Global Lists

Overview

The Global Lists module allows authorized users to manage data lists from the Administration Module to be used with web forms.

Global Lists management provides a solution to manage and centralize data to fill drop-down lists in your web forms.

There is no limit to the number of items in a Global List, which can have up to 20 columns. Good user interface performance depends on the number of cells (items × columns), and is optimized for at least 5000 cells (for example, 1000 items with 5 columns or 250 items with 20 columns).

The supported data types for columns are text, numeric, or date.

The data that populate a Static Global List come from within the user interface.

The data that populate a Dynamic Global List come from a database. The content of the list is updated each time the web form is executed.

Global Lists screen

Menu banner

Links	Remarks
New list	Displays a blank categories form to add a new category
Refresh	Refreshes the global list
Import	Imports data from CSV or XML format into an existing list or as a new list; this is useful to quickly fill data from file or copy/paste from clipboard.
Export	Exports data to a CSV or XML file; this is useful to export data for multiple environments (development, production, test, etc.)
Duplicate	Duplicates a global list
Delete	Deletes a global list

Filters

Search	Remarks
Name	Filters on the list’s name
Manager	Filters on the name of the manager of the list
Update date	Filters on the update date (period from/to)
Updated by	Filters on the last user who has updated the list (last name or first name)

Global Lists list

Columns	Remarks
Name	Name of the list
Manager	None (no restriction) or the global participant authorized to update the list; you can restrict the access to the global list to user(s) of a global participant.
Content	Number of items or a link to define the global list form
Last update	Date and time of the last update
By	Last user who has updated the list

Global Lists form

Click the Define link to define or edit a global list.

Tabs	Remarks
Items	Add static items into the list; items can be sorted by value or descriptive text, and translation languages can be chosen from a drop-down list.
Columns	Add columns (limited to 10 columns) Supported datatypes: Text Numeric Date By default, columns are Text (text data type) and Value (text data type).
Databind	Connection name or string to the bound database Name of the connection string defined by the Administrator in the WorkflowGen web.config file Connection string to a database SQL query (SELECT command) to retrieve data ✏️ Note: It is strongly recommended to use a connection name rather than a connection string to simplify multi-environment management. Connection names are centrally managed in the WorkflowGen web.config file.

Import data

You can import data into a global list from a file or a copy of your clipboard. The supported formats are WorkflowGen Global List XML or CSV.

The CSV format must be as follows:

COL_NAME[,...n]
["TEXT|NUMERIC|DATE"[,...n]]
VALUE[ ,...n]

Examples

Importing text-only columns

By default, columns are considered as text data types; therefore, if all columns are text data types, it is not necessary to specify the data types.

iso,country
AD,Andorra
AE,United Arab Emirates
AF,Afghanistan
AG,Antigua and Barbuda
AI,Anguilla

Importing with numeric and/or date data types

In this case, the second line is used to set the columns’ data types.

Id,iso,Country
NUMERIC,TEXT,TEXT
1,AD,Andorra
2,AE,United Arab Emirates
3,AF,Afghanistan
4,AG,Antigua and Barbuda
5,AI,Anguilla

Importing with enclosed strings

To protect some data like double quotes, commas, etc., you can enclose the string with double quotes.

Id,Lastname,Firstname,Address,Birthday
NUMERIC,TEXT,TEXT,TEXT,DATE
1,DOE,John,"1111 N. Sample, Mt. Prospect, IL 60000","01/01/1980"

Export data

You can export data from a global list to a file. The supported formats are WorkflowGen Global List XML or CSV.

Security

All connection strings in \wwwroot\wfgen\web.config are available for use in Global Lists and the Form Designer except for the master database connection string. While the application tries to verify that user-supplied SQL queries used in these contexts are secure and contain only SELECT statements, you should also make sure that exposed connection strings are secured at the database level. This means that if you don’t want a process manager or a Global List manager to be able to update or modify a certain database, the connection string should have read-only access to your database.

Keep in mind that process designers can also use any connection string that they have access to from the Form Designer’s code-behind editor. If you want to restrict a Global List manager’s access to a connection string, while still allowing the process designer to use it, you should add the connection string to the WebForm application’s web.config (\wwwroot\wfgen\WfApps\WebForms\web.config).

Connection strings in the WebForms web.config are not exposed in the WorkflowGen UI, so for process designers to be able to use them, they must know the name of the connection string. This is also a convenient way to give different process managers access to specific connection strings.