How to Add Lookup Fields to a Workflow

Lookup fields are a powerful workflow component that are used alongside data stores and data that you upload. Upload your data to a data store then query and select your data using a lookup field.

There are many use cases for the lookup field when using with your data. Here are just a few examples:

1. Searching and selecting customer records when creating assessments.
2. Searching and selecting scientific records for assessment and further research.
3. Searching and selecting parts when performing maintenance on equipment.
4. Searching and selecting equipment that requires maintenance then completing a maintenance assessment workflow.
5. Searching and selecting employees.
6. Searching and selecting records that require analysis and remediation through your assessment workflow.

If you have a workflow that requires the use of data in your workflow, then the lookup field will provide you with a lot of flexibility to use that data in your assessment workflows.

To use data in your lookup field, you will first need to upload the data that you want to query in your lookup field to a data store. This is a very fast and simple process as described in this blog post: www.assess.one/posts/how-to-upload-data-for-use-in-workflows

Once you have uploaded your data to a data tore, follow these simple steps to add a lookup field to your workflow:

1. Open an existing workflow or create a new new workflow.
2. Click on the "Lookup Field" on the component toolbar to add the lookup field to the workflow canvas.
3. Configure the settings of the button in the "Lookup setting" pane on the right hand side of the flow builder.
4. Drag the lookup field to the desired location on the stage canvas.
5. Use the grab handles to change the width of the lookup field.
6. In lookup settings, select the data store in the "Data store" dropdown that you would like the lookup field to query.
7. In lookup settings, select the columns that you would like to use from the selected lookup field in the "Columns" dropdown.
8. Publish your workflow.

Once your workflow is published, create an assessment and type some text to search the data store and select a record. In addition to search and select, you can also add text fields and populate those text fields on lookup records selecting using the "Map to fields" option in the lookup settings.

The following general settings can be configured for lookup fields:

• Label: Add a text label to display text above the lookup field. Delete this text if you do not want a label to be displayed.
• Placeholder: Placeholder text is text that will be displayed in the component and is generally used to guide people on what to do when working with the field. For example, for a lookup field you might want to include "Search" as the placeholder indicating that it is a searchable field. Delete the placeholder text if you do not want to display the placeholder text.
• Data store: The "Data store" field is a dropdown field that provides you with a list of data stores which will be queried in the lookup field.
• Columns: These are the available data columns from the data store that you selected in the "data store" dropdown. Select that columns from the data store that you would like to query in the lookup field. For example, if I have a data store with customer records and the columns First Name, Last Name, Telephone and Email, if I wanted to only query the First name and Last name then I would only select those fields. If I also wanted to query the email address in the lookup field then I would also select the "Email" column.
• Map to fields: This field is used when you want to populate text input fields in your workflow when selecting a record from the lookup field. For example, I could add a First Name and Last Name Text Input Field to the workflow canvas and when selecting a record in the lookup field, those fields will be automatically populated. Simply select the text input field and map it to the column from the data store.
• Viewers: By default, anyone will be able to view the lookup field. If you would like to restrict who can view the field when completing assessments, select the role or individual people from the "Viewers" drop-down field.
• Editors: By default, anyone will be able to query and select records from the lookup field. If you would like to restrict who can query and select values in the lookup field when completing assessments, select the role or individual people from the "Editors" drop-down field.
• Display data from: If you have another lookup field, you can automatically populate the value from that field to display in another lookup field. This is particularly useful where you have a workflow stage which is a confirmation page based on previously input values to summarise what was input. Click on the "Display data from" dropdown to select another lookup field. The field will be read only when displaying data from another field.
• Inactive: When clicking the "Inactive" checkbox, the lookup field will be displayed in an inactive state and the field will not accept any input.
• Required: Select the "Required" checkbox if input is required in the lookup field when completing assessments. Validation will occur when someone clicks on a button where the button's "Check required" setting check box is selected.
• Required text: If the "Required" checkbox is selected a message will appear below the lookup field advising that the field requires input on button click. Change the "Required text" to display your own custom validation message.
• Conditional display: Display the lookup field only when certain conditions are met with other fields. For example, if I add a radio button field to the canvas and someone selects "Yes" then the lookup field will be displayed.