How To: Create Your First List

This article will explain step-by-step, how to create a list using the List Designer. Lists are an important feature because they can help you organize your tasks and instances in a practical way that can help you optimize your productivity and maintain your space. 

First, navigate to the Lists section, which can be found under the main menu under Run. 

Next to MyLists, click on the plus sign + to create a new list.

Give your new list a name and description

Under List group/category you can set a list category. Clicking on the arrow will give you a drop-down menu that shows all the possible groups in your application. You can also create your own group by writing a custom group in the field. In the example below the list has been given the group Claims.

Because a group was added, the list will appear in the group Claims in the list view. These groups can help organize the Lists you make so they are easy to find.

Type of list

Decide if you want to create a Tasks list or an Instances list.

Task Lists are used to narrow down information about each task. They are used to display and list tasks in the application. They can be configured to show My tasks or All tasks and can also be grouped by instance.

Instance Lists are used to monitor or give a broader perspective of all instances in the application. The instance list can advantageously be used to generate reports as well.

The rest of the options work like filters to narrow down the results that your list populates. It is good to be specific when creating lists and to populate specific types of tasks or instances. This makes your lists more efficient and will help them load more easily.

Applications

Choose an application to show content from. You can choose more than one, but we suggest sticking to just one application so that your list does not become too large. 

Processes

If you have chosen one single application above, you are given the option to select the types of processes that will appear in your list. The example below shows the option to choose between Main processes or Sub-processes. Each user's options will be different depending on the processes in their application, you may see more or fewer process types. The processes selected will appear in your list. If you choose not to select any, all process types will be shown in your list.

If you add a Type column to your list, it is easy to see what the process type is when you are looking at your list. 

Created

Choose which period of time you want your list to cover. 

If you choose Anytime and you have a lot of instances, it creates a large amount of data to load. Selecting 90 days will show instances or tasks created in the last 90 days, which is usually a good window of time. You can also choose Date Interval to enter a specific date range. Keep your organization and goals in mind and choose a time that suits your needs. 

If you are experiencing slow-loading lists, set the date on Date interval to the date of your first instance or task and no end date.

Tasks

Choosing All tasks will sort through all of the tasks in the application.Selecting My tasks means you will only see tasks that you are assigned to complete. 

Status

Include Active and/or Completed tasks/instances. Here you can choose which type of tasks/instances you would like to see in your list. 

These choices have allowed you to decide which data will be generated in your list. The next few steps allow you to customize how you will view this information in your new list. 

Option to disable completing tasks from List view

By default, lists are configured to give users the option to complete a task from the Task options drop-down in the list view.


You can choose to disable the ability for end users to complete tasks in list view by selecting the box next to Disable completing tasks in list view. 

 

After selecting this option, the option no longer appears in the Task actions drop-down in the List view.

Add columns

You can keep the standard columns or choose to add to them. Click on Add column and you will have the choice to add a Standard column or a Column from form data. 

Both of these will give you a menu of columns you can add to your list. Select the columns you want to add and select OK. To select multiple rows, hold down CTRL as you are selecting them.  Two popular columns to add are Performer and Ref #. 

The maximum amount of columns you can add is 100.

No columns from form data

If you did not select any applications or if all is selected when creating the list, the columns from form data window will not show any form fields until you select the applications you want to view form data from.

1. Click on None selected.
   
   
   
2. Select the applications you want to view data from.
   
   
   
3. Select OK.
   

Editing Columns

The column table presents you with options for customizing how your columns will appear in your list. On the top left under column, all data items will be listed such as standard information about the instances and/or additional information from form fields. The columns to the right allow you to choose your preferences for how each field is presented. 

Under this section is the Preview section, it allows you to see how your list will look based on the changes you are making in the column table. You can also use this section to rearrange the columns by dragging and dropping them. You can use holding down the shift key as you scroll will allow you to scroll left and right in the Lists view and in this Preview section if you have a lot of columns. 

Alias

Use the Alias field to rename a column. If you leave it blank, the column will keep its original label. In the example below, the name of the Unread comments collumn was changed to Pending comments. 

Width

Each column is assigned a width size, you can change the number here to make it bigger or smaller. You can also use your curser to change the sizes of the columns in the preview section, doing this will change the number in the width column to reflect the changes.

Formatter

selecting this column presents a drop-down where you can choose the alignment of the text in that column. 

Group by

Selecting the box in the Group by column will clump items in your list together by the data in that column. For example, if you choose to Group by in the column Name, in your list view, items that have the same name will be grouped together. Below is an example of how this will look in a finished list. You can see how the items are grouped by the name of the task, so we can quickly see that there is only one task for Compensate Customer, but there are five tasks for Update balance in ERP.

Sort order

Selecting this field presents a drop-down where you can choose if the column will be sorted by Ascending or Descending.

You can only choose one column to use this feature on as it will sort your entire list based on this filter. The default setting is for the column Start date to be set to Descending, this ensures that the tasks or instances are listed from most to least recent. 

Filter

To add a filter to a column, press the green circle with a white plus sign in the middle. In the filter pop-up you can choose to add one of the filters and add a term. 

• Equals - This filter can be used with numbers or words, applying this filter means only results with those words or numbers in that column will be shown in the list. 

• Not Equals - This filter can be used to exclude numbers or words from your list, applying this filter means results with those words or numbers in that column will not be shown in the list. 

• Greater than- The list will only show items where the value in this column is higher than the number you enter.

• Less than - The list will only show items where the value in this column is lower than the number you enter. 

• Greater than or equal to - The list will only show items where the value in this column is higher or the same as the number you enter. 

• Less than or equal to- The list will only show items where the value in this column is lower or the same as the number you enter. 

Display

All of the boxes under Display are automatically checked. This means the column will be shown in the list, unchecking this box means the data from the column can still be used to organize the list, but it will not be visible.

Delete

If you do not need the data from this column to organize your list and you do not want to see it in your list, you can choose to remove the column by clicking on the red X to remove it. 

List permissions

Under the List permissions tab, you can edit the permissions of the list to share your list with others.

Export

Under the Export tab, you can use the function Upload Excel template to complete the feature. Under this tab you will also find the Direct export to Excel option, choosing Activate direct export will set it so that each time you load your list it is directly exported to Excel. 

If you do not upload a template, it is still possible to download the information as an Excel export. This option is located under List Actions, which is found on the top left side of the list view. 

Select Save at the top of the page when you are happy with your settings. Congratulations, you created a list!