Appian Interview Questions - 3

 

1) What is the difference between an action and a related action ?

A) Action is creating a new data to the system, where related action is performing some action related to the existing data

2) What are the different ways to create a CDT ?

A)

1. From Scratch;

2. Duplicating the existing datatype; 

3. From database view or table; 

4. From XSD; 

5. From Web Services

3) When should a cardlayout be used ?

A) Use card layouts to visually group related content.

4) When should a side by side layout be used ?

A) The side by side layout is used for fine-grained control over the presentation of small groups of related components.

5) What should be the label position for read-only fields ?

A) Adjacent/Justified

6) When the interface has several other components along with the grid, what should be the appropriate batch size of the grid ?

A) 5 - 10 items

7) What are the different ways to provide details about a field to a user ?

A) Helptooltip, placeholder, instructions 

8) What are Gateways and their purpose ?

A) Gateway nodes allow you to evaluate different criteria to make decisions on which path(s) your workflow should follow – as well as how many instances are allowed to follow each optional path. Click here to know about various gateways.

9) What is the difference between local variables and rule inputs ?

A) Local variables are used when the scope is within the interface/rule and the value need not go outside that object. They are also used to define the repeitive piece of code/function/rule.

Rule inputs are used when the value has to be taken outside the object.

10) The process will immediately be archived or deleted after completion or cancellation by setting data management as ___

A) 0

11) What are the exception types that can be configured ?

A) Timer and receive message

12) The triggers that can be added to a start event are

A) Receive Message, Timer

13) Will a change in hidden variable be reflected in the Process History ?

A) No

14) What is the difference between Task Assignee and Task Owner ?

A) Task Assignees are the people for whom the task is being assigned to. 

Task Owner is the person who accepts a group task

15) What should be the reassignment priviledge for basic users ?

A) The reassignment priviledge should be No priviledge as the basic users should not have the ability to reassign the task to anyone in the system and if the reassignment is enabled, the tracking of it becomes difficult. This can be set in the Assignment tab of User input task under "Set Reassignment Priviledge".

16) What is Save Draft ?

A) Save Draft is option available in the form to save the progress done by the user. Documents uploaded by the users wont be saved as the document id is generated only after form is submitted. Save draft doesnot complete the user input task node. This can be configured in the form's tab of the user input task

17) Can the default task assignment mail be disabled ?

A) Yes, under assignment tab the option can be unchecked

18) What are the benefits of modular coding ?

A)

1. Reusability of objects; 

2. Easy change management; 

3. Easy debugging; 

4. Reduced number of lines per interface

19) What is maximum number of nodes and variables allowed per process model ?

A) 30 Nodes and 50 Variables

20) When should Web API, Integration/Web service be used ?

A) Web API should be used when Appian's data is to be exposed to the external system.

Integration/Web Service is used when external system's data is consumed by Appian

21) When to use Web service and Integration ?

A)  When the data returned by external system is in REST/SOAP structure, Integration is used.

When the data returned by external system is in SOAP structure, Web Service is used.

22) What is connected systems ?

A) Connected systems is an object to store the connection credentials used in integrations when connecting to an external system

23) What are the things to be checked during deployment ?

A)

1. Missing Precendents; 

2. Security Summary; 

3. Proper exporting of all objects; 

4. Inspecting all objects and fixing issues if any; 

5. Importing the objects

24) What is customization file ?

A) The customization file is used to provide values to the environmental constant and connected systems when deploying to another env so that the value changed isnt missed.

25) What is the purpose of user start page ?

A) When configured, this allows the user to directly login to the give site rather than the tempo page

26) What is the difference between process model and process ?

A)

Process Model: Model is the object where the flow can be defined/designed.

Process: Process/Instance is the implementation of the design.

27) Why do we need a CDT ?

A) CDT is used to minimize the usage of numerous variables and as it represents the table structure, the data storage and retival in DB is easier 

28) What is Data store and entity ?

A) Data store acts as a bridge between Appian and DB. 

Entity is added in the data store and is represents the table in DB

29) Long Table & Column Names (longer than 27 characters) are truncated in which ways ?

A) Vowels are removed from the name, in the order of u, o, a, e, then i. Names that begin with a vowel retain that vowel only.

The name is split using underscores.

The longest segment of the name is trimmed.

30) What is the purpose of activity chaining ? What is the maximum limit ?

A) Activity chaining is used between more than one tasks performed by the same user so that the user can act upon the tasks without any delay. The maximum limit is default 50 and max 100 unattended nodes between two attended nodes.