Activity Container Attribute
- Seth Petry-Johnson
- Mike Feimster
Activity Container attributes allow a single Attribute on a Workflow to contain multiple “child” Activity Instances. The data for those child Activities is collected through a standard Complete Activity Workflow.
Overview
Container Attributes let you collect multiple “things” as part of a Workflow, where each “thing” has multiple data fields.
Consider, for instance, this aspect of the Office Dog training scenario:
Applicants are required to upload veterinary records to prove they are good, healthy doggos.
As a part of these records, the applicant must identify their full vaccination history including the date and vaccine for each shot.
Applicants must provide at least one set of records, but can provide multiple if they have them.
In this case we have:
A need to support an arbitrary number of “things” (shot records), and
Each “thing” has multiple data fields associated with it (date + vaccine provided)
It is difficult to configure the Workflow Engine to support an arbitrary number of items and collect multiple data fields for each item. It generally results in a bunch of fields like Shot1_Date1, Shot1_Vaccine, Shot2_Date, Shot2_Vaccine, etc.
Activity Container attributes are designed for this exact scenario. In this scenario, the “Vet Records” Activity Instance can contain a single Container attribute, which can hold multiple “child” Activity Instances, one for each Shot History entry.
Usage and Appearance
Configuration
This data type contains both “Definition-level” and “Step-level” settings, and they must both be configured before the container will properly function.
Attribute Definition-level settings
These settings define the Container itself, such as what type of Activity it can contain and how to refer to the data.
Setting | Purpose / Notes |
|---|---|
Child Activity Id | Enter the |
When copied, create new children with Workflow Status | If the Workflow that owns the Container attribute itself is copied, the new Workflow will contain copies of the child Activities as well. This setting controls the status to put them in. Choose Incomplete if you want to force the owner to re-visit each child Activity, perhaps because you want them to update it with new data. Choose Preserve the status of the source record if you want the status of the duplicated child Activity Instance to match the original. (e.g. if the source child Activity Instance was Completed, then the copy will be Completed too) |
Show Details of Contained Activities on Workflow Popup | If checked, information about each child Activity Instance will be shown in an expanding/collapsing list on the Workflow Popup. |
Singular/Plural Name | Provides a label for the system to refer to the child Activity Instances. |
Step-level settings
Setting | Purpose / Notes |
|---|---|
Max Children | The maximum number of child Activities that can be added to this Activity. Leave blank for no limit, but be aware that this feature is only designed for a few children per Attribute, and performance may suffer if you collect more than that. |
Edit Instructions | Text displayed on the full-page screen for entering the child Activities. (See below) |
“Add Child” Label | Label for the button that adds a new child Activity to the container. |
“Return to Workflow” Label | Label for the link that returns to the Workflow Popup. |
Grid Columns | A comma-separated list of the Attribute Names, from the child Activity’s Complete Activity Workflow, that should be displayed in the grid of child Activities. |
Identify Duplicates using | A comma-separated list of the Attribute Names, from the child Activity’s Complete Activity Workflow, that define a “duplicate”. The combination of these values must be unique amongst all of the child Activity Instances. |
Allow Upload? | The Activity Container allows the child Activity data to be uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet, rather than entered one-by-one through the UI. This toggle enables or disables that ability for this specific container. |
Upload Step | The Workflow Step, of the child Activity’s Complete Activity Workflow, that the uploaded data is mapped against. |
Upload Action | The Action, from the child Activity’s Complete Activity Workflow, to execute for each row of the uploaded data. |
Upload Instructions | Displayed to the user on the upload interface. |
Template File URL | If you want to improve the user experience, you can hand-craft an Excel document that acts as a template, specifying the column headers that should be included. These files must be hosted somewhere externally to LearningBuilder, and the URL to the file can be entered here. If you leave this blank, a template will be automatically generated based on the Upload Step. |
Save Action | The Action to perform on the Workflow Popup when the user clicks to engage the Container interface. If you leave this blank an “ad-hoc” Save will be performed that saves any changes the user made to the popup. If you wish to perform specific Behaviors, or conduct specific validations, when the user engages the Container interface, then you can choose a configured Save Action here. |
Input mode
The Container attribute is managed using a full-page UI.
In input mode, the Workflow displays the count of items in the container, an optional summary list of key details, and a button.
Clicking the button navigates to a full-page UI that shows the current list of child Activity Instances and buttons for adding and modifying data.
Display mode
In display mode, the Workflow displays the same details as input mode, but without the button that opens the full-page UI.
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