)
Tip: For easier maintenance, use a constant to specify the event type identifier instead of entering a static numerical value.
There are some scenarios where you may want to write an event without making any changes to the base record type.
For example, let's say you sent a feedback form to a customer after an order is shipped. If the customer doesn't respond to the form in five days, the process model will automatically send an email reminder.
To capture an event for the automatic email reminder, you can write directly to the Event History record type. To do this:
Add a Script Task node and configure it with the data to pass to the Write Records node. Use a record type constructor to specify the event information to write to the Event History record type. For example:
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recordType!Customer Events(
recordType!Customer Events.fields.recordId: pv!customer[recordType!Customer.fields.recordId],
recordType!Customer Events.fields.timestamp: now(),
recordType!Customer Events.fields.user: null,
recordType!Customer Events.fields.activityId: cons!CUSTOMER_EVENT_EMAIL_REMINDER_ID
)
Note: A null user field indicates that this is an automated activity, it was not started by a specific user.
Add a Write Records node and set the Records Input to a process variable or expression that evaluates to the Event History record type.
The updated process would look something like this:
Whenever you use this smart service to update your source data, those changes will be automatically synced in the record type.
See also:
When you use this smart service on a record view, the view will automatically refresh with the latest record data.
This means that when your record view interface has a Record Action component that triggers the Write Records smart service, or a button component that triggers the a!writeRecords() function, the record view data will automatically refresh after the write occurs.
This refresh behavior only applies to data supplied by rv!record. If your record view definition uses rv!identifier or a local variable to supply the record data, the data will not automatically refresh; instead, you will need to configure additional refresh behavior.
When debugging a process, you can see exactly what was written to the source by saving the Records Updated output to a process variable and then examining the results in the Process History.
Normally, the gray icon means that a record field was not modified and the yellow icon means the field was changed or added. The icons have a special meaning when viewing the RecordsUpdated output.
| Icon | Description |
|---|---|
 |
The field was written successfully. |
 |
The field was ignored because of the relationship configuration. |
These indicators can help you understand how data is written, especially when you construct a record variable in the process. Let's look at an example.
Say you have a process that creates placeholder Employee records for open positions. Each Employee is part of a Department, a many-to-one relationship.
If you try to construct this relationship, Write Records will ignore the related data because of the relationship type.
Here's a step-by-step breakdown of how record data changes are shown in the history.
record variable is constructed, so all of the fields are shown with the yellow arrow icon because they are new data.record variable is modified by adding the Department relationship. The related record field id is new and shown with a yellow arrow icon.Records Updated output is saved to the record variable, the Department field id is still shown with the yellow arrow icon, indicating that data was not written.In some cases, ignoring the related record data may be expected or wanted, but you can use the information provided by the icons to better understand how data is changed by Write Records. If the related record data should be written, you can revise the relationship configuration or add a Write Records node to write the related data separately.
The Write Records 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. When creating a web API, select the Write Records template to generate the object with this function automatically configured.
Note: You cannot use the a!writeRecords() function to write records and events at the same time. You can only write records and events using the Write Records smart service.
a!writeRecords( records, onSuccess, onError )
| Keyword | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Any Type |
A list of all the records and related records to update (up to 50,000 records, related records, and events combined). Use the |
|
|
Any Type |
A list of saves or an HTTP response to execute when the smart service writes data successfully. Created with |
|
|
Any Type |
A list of saves or an HTTP response to execute when the smart service does not write data successfully. Created with |
This section explains some of the common reasons the Write Records smart service might fail.
Configuration errors can occur when the node setup or inputs are misconfigured and attempts to write to the source cannot succeed.
Some examples of misconfiguration include:
a!writeRecords() function.Attempting to write related record data when the relationship is not configured to allow updates to related records.
Appian is unable to change data in the source in some circumstances.
These situations include:
If Appian is unable to write to the database, the record data will still remain available even if the smart service fails.
The Write Records node executes all of the writes as a single transaction. This means that if you're updating data in multiple database tables, then data is successfully written to all tables or none of the tables.
For example, let's say a Write Records node is updating data in three different database tables: Orders, Customers, and Employees. If the node is unable to write to the Employees table, then the node will not write to the Orders or Customers table either. This helps avoid incomplete writes (like if an Order is written, but the Customer is not).
When Appian attempts to sync changes to the source data, the sync will fail when one of the following occurs:
If Appian is unable to sync changes from the source, the record data will be unavailable. For more information on the different types of sync errors and steps to resolve these errors, see Troubleshooting Syncs.
The section walks you through the different ways you can use the Write Records smart service to create or update your record data.
Goal: Use the Write Records smart service to make a new record.
No matter what kind of business your app is designed for, creating a new record in a record type is one of the most common data actions. To create a new record, you can build a form that allows users to input information, then pass that information into a process model containing the Write Records smart service.
Tip: The example below illustrates how to manually configure a "Create" action to explain the general workflow of creating a record. In your own application, you can generate a Create record action for faster configuration.
Example
Let's say you need to create a record action that allows users to add new customers in a retail application. The application contains a Customer record type, which stores all customer information. This record type also has record events configured, so you also want to capture an event whenever a new customer is created.
To create this action, you could:
record and set the type to the Customer record type. This will allow you to pass customer data to the process model.Create a new process model and configure the process model properties to use the new form and pass record data:
record.
record process variable to the record rule input from the interface.
The process model looks something like this:
The node output will return the primary keys of the record and any related records included in the node input.
Goal: Use the Write Records smart service to make a new record and related records.
Creating a record and related records is similar to creating a single record. You can create a form that allows users to update different types of data from different record types, and then pass that information to a process model. The Write Records smart service will automatically write the data to the selected record type and any of its related record types.
You can write records and related records in the same node as long as the relationship configuration allows it and the records share one data source.
Example
For example, let's say you need to create a new record action so users can enter information about support cases opened by customers. Because more than one department may need to take action to resolve the customer's problem, those actions are tracked as separate tasks. The support agent can also choose to add a comment to capture any information about the case that isn't part of the form.
To represent these support cases, your application's data model includes three record types to store the data:
title and description and reportedDate.assignee and type.commentText and author.The Case record type has a one-to-many relationship with the Task record type and the Comment record type, and each relationship allows the Write Records node to write the Case and Task or Comment simultaneously. Case also has record events configured, so you can capture an event whenever a new case is created.
When a support agent submits a case, the process model writes to the base record type, Case, and the related record types in order to add both the new case, the required tasks, and any comments. This is done by passing all of that data as a single record variable to a single Write Records node.
To create this record action, you could:
record and set the type to the Case record type. This will allow you to pass support case data and any related task or comment data to the process model.Create a process model and configure the process model properties to use the new form and pass record data:
record.
record process variable to the record rule input from the interface.
pv!record) and write a new Case record, as well as new Task and Comment data if they are part of the Case.Goal: Use the a!writeRecords() function to create a record.
Instead of building an entire process model to update data, you can just build a form and use the a!writeRecords() function in the submit button.
Example
Let's say you want to create a form that updates your Status record type with a new status option for orders. This will automatically write and sync any data provided in the form whenever a user clicks Submit.
To create this form, you could:
status. This will store the new status value and pass it to the a!writeRecords() function.1
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buttons: a!buttonLayout(
primaryButtons: {
a!buttonWidget(
label: "Submit",
saveInto: {
a!writeRecords(
records: {
recordType!Status(
recordType!Status.fields.label: local!status
)
}
)
},
submit: true,
style: "SOLID"
)
},
)
Now, whenever a user clicks Submit, a new record will be created in the Status record type.
Goal: Create record events for more than one record type using one Write Records node.
Some business processes involve a record type and related record type where it's important to capture events for each of them. When the related record data is an essential part of each base record, we'll use a single Write Records node to write all of the record and related record data at once.
Example
For example, in a retail application, you may have a process for creating a new order that uses two record types:
date, customerId, and assignee.itemId and quantity for each product being ordered.Using one node ensures that either all of the data is written or none of the data is written. This helps avoid incomplete orders (where an Order is written, but an Order Line Item is not).
Both record types have events configured, and we want to capture the creation event for both. The Setup tab allows you to easily specify the event information to write for the Order record type (the record type selected in the Records Input), but we'll need to specify the event information for the Order Line Item record type separately.
To write events for a related record type in the same Write Records node, you can use one of the following options:
Tip: If writing in a single step is not important for your process, you can use separate variables and Write Records nodes. This way, you can configure the events on the Setup tab for each record type.
We'll use the first option in this example. To add the event data when the form is submitted, you can use a list of a!save(), one for each relevant field in the Event History record type (like eventTypeId, user, automationTypeId, and timestamp.)
Then, when the rule input is passed to the process model, the process variable used by the Write Records node contains all of the record data, related record data, and event data.
In this example, an eventHistory was created for both the Order and Order Line Item simultaneously. Appian automatically created the event data for the Order using the settings from the Setup tab. The event data for the Order Line Item was created using the data passed into the process:
eventHistory={timestamp=7/21/2023 1:44 PM, user=alice.kwan, automationTypeId=1}
| 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. |
A smart service consists of a function and a node. There are some instances when the smart service function is evolved separately from the smart service node. When the function or node is evolved, a new version of the function or node is available.
The following sections detail the different versions of the Write Records function and Write Records node.
You can identify the version of a smart service function by looking at the function name to see if there is a version suffix.
If you are using a previous version, be sure to refer to the corresponding documentation from the list below. To use the latest version of the function, replace the old version of the function with the latest version.
| Function Versions | Reason for Update |
|---|---|
| a!writeRecords_23r2 | Allow writing records and related records at the same time. For faster node execution, the |
| a!writeRecords_23r4 | The Records Updated output was changed to return the input data and the primary keys of any newly created records. |
You can identify the version of a smart service node by looking at node type and version.
To review a node's type and version:
If you are using a previous version, be sure to refer to the corresponding documentation from the list below. To use the latest version of the node, replace the old version of the node with a new node.
| Appian Version | Node Type | Node Version | Reason for Update |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22.3 | write_records_to_source | 1 |
Original version of the Write Records node. |
| 23.2 | write_records_with_events_to_source | 1 |
Use the Write Records node to write records and events at the same time, in the same node. |
| 23.3 | write_records_to_source_23r3 | 4 |
Allow writing records and related records at the same time. For faster node execution, the |
| 24.1 | write_records_to_source_23r3 | 5 |
The |
| 24.2 | write_records_to_source_23r3 | 6 (Current) |
When an event field value uses an expression that references a record field, the Write Records node will now use the record-specific value for each event. |
Write Records Smart Service
