Design Performant Queries Exercise

Advanced Expressions

Introduction 2
How to Complete the Exercises in this Tutorial 2
How Can I Practice? 2
Appian Version 2
Naming Conventions 2
Save Often 2
Additional Resources 3
Practice 1 Set Up: Analyze Expression Performance 4
Practice 1 Help and Resources: Analyze Expression Performance 6
Additional Resources 6

Notice of Rights

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Copyright 2024 by Appian Corporation. All rights reserved. Information in this document is subject to
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© Appian Corporation, 2024

Introduction
How to Complete the Exercises in this Tutorial
Follow the steps to complete practice 1 and 2.

How Can I Practice?

You should practice in Appian Community Edition. This free, community Appian resource
comes with the pre-built Acme Auto application that contains objects that you’ll use to build
your expression rules.

Keep in mind that this is a community environment not suitable for production workloads or
sensitive information.

Appian Version
Appian Community Edition is on the latest Appian version. If you are following the exercises
from a previous Appian version, go to academy.appian.com to download the latest version.

Naming Conventions
When you register for Appian Community Edition, you gain access to a workspace, which is
your personal area within the community environment. When your workspace has been
assigned, you will receive a confirmation email with a workspace ID.

Use this workspace ID when creating new applications and objects. Otherwise, you could run
into naming conflicts with objects created by other users. Pre-loaded apps in your workspace
also include the workspace ID. In the example below, the application prefix for the Acme
Auto Solution app is W0000AS. So, the workspace identifier is W0000, which would be
included in any new app’s prefix.

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Save Often
Appian does not automatically save updates, so save your objects frequently.

Additional Resources
Appian provides a number of training resources for Appian developers. The following
resources are particularly popular with our learners:

● Academy Online - Appian’s online courses provide useful survey courses, step-by-step
tutorials, and practice exercises. Explore these resources at your own pace. Survey
courses will help you develop a better grasp of the topics you need to learn. Video
and print tutorials will help you with getting hands-on experience with Appian.

● Community Discussions for New Users - Check out the New to Appian thread in
Community. Join our community of experts to ask questions and find answers from
past discussions.

● Appian Documentation - Appian’s product documentation will provide you with an

overview of key Appian features, newest release information, additional tutorials,
and helpful patterns and recipes to implement in your app.

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Practice 1 Set Up: Create a Record Type Query to
Select Data
In this lesson, you’ll query a record type to return a list of records.

1. In Appian Designer, create a new expression rule.

● Name: Enter W#AE_SelectionQuery

● Description: Enter Practice querying a record type to return a

list of records.

2. Query the AA Vehicle record type and return a list of vehicles. Your query should
return

● Only the id, make, and model record fields

● 50 records at a time

Hint

You can use the Query Editor or write the expression with a!queryRecordType().

3. Click TEST RULE and confirm you are returning the above

4. Modify the query expression from the previous step to also include the
maintenanceId and maintenanceIssue fields from the AA Maintenance record type.

5. Test the expression again.

Practice 2 Set Up: Create a Record Type Query to

Aggregate Data
In this lesson, you’ll query a record type to group and measure data based on the values of a
selected field.

1. In Appian Designer, create a new expression rule.

● Name: Enter W#AE_AggregationQuery

● Description: Enter Practice querying a record type to group and

measure data based on the values of a selected field.

2. Query the AA Vehicle record type

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 3. For the fields parameter, apply a!aggregationFields()

● Your goal is to return a count of each vehicle make

4. Update the batchSize to 50

Hint

You can use the Query Editor or write the expression with a!queryRecordType().

5. Click TEST RULE and confirm you are returning the above.

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Practice 1 Help and Resources: Create a Record Type
Query to Select Data
Use the lesson content and additional resources below to guide you in your query record type
selection practice.

1. Query the AA Vehicle record type

2. Select the vehicle id, make, and model record fields
3. Select the maintenance id and issue related record fields
4. Update the batchSize to 50
5. Ensure you have ".data" appended to the expression

Additional Resources
● Recipes querying records

Practice 2 Help and Resources: Create a Record Type

Query to Aggregate Data
Use the lesson content and additional resources below to guide you in your query record type
aggregation practice.

1. Query the AA Vehicle record type

2. Apply a!aggregationFields()
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 3. Update a!grouping()
a. field: vehicle make
4. Update a!measure()
a. function: "COUNT"
b. field: vehicle make
5. Update the batchSize to 50
6. Ensure you have ".data" appended to the expression

Additional Resources
● Recipes querying records

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