Skip to main content
steven_doty
steven_doty
Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️
November 30, 2015
Development

Writing to Multi-select Picklist in Rules Engine (Tag field and others)

Related products:CS Rules Engine
  • November 30, 2015
  • 32 replies
  • 1127 views

The Rules engine should be updated or modified to support writing data to Salesforce's Multi-select picklists. Gainsight's own native field, the Tag field on Customer Info, cannot be written to correctly with the Rules Engine, because the engine overwrites existing values instead of appending new values. 

 

Merged Ideas:

by will_watkinson

Sometimes automation, or dataloading is used to insert values into picklist fields that do not exist in the picklist field. It would be useful to have the ability to monitor for and insert values into picklist fields that do not exit there by adding the option to write in when reading from, or writing to a picklist instead of just being able to select one of the available picklist options.

 

by kevin_ly

There are quite a few customers that have talked about using the multi-select picklist, but was stopped short by it's limited behavior. It gets treated like a single value picklist when any rules attempt to set it.

Also, you are unable to clear or append to it properly.

A use case here, a customer has multiple line items of enabled products, I would like to set the Multi Picklist to say that this customer has these products enabled. Also once one product goes inactive I would like to refresh it with current multi select values. Rules doesn't handle this use case really well with current multi-picklist functionality.

Sure you can use checkboxes, but it gets really messy and not in a neat package. Also Customer tags can't be deleted once added via rules.

    32 replies

    sundar
    sundar
    Expert ⭐️
    November 30, 2015
    Hey Steven,

    Thanks for binging this up, we are working on supporting the Multi-select picklists. Expect this enhancement to be in January release.
      elaine_cleary
      elaine_cleary
      Helper ⭐️⭐️
      February 13, 2016
      Hi Sundar, Did support for multi-select picklists make it into the January release?  I could have easily missed it.  If not, do we have a new target?  Thank you!!
      sundar
      sundar
      Expert ⭐️
      February 16, 2016
      We fixed the read part and the filtering issues especially in action criteria in January release. We still overwrite the entire value with the new option, so essentially this is still open. It is part of the roadmap for Q2 2016 as of now.
      christopher_sanderson
      christopher_sanderson
      Helper ⭐️⭐️
      August 1, 2016
      Sundar, I'd like to expand on this idea for the roadmap:

      Most ETL connectors allow String type fields to be written to a Picklist field in SFDC.  We do not currently support this.  We only allow writing a picklist directly to a picklist.

      Use cases would include having MDA data in a string field that we can then push to a Picklist in a SFDC/Gainsight object.  Current workaround requires one action per picklist value, which is doable but time consuming and often resulting in duplicate work.

      Thoughts?
      jeffrey_coleman
      jeffrey_coleman
      Helper ⭐️
      September 21, 2016
      Ah, roadmaps. Gotta have 'em. Gotta change 'em. And then some client finds an old thread and says "Q2 2016? But it's almost Q4!" :-)

      Tags are becoming more and more valuable to us as a mechanism to group clients. Having rules-engine access to them will significantly amplify their value!
        lane_h
        lane_h
        Helper ⭐️
        October 7, 2016
        Hi! We have a rule that Upserts to Contacts in SFDC. We have a multi select picklist for roles as contacts can have multiple roles (sponsor, technical, billing, etc.)

        Since Tags work as a multi select picklist, we can't remove tags with rules so I thought we would be able to add a role to a Contact. However, when I run my rule it removes all of the Contacts other roles and writes it as Technical.

        Is it possible to add a new role in a multi select picklist?
        Director of CX and Scale Programs
        samantha_braastad
        samantha_braastad
        Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
        November 22, 2016
        This is a must have for us as well! As the new release will allow for custom C360 views, we need to pivot off of current products (which could be multiple) in order to set the view for the C360 to only show the sections that are applicable to that customers product suite. We have no way to update this currently with the limitation of multi-picklists. 
        abhishek_sivaraman
        abhishek_sivaraman
        Helper ⭐️⭐️⭐️
        November 23, 2016
        Hi Samantha,

        Curious to understand your use case for custom C360 views based on multi select picklist? Can you elaborate regarding how you plan to use that for. Based on your comment , my understanding is - 

        If you are selling Product A, Product B and Product C. A customer can buy one or more of the products.

        Do you plan to create multi C360 views based on various combinations of A,B and C? Theoretically,You would have to create 7 layouts (Customers who have purchased only A, only B, only C, Both A and B,Both A and C,Both B and C and All of A,B and C) each as a layout for your accounts.

        Is my understanding right?

        Thanks
        Abhishek S
        samantha_braastad
        samantha_braastad
        Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
        November 23, 2016
        Our customers have some trends that would allow us to simplify the groupings to only around 10 or so across 3 products. For example, our customer can have only A but would never have product B without product A. 

        But yes, we plan to use the product to set the C360 in the next release. 
        dale_burnett
        dale_burnett
        Contributor ⭐️⭐️
        March 26, 2018
        Is there a timeframe for when this will be corrected / implemented?  I keep coming across this problem where I want to set a multi-select picklist (via Rules) in say the CustomerInfo object so can be displayed on the C360 but can't fully do it.  It allows me to write multiple rules (+Field Mapping) to populate each instance of the multi-select but every subsequent rule overwrites the value written by the previous rule.  Honestly I'd view this more as a bug than an enhancement.  If the system allows a multi-select to be chosen as the destinatiion field for rules then it should allow multiple settings to be selected, not just one.  See below as an example of how I'm trying to set this ...

        Show more replies
        Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement