The three most useful applications of the data write action

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Comments

  • Great functionality but the disadvantage today is that you can only update one line item at time with the data write action. It would be great added value if multiple line items could be updated within one single data write action, avoiding the need for the user to click on 6 different buttons as is the case in the example above! Much better user experience to update everything with one single click of a button, then the data write would become really powerful!

  • 100% agree with @LouiseBourgonjon

    Being able to stamp User ID and Date or any other text/number from UX is great! But being able to stamp many items in one click? That can make the dashboards feel like magic.

    I understand I can set up a process to get here but the Actions have limitations.

  • @LouiseBourgonjon @DeepakK Thank you for your two cents! I absolutely second your thoughts. Although data write is a powerful function (with much needed functionalities), the full potential can be leveraged if :

    1. we get option of updating multiple lineitems but one at a time.
    2. ability to add data write action as part of a process

    On #1, please feel free to post this idea on the https://community.anaplan.com/categories/ideas and most of us will upvote for this functionality.

    On #2, we do have this idea posted here: :)

  • Thank you @MikhilA for this great article to discover New UX functionality.

    Having action to update current date is good but for data traceability purpose still need time stamp with granularity level like hour:min:sec. Hope this functionality can be added into model and added to Process so no need to manually click separate button for update date.