how to manage (delete) completed assignments

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09-07-2016 02:13 PM
CalebAnderson1
New Contributor III

This is my first time trying to use Workforce. So far so good other than I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do with all the completed tasks. As a dispatcher, I don't want to see thousands of completed tasks and I can't find an option to delete or archive it after it's been completed. We are using Workforce in tandem with Collector so once related records have been added in Collector, there's no need for the Assignment.

I'm looking for something like this in Workforce:

Archive/delete feature using Workforce

I figure I could probably delete the Assignment feature in the web map but it seems clunky to have to do this and the dispatchers who will be using this map won't have the skills or patience for this. Hopefully I'm missing something simple here....

4 Replies
CraigGillgrass
Esri Regular Contributor

Caleb, thanks for trying out Workforce and for asking this question.

You're not missing anything, there is no way in the app to Archive or Delete assignments.  From our user discussions, it was clear that Dispatchers should not be able to delete assignments, even if they've been completed.  The ability to Archive assignments is something we considered, but since there are many ways people want to archive assignments, we went with a different approach.

We've written several scripts in our github repo: GitHub - Esri/workforce-scripts: A set of scripts to help administer Workforce projects. These demonstrate how to delete and/or copy assignments to another feature service.  These scripts can be set-up to run against the workforce project and can clear out any assignments that satisfy the query.

We feel that this script and the flexibility it provides is a better alternative to providing an in-app experience for removing assignments.

Craig

CalebAnderson1
New Contributor III

Thanks Craig, I'll try out the scripts

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PaulDoherty2
Occasional Contributor III

Craig - 

This came up while planning for a field exercise this week.

I can understand the challenge of keeping things simple in the user interface but after working with a number of stakeholders, they've agreed they want a way to do this as a dispatcher. 

Here is one comment: 

"That seems really inefficient. What if you make a mistake on one of your dispatches, now you have junk stuff in there you can't get rid of. I can see them wanting to have a permanent record of dispatched but there should be some sort of archive. That is just clunky". 

Potential Solution

What about a field in the assignment feature layer called "Archive"? When the end user selects assignments they want archive, they select "Archive" from a dropdown and get prompted "are you sure?". This just changes the entry under "Archive" to "Yes". The app or (feature layer view used in the app) has a filter to just not show the Archive = Yes features? This is similar to the vetting function in the now deprecated Crowdsource Story Map.

I am sure you've thought of many possibilities, but this seems like a logical approach and would benefit the end user greatly without losing any backend data. 

- Paul  

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CraigGillgrass
Esri Regular Contributor

Paul,

This comment seems a little different than the comment in the original question:

"That seems really inefficient. What if you make a mistake on one of your dispatches, now you have junk stuff in there you can't get rid of. I can see them wanting to have a permanent record of dispatched but there should be some sort of archive. That is just clunky". 

This comment is geared towards making a mistake and wanting to get rid of that Assignment.  We support that workflow through the ability to Cancel an Assignment.  It's in the overflow menu for the Assignment.  That should support the workflow mentioned above where the Dispatcher makes a mistake and wants to cancel or remove the work.

It's conceptually similar to your potential solution - but models the assignment with a status = Canceled.

Craig 

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