In our Setting Dropdown Values from a Spreadsheet tutorial, we learned how to pull values for a Listcombo Field from an Excel spreadsheet. However, there are a few situations where you might want to pull in values for a Field from data stored in a separate app. To do this, you can use a Transaction List Provider.
There are a few advantages of using a Transaction List Provider as your data source rather than an Excel spreadsheet:
- Only users with corporate-level permissions can update an imported spreadsheet. However, when you host data in a separate app, any users with appropriate permission can access that app and change that information.
- The data you want to use for a Listcombo Field’s values may already be stored in one of your apps. Rather than creating an Excel spreadsheet from this data and keeping it in sync with the app, you can skip the hassle and pull values directly from the app.
- Workflows can be created around an app that stores Field data. For example, someone may need to approve data before it becomes available in another application.
This tutorial will cover setting up a Transaction List Provider to access data from an app and create a Listcombo Field to populate that data as values.
Before We Start...
This tutorial will assume you understand the following concepts:
Let's Get Started!
In this example, we use a Transaction List Provider to access data from a name Field in an app called Regions (this app stores information about our company's business areas). We’ll then set up a Listcombo Field named region in a Contract Review app, which will be expected to use the Region app’s name Field data for its values.
1. Add a Transaction List Provider
Let’s browse to our Contract Review app’s Advanced Designer page to create our Transaction List Provider.
Note: A Transaction List Provider created in one app will also be available in any app in your environment. Consequently, it doesn’t matter which apps you create a Transaction List Provider in.
Select List Providers from the left-hand pane of the Advanced Designer.
Select Transaction List Provider from the Add dropdown.
2. Configure the Transaction List Provider
Provide this Transaction List Provider with a Name.
Select the app you want to use as a List from the App dropdown. We’ll select our Regions app for this example.
For the Atom Columns property, select the Fields you want to be able to use (and filter by) in your Listcombo Field. In our example, we just want to use our Regions app's name Field data.
Select OK to save.
3. Create a Listcombo Field
Now that you’ve created your Transaction List Provider, we can use the data in a Listcombo Field.
We’ll jump over to our Contract Review app’s Wizard and Add a new Field with a Type of Listcombo.
For this Field’s List property, we’ll select the Name of the Transaction List Provider we configured (in our case, Regions Data).
Just like a normal Listcombo, we’ll also need to select a Search Column and a Value Column value. We’ll choose our Region app’s name Field for both.
Note: Remember that the Search Column defines what data to display as values for the Field, while the Value Column determines the data shown on the dashboard grid. These can be the same.
Update your app.
Check Out Your New Listcombo
Congrats! You’ve created your first Transaction List Provider and used it in a Listcombo Field.
When launching a new transaction, you’ll see the values for your Contract Review app’s region Field containing the data stored in your Regions app’s name Field.
