The three most useful applications of the data write action

Model building in Anaplan has been nothing but a pleasure regarding ease of use and adoption; not only it is an excellent choice to drive standardized models across an organization, but also provides support and follow-up at the needed cadence. And if we talk about the user experience — with upcoming features being added regularly — Anaplan’s look, feel, and functionality is continually enhanced.

Today I want to share with the community three real-time applications of one of the most powerful Anaplan functionalities introduced in recent times — the data write action. In this article I will dive into the following three applications:

1. Multi-data type update facility
2. Current logged-in user
3. Current date

Multi-data type update facility

There could be instances where we want a constant/default value to use for a particular business logic. Let's say HR needs to update the records of newly hired employees with details such as employee type, department to hire in, hiring status, etc. As the title suggests, you can use the data write action to update/overwrite any intersection of data (dimensioned/un-dimensioned) with a default value (that could data be from any data type viz., boolean, date, text, list, numeric, and user). The best part is you need not spend time creating any action to update these in the backend. All you need is to have an underlying module, with the desired line item, and voila — you're just done with setting up the source to fetch the data to. In the UX, use an action card and configure it as a 'data write' action type. In the data write designer, configure the content of your action, including the source module and the line item to retrieve the values.

Current logged-in user

Previously, one of the most requested functionalities by model builders was automating the retrieval of users that were currently logged in the model. Until now, there was no direct way to find out the currently logged-in users in Anaplan. Now, this functionality is a cakewalk with the help of the data write action. To do this, create a source module and then configure the data write action to display the currently logged-in users.

Current date

Retrieving the current date has been the talk of the town since the very beginning of NUX. The good news is, this has never been easier! Now, using the data write action you can update/retrieve the current date based on the user’s browser. Just like the steps discussed above, all it requires is to configure the action card directly within the NUX to fetch the current date.

All these applications within just the UX itself make the data write action a powerful one!

What are the different use cases that you leveraged using this action? Leave a comment!

If you reached until here, I would like to share a thank you for taking the time to read my blog! I hope you learned something new. Until we meet again, happy Anaplanning!

Note: Data write actions are not available on personal pages or report pages. For more information, check out this Anapedia article: Create data write actions on a page.