Add a Retrieve information workflow action – Applaud Support

You can use the Retrieve information workflow action to extract data from your platform and use it later in the workflow. You can retrieve values directly from a model or dynamically perform a keyword search across your knowledge base or documents using the new Global search option.

You do not need to use a Retrieve information action to access the owner or requester’s user properties in conditions. These are already available for use in workflow triggers and If/Then conditions.

Prerequisites

Create a workflow

Procedure

You cannot use foreign key date properties in workflow conditions.

On the workflow chart, select the plus (+) icon where you want to add the action.
In the Workflow action dialog box, select Retrieve Information.
Choose the source of information:
- Select Model to retrieve a single record or multiple records from a specific model.
  1. From the Retrieve from model list, select the model.
  2. The Label auto-fills based on the model chosen. You can update this if needed.
  3. Choose how to retrieve records to control how many records the workflow action returns:
    - Retrieve a single record - This option retrieves just one matching record. It’s useful when you only need the most relevant item, such as the most recent absence or the latest submitted form. To define which record is returned, scroll to the Sort section and:
      1. Select the property to sort by, for example, Start Date.
      2. Choose a direction, for example, ascending or descending. The system uses this sort order to return the top result.
    - Retrieve multiple records - This option is used when you want to retrieve a list of records, not just one. This is useful for including multiple items in an AI-generated message, counting how many records match your filters, or performing logic based on how many records exist. You can filter and sort these just like single-record retrieval. In addition:
      - You can use the retrievedRecordsCount token in other workflow actions, like If/Then branches, to take different actions based on the number of results found.
      - Each result becomes available to use as a token in your workflow, labelled with your action’s name, for example, Retrieved Absence or Retrieved Knowledge results.
  4. (Optional) To filter the results:
    1. Add conditions under Meet ALL of the following conditions (and) or Meet ANY of the following conditions (or).
    2. For each condition:
      1. From the Property list, select the model's property.
      2. From the Criteria list, select how the property should be evaluated.
      3. In the Value box, enter the expected value. You can use:
        
        Static values (text, dates, numbers).
        
        Dynamic values such as User ID, custom user properties, or previously retrieved properties.
        
        Tokens from earlier Retrieve Information actions. If you retrieve from the same model more than once, each instance is numbered, for example, Retrieved Person 1 Start Date, Retrieved Person 2 Start Date.
        
        For lookup properties, select an existing option added to the model.
        
        For foreign key properties, select a value from the linked model. If no values are available, the model might not have any records.
  5. Under Sort, from the Property list, select the property you want to sort by and then the Direction.
- Select Global search to search across one or more models using a search term or token. For example, you could search the Knowledge model using a retrieved job title.
  1. Enter a Label so you can find this in your following workflow action.
  2. Under Restrict the search, choose the models you want to search, for example, Knowledge or Documents.
  3. In What text should be used for the search, enter static text or use dynamic tokens, for example, @triggeringUser.department.
  4. (Optional) Limit how many results to retrieve. If blank, the default is 5. The maximum is 10.
  5. In Run as user, choose the user whose security context will apply to the search, typically the triggering user.
Select Add to save the action.

Once you’ve added a Retrieve Information action, you can reuse the retrieved values in later actions like Set property, Create model instance, or Generate text. Just type @ in the field and select a value prefixed with Retrieved.

See more:

About the Retrieve information workflow action

Reference:

Workflow action dialog box