Assign and Assign only actions

The Assign action enables you to easily assign a list item to a parent, unassign a list item, or assign an item to display against more than one parent. Assign only enables you to assign list items to a parent, but not unassign items that have already been assigned.

List items can only have one parent. However, the Assign and Assign only actions use numbered lists. This enables you to assign the display name for a list item to more than one list.

You can use the Assign and Assign only actions to assign:

• People to projects
• Products to customers
• Products to promotions
• Accounts and territories to sales reps

With the Assign action, you can unassign items that have previously been assigned to a parent. The Assign only action adds an extra layer of security, as items that have previously been assigned are not available to unassign via the action.

An assign or assign only action requires a specific numbered list with at least one list-formatted property, and a parent hierarchy.

The list-formatted property and parent hierarchy can be either a normal hierarchical list or a numbered list. 

Only workspace administrators can set up an assign or assign only action. If you add an assign or assign only action to a dashboard, anyone with the appropriate access can assign items with the action. 

Note: As a workspace administrator, you must ensure that users have write-access to the numbered list they want to assign items to. 

Suppose you want to assign sales reps to accounts across several countries. 

Set up a numbered list, Sales Reps, that has a list-format property, Display Name. Format the Display Name as your Employees list. Select your Countries list as the parent hierarchy for Sales reps in General Lists.

You can then create an assign action that uses the Display Name property. Publish the action to a dashboard along with the Countries list. From the Countries list, select the country to which you want to assign sales. Then select the assign action to launch the Assign dialog.

Items from the Sales Reps list display on the left, with display names from the Employees list. You can select the right-arrow button to move sales reps to the field on the right. When you select OK, the sales reps in the right-hand field are assigned to the country.

As the action uses a numbered list, you can assign sales reps to more than one country. Just select a different country in the Countries list and run the action again.

You can also use the Assign action to unassign sales reps. When you run the Assign action, any sales reps that are already assigned display on the right. You can use the left-arrow button to move them to the unassigned field on the left.

As an approver, you do not want another user to remove items from a parent once you've approved them. You can use the Assign only action to set up a one-way approvals process.

Imagine the same example as above: you want a user to assign sales reps to a country. Create a numbered list, Sales Reps, that has a list format property, Display Name. Format the Display Name as your Employees list. Select your Countries list as the parent hierarchy for Sales Reps.

You can then create an assign only action that uses the Display Name property. Publish the action to a dashboard along with the Countries list. Select the country to which you want to assign sales reps in the grid. Then select the Assign only action to launch the dialog.

Any sales reps that have already been assigned to the country do not display, so users of the Assign only button can only assign additional sales reps to the country.

A workspace administrator can grant the approver access to an assign action but restrict access for users with other roles to an assign only action. So, once approval has been granted, only the approver or a workspace administrator can unassign the sales rep from the country.