Record manager
Before you start
A Record manager step creates, updates or deletes records. Use it to set a contract’s status to Published, to raise a purchase order from an approved RFx, or to save a whole list of lines at once.
When should I use Record manager?
Section titled “When should I use Record manager?”Use it whenever a workflow must change data. It is the step on the Approved and Rejected paths of an Approval task, because the approval itself only pauses the run. For one-off arithmetic or odd cases, a Custom function is the fallback.
Add a Record manager
Section titled “Add a Record manager”- Click + and choose Record manager. It sits in the Records group.
- Under What should it do?, choose Create, Update, Delete, Batch create or Batch update.
- In On which module?, choose the module.
- For Update or Delete on another module, set Which record?. See below.
- Under Fields to set, click Add a field, choose the field, and give its value.
What do the settings do?
Section titled “What do the settings do?”| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| What should it do? | The action: Create, Update, Delete, Batch create, Batch update |
| On which module? | The module to change. Changing it clears the field list |
| Which list? | For batches only: the list whose rows are saved, one record per row |
| Which record? | The record to change, found by its Record ID (the key) |
| Fields to set | Each field and its value. Fields you do not list keep their values |
A value is typed text, a picked lookup value (Pick a value), inserted data, or a Smart Script. Plain text and numbers are saved as typed. Data or a calculation is worked out first. A file field offers Map a value from a field, Use the content of a field and Build from a text object. Rows are filled top to bottom, so a value can use a field filled above it.
Which record does Update change?
Section titled “Which record does Update change?”- Update on the workflow’s own module changes the record that started the workflow. No key is needed.
- Update or Delete on another module finds the record by its Record ID. Give the value from a field of the record, a list, or the current item of a loop.
- Batch update finds each row’s record through the key you set, and saves all rows in one request.
To update every record of a list, use Batch update and skip the loop. One request is faster than one request per record.
Worked example: publish a contract
Section titled “Worked example: publish a contract”Layla’s workflow runs on Contracts. A Record manager chooses Update, on Contracts. It sets Status to Published with Pick a value. The step updates the contract that started the run, and the Send email below it tells the vendor.
What should I watch for?
Section titled “What should I watch for?”- A Batch step inside a Loop runs the whole batch in every round. With 12 items the list is saved 12 times.
- To update by key, give the module a key field in the module settings.
- Within a loop over one module’s records, updating that same module changes the current item directly.