Configure the Record List

What is a record list?

A record list is a single, drillable interface where users can search, filter, and take action on records. You can display the record list as a page in sites and Tempo, or display the record list in an interface using a records-powered grid.

You can configure the record list to fit your specific business needs:

• Style the record list as a grid or feed.
• Select which fields appear in the list.
• Format fields using different display options, like images, rich text, or tags.
• Add user filters to allow users to refine and save their results.
• Add record list actions to let users create new records or start related processes.

Compare record list styles

You can display the record list as a grid or a feed. The following image shows records displayed in a feed (left) and a grid (right).

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By default, new record types use the grid style. Use the following table to determine which record list format is best for you:

Style	Visual Layout	Configuration Method	Data Reference	Row Limit	Export to Excel
Grid Style	Tabular rows, similar to a spreadsheet.	Design-mode interface.	fv!row followed by a record field reference.	No limit.	Yes.
Feed Style	Vertical list, similar to a news feed.	Expression-based using a!listViewItem().	rv!record followed by a record field reference.	100 rows.	No.

Configure a grid-style record list

A grid-style record list organizes and displays your record data in tabular view. The grid-style list is configured just like a read-only grid in design mode.

To configure a grid-style list:

1. In your record type, go to List.
2. Keep the Style as Grid.
3. Click Edit List.

By default, the grid includes columns for the first 50 fields in your source table. To return to these default settings at any time, click Reset List.

You can change the overall grid settings or the configurations of specific columns.

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Grid settings for the record list

The Grid level contains configurations that apply to the entire record list. These settings are organized into four tabs: Content, Data, Behavior, and Styling.

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Content tab:

• Empty Grid Message: The text that displays when no records match security, search, or filters.

Data tab:

• Columns: The columns to show in the grid.
• Initial Sort Field: The field used to sort the list when the list first loads.
• Secondary Sort Field: The field used to sort after a user manually sorts a column.
• Rows to Display per Page: The maximum number of records visible at one time.
• Paging Controls: Determines if the paging includes the total row count. By default, the grid does not display the total row count or paging controls to jump to the first or last page.

Behavior tab:

• Row Header: Index of the column to be used as the row header. Screen readers will announce the value in each row header when navigating to other cells within that row. Used only for accessibility; produces no visible change.
• Accessibility Text: Additional text to be announced by screen readers. Used only for accessibility; produces no visible change.

Styling tab:

• Spacing: Determines cell spacing (Standard or Dense).
• Border Style: Determines the style of the grid border. Valid values: Light (default), Standard.
• Shade Alternate Rows: Determines whether alternate rows are shaded. By default, rows are shaded.

Column settings for the record list

The Grid Columns level contains configurations for a specific column.

To edit a grid column:

1. In the Grid pane, go the Data tab.
2. Click the column name.
3. Edit the column's settings in any of the four tabs: Content, Data, Behavior, and Styling.

Content tab:

• Label: The text for the column header.
• Help Tooltip: The tooltip that appears in the column header.

Data tab:

• Display Value: The value to display in the column cell. This value is applied across all column rows.

  You can use the following components as display values:

  • Text
  • Images
  • Links
  • Rich text display
  • a!tagField()
  • a!buttonArrayLayout()
  • a!recordActionField()
  • a!progressBarField()

  To reference record fields in these components, use fv!row followed by the record field reference:

  • Record Field Example: fv!row[recordType!Purchase Order.fields.purchaserName]
  • Related Record Field Example: fv!row[recordType!Purchase Order.relationships.Customer.field.displayName]

• Sort Field: The field on which to sort when a user sorts this column. If no value is selected, the column is not sortable.

Behavior tab:

• Show When: Determines when the column is displayed. By default, the column is displayed.
• Export When: Determines when the column is exported to Excel. This configuration is only applied when you add an export to Excel button.
• Accessibility Text: Additional text to be announced by screen readers for the specific column. Used only for accessibility; produces no visible change.

Styling tab:

• Alignment: Column heading alignment. Valid values are Start (default), Center, and End.
• Width: Column width. Valid values are Auto (default), Icon, Icon plus, Narrow, Narrow plus, Medium, Medium plus, Wide and a range of 1X - 10X.
• Background Color: The background color of the cells in the column. You can use an expression to dynamically change this color depending on a field value.

Preview the grid-style record list

To see how the grid-style record list appears to users, click Test.

Clicking Test performs the following actions:

• Refresh: The grid preview updates with the latest data from the source.
• Reset Sort: Any manual sorting is cleared.
• Load State: The preview displays the exact state the user sees when the record list first loads.

Configure a feed-style record list

The feed-style record list is a vertical list of records that resembles a news feed. This is an alternative to the grid-style list.

A feed-style list can only display the first 100 records. If you have more than 100 records, consider a grid-style record list.

To create a feed-style record list:

1. In your record type, go to List.
2. For Style, select Feed.
3. Click Edit Record List.
4. In List View, enter an expression using the a!listViewItem() function. Reference record fields using rv!record followed by a record type field reference. For example, rv!record[recordType!Employee.fields.firstName].
5. In Sort Field, select a field to sort on and the sort order.

6. Click OK.

   

The listViewItem expression in the previous image results in a list that looks like this:

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Add an export to Excel button

The Export to Excel button allows users to download up to 100,000 records from the list as an .xlsx file. The Export to Excel button is supported only for record lists using the grid-style format.

To add an export button to the record list:

1. In your record type, go to List.
2. Ensure the Style is Grid.
3. Select the Show Export to Excel Button checkbox.

Export requirements for legacy service-backed record types

If you use a legacy record type that connects to a web service, you must implement specific paging to support exporting the list to Excel:

• Integration Logic: The integration must handle paging, sorting, searching, and filtering.
• Page Size Support: Because Appian exports record lists in batches to optimize memory, you must configure the integration to support a page size of 1,000 rows.
• Validation: Test the integration with a 1,000-row request to ensure the export operation succeeds without timeout or memory errors.

Export formatting restrictions

Microsoft Excel styling limitations may affect how Appian components appear in the exported file:

Component	Restrictions
Rich text	Excel only supports one text format per cell. Cells with more than one text format will export without formatting. Additionally, for rich text icons, only the value of the altText parameter will be exported.
Images	Only image captions will be exported. If a caption is not available, either the document parameter on the document image or the source parameter on the web image will be exported.
Links	Excel only supports one link per cell. If there are multiple links, the link label will be followed by each link URL as text in parenthesis. Link types Dynamic Link, Start Process Link, and Authorization Link will export as text. All other link types will export as expected.

Configure record list refresh intervals

The Refresh Interval setting automatically updates the record list with the latest data at a set frequency. Note that this refresh is only re-querying the synced data, it is not starting a sync on the record type.

To configure the refresh interval:

1. In your record type, go to List.

2. In the Refresh Interval dropdown, select the frequency in seconds or minutes.

   If you set the Refresh Interval to None, users must manually refresh the list or the browser page to see data updates.

   

Enable paging for legacy service-backed record types

For legacy record types that connect to a web service, you must enable paging for your record list and records-powered grids.

Before enabling paging, make sure your record data source expression and integration have a rule input of type PagingInfo.

If not, update the expression and integration before completing these steps.

To enable paging on an legacy service-backed record type:

1. In the record type, go to Data Model.

2. For Paging Info, select a rule input of type PagingInfo.

   Note:  To allow users to export the record list to Excel, ensure you support a page size of 1,000 rows.

3. (Optional) Enable search for your record list and records-powered grids.

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1. Click SAVE.

Refresh the record list

To keep the list up-to-date, you can define a Refresh Interval to seamlessly refresh the record list with the latest record data every few minutes.

With a time-based refresh, your list of records will be automatically refreshed even when the user doesn't interact with the list. If the Refresh Interval is set to None, users will need to click the refresh button on the list or manually refresh the page on the browser to view the latest records in the list.

To automatically refresh the record list:

1. In your record type, go to List.

2. Under Refresh Interval, use the dropdown to select how often the list should be refreshed in minutes.

   

Note that refresh intervals may impact performance. See Performance considerations for more information.

Troubleshoot timeouts

The record list will timeout after 65 seconds. If you are querying large volumes of data, this may cause the record list to error.

To resolve this error, use sync filters to reduce the amount of data synced in your record type. If you need to display all of that data, contact Appian Support about increasing your site memory.

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