Generate Record Types for Existing Databases

You can generate multiple record types from your existing database tables and views using a guided workflow.

When to generate record types

Appian Composer accelerates new application development by helping plan and generate fresh database tables and record types. However, you may also want to incorporate existing database tables and views into your applications.

You can use a guided workflow to generate synced and unsynced record types for hundreds of existing database tables and views, even those across schemas. Appian automatically relates these record types based on foreign keys and secures them using your application's existing groups. By default, the generated record types are configured to display in Process HQ, but you can update the configurations to exclude them if needed.

Generating record types is particularly valuable for incorporating record types into your existing applications, allowing you to leverage the performance and functionality benefits of modern Appian architecture.

To generate record types for your existing database tables and views:

1. Start the guided experience in your application.
2. Select database tables and views from your connected data source.
3. Review and edit record types.
4. Review security settings for the generated record types.
5. Generate the record types in your application.

Start the guided experience

To start generating record types:

1. In your application, go to the Build view.
2. Click NEW > Record Type.

3. Click GENERATE in the banner.

   

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   The Generate Record Types dialog appears. The dialog walks you through selecting database tables and views, reviewing the record types and their security, and generating the record types in your application.

Select database tables and views

In the first step of the wizard, you select the tables and views you want to generate record types for from a relational database. You can only generate record types for a single database, but you can select tables and views from multiple schemas within that database.

To select the tables and views:

1. For Data Source, select a database connected to your Appian environment.
2. For Schema, select a schema to see its available tables and views.
3. For Tables and Views, select the tables and views for which you want to generate record types.

4. (Optional) If you need tables from additional schemas, select a different schema to include more tables.

   Note:  You can select up to 300 tables and views total across all schemas.

5. Keep the Relate record types based on foreign keys checkbox selected to automatically create relationships between your generated record types.

   Appian only creates relationships between tables that have primary key and foreign key relationships configured in the database.

   

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6. Click NEXT.

Review record types

In the review step, you see a list of record types that will be created for each selected table or view. Appian configures each record type's name, fields, and relationships based on your table or view structure.

By default, all record types are configured to show as datasets in Process HQ.

To use the default configurations, click NEXT.

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To edit a record type's configuration:

1. Click Edit Record Type.

2. Edit any of the following properties:

   Property	Action
   Name	Edit the name of the record type, which will appear in Appian Designer. Ensure the name includes an application prefix.
   Description	Add a short description of the record type, which will appear in Process HQ, Tempo, and Appian Designer. Appian recommends adding a description to provide users and AI with additional context. This makes AI features more effective at querying your data.
   Data Access	For MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Snowflake databases, you can choose between two data access methods. For all other data sources, Optimized Data Access is required. Optimized (Recommended): Syncs data to Appian for optimal performance. Direct: Connects directly to the source with relationships and related features enabled. By default, Optimized Data Access is selected for all record types.
   Show as a dataset in Process HQ	Clear this checkbox to prevent business users from using this record type to build report and dashboards in Process HQ.
   Primary Key Field	(Database views only) Select a field of any data type to be the primary key.
   Unique Fields	(Database views only) Specify which fields must have all unique values. Unique fields can be used as a common field on the one-side of a relationship configuration.
   Fields	Review the list of record fields that will be available in the record type. You can edit the field names, data type, and display name, and add field descriptions. Appian recommends adding field descriptions to provide users and AI with additional context. This makes AI features more effective at querying your data.
   Relationships	Review the list of relationships that will be created on the record type. Appian will only create relationships to the other record types being generated. To prevent relationships from being created, select the checkbox next to one or more related record types and click REMOVE RELATIONSHIPS. This action cannot be undone within the wizard. However, you can manually add the relationships after the record types are generated.

3. Click SAVE.
4. Click NEXT.

Review security

In the final step, you can review and edit the object security that will be applied to all generated record types.

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If you generated groups and folders for your application, then the record types will have the following security by default:

• App Prefix Administrators group has Administrator permission.
• App Prefix Users group has Viewer permission.
• Default (All Other Users) has no access.

Otherwise, only the user who is generating the record types will have Administrator permission by default. Click Add Users or Groups to add additional users to the security role map.

Generate record types

Click GENERATE to create the record types in your application.

During generation:

• Record types incrementally appear in your application while they are generated in the background.
• Avoid editing the generated record types until they've all been created.
• Record type relationships may be temporarily broken until generation completes.

Generation time depends on the number of objects being created. Application administrators receive an email notification when generation completes. A full sync automatically starts on each record type with optimized data access.

If any record types fail to generate, try generating them again or manually create the record type.

Configure generated record types

After the record types are generated, go to the selected application to finish configuring your record types.

If a generated record type exceeds the synced row limit for your capability tier, use sync options or sync filters to sync only the most relevant data and stay within the limit.

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