Hello again!
In the previous article (shown below) I showed you how to build a system that automatically adds seminar applicants’ information to the cloud database kintone with no code. In this article, I’ll show you how to build a system that automatically deletes data from kintone when seminar applicants request to delete their information, with almost no code.
When a person deletes data there is an inevitable risk of deleting data that should be kept due to misreading, misunderstanding, or operational errors. This system provides several other benefits, but I think the greatest is that it eliminates such risks.
What We Want to Achieve
The system you are going to build will delete the information of seminar applicants added to kintone. The following steps will be taken before the information is actually deleted.
- The person applying for the seminar enters the email address entered at the time of applying for the seminar using the web form.
- An email containing the URL for the deletion confirmation form will be sent to the entered email address.
- In the confirmation form, the applicant agrees to the deletion of the seminar applicant information.
- The seminar applicant’s information added to the kintone application will be deleted.
Once the email address is entered in the first form, the data in the kintone app will not be deleted immediately.
Once you have entered your email address, a URL for a deletion confirmation form will be sent to you to confirm that you really want to delete your application information. Since only the recipient of the email can access the deletion confirmation form, the inclusion of such a flow will prevent unintentional deletion of the applicant’s information due to identity theft or misunderstanding*. This can be applied to the construction of systems that require identity verification, such as membership applications and membership information changes.
* If the email address is shared by multiple people, or if the received email is forwarded to other people, it cannot be prevented.
System Configuration
The system to be built this time will be a combination of the cloud-based no-code development platform Questetra BPM Suite and the cloud database kintone.
Questetra BPM Suite is a system that automates the flow of business and serves to connect people to people, people to systems and systems to systems.
Obtaining a kintone API Token
We will assume that you are using kintone.
The preparations for kintone are to create the application, which is the database, and to get the API token required to work with Questetra BPM Suite. These preparations are the same as in the “Setting up kintone” section in the article Add Customer Information to kintone Automatically with No Code, so please refer to that.
Preparing Questetra BPM Suite
We will proceed on the assumption that you are currently using Questetra BPM Suite. You can check what we have written here even with the free trial version. (Target editions are Advanced and Professional.)
In Questetra BPM Suite creating an App equals creating a system, and the creation of an App is done through several settings focusing on the creation of a workflow diagram and the addition of Data Items.
The Seminar Application Information Deletion App introduced in this article can be easily run on the Questetra BPM Suite platform you are using. All you have to do is import the file that can be downloaded from the following page. If you want to check the operation immediately, please use this App.
Creating a Workflow Diagram
In Questetra BPM Suite the business flow is drawn in a workflow diagram to promote systemization. The business flow is as mentioned in “What We Want to Achieve”, but I will write it again below.
- The person applying for the seminar enters the email address entered at the time of applying for the seminar using the web form.
- An email containing the URL for the deletion confirmation form will be sent to the entered email address.
- In the confirmation form, the applicant agrees to the deletion of the seminar applicant information.
- The seminar applicant’s information added to the kintone application will be deleted.
We will immediately draw this flow in a workflow diagram.
Log in to Questetra BPM Suite with a user who has App Administrator privileges, and create a new App from the [App Settings] function.
Create a workflow diagram on the editing screen. If you draw the previous flow into a workflow diagram, it will look like the following.
The settings for the various icons that make up a workflow diagram will be explained later.
Organize and Add Data Items
Let’s continue to organize the data handled in Questetra BPM Suite. It is not so difficult to imagine what kind of data will be handled in each process (item) in a workflow diagram.
- Email address
- The email address contained in the seminar application information to be deleted, entered by the person who applied for the seminar.
- Items to check if you are sure you want to delete them.
- Items to be checked in the confirmation form displayed by the URL in the email sent to the entered email address.
- Record Number (kintone)
- To delete a record in the kintone app you need to get the ID of the record you want to delete; the record number of the record with the email address entered by searching the kintone app will be stored.
- emails (kintone)
- For the convenience of the Questetra BPM Suite system we need to retrieve the kintone data related to Record Number (kintone), so we decided to retrieve the email address this time. The email address corresponding to Record Number (kintone) will be stored in this data item.
- Delete confirmation form key
- Stores the characters used as part of the URL for the deletion confirmation form, so that a random 12-digit character is stored for each deletion to prevent the URL from being easily guessed.
The Data Items to be added are organized as follows. (Data Item Name / Field Name / Data Type）
- Email address / q_email / String (single line)
- Do you want to delete the seminar application information including your e-mail address? / q_question / Select (checkbox)
- The choices should be “Choice ID=true” and “Display Label=Yes, no problem.” for the selection.
- Record Number (kintone) / q_record_numbers / String (multiple lines)
- emails (kintone) / q_record_numbers / String (multiple lines)
- Delete confirmation form key / q_form_key / String (single line)
- Set the initial value to #{#randomString(12)}.
HTTP Authentication Settings
Configure the authentication settings to access kintone. The setting method is the same as the one described in the section Questetra Setting 3: HTTP Authentication Settings in “Add Customer Information to kintone Automatically with No Code”, so please refer to that.
Set up a form to request deletion of seminar application information.
Return to the Workflow Diagram edit screen. The item at the top of the workflow diagram, “Application form for deletion of seminar application information” indicates that it is a Web form to be published on the Internet.
In the configuration screen of this item (called a Message Start Event (FORM)) we will set the email address among the added Data Items so that seminar participants can enter it.
Setting up a confirmation form invitation email
The round item “Confirmation form invitation e-mail” in the workflow diagram will automatically send an e-mail according to the settings. Set the email address entered in the application form as the recipient and the confirmation form URL as the body of the email.
The request for deletion of seminar application information has been accepted.
Please access the following URL to complete the deletion request procedure.
${var[applicationRoot]}System/ReceiveTask/Form/#{processModelInfoId}/10/#{processInstanceId}/#{#q_form_key}/view※ If the procedure is not completed within 24 hours the above URL will be invalid.
※ If the page does not open when you click on the URL above, copy the URL and paste it into the address field of your browser.—
◯◯◯◯ Corporation Ltd.
contact@example.com
03-xxxx-xxxx
https://example.com/contact/
There is a bit of coding here.
${var[applicationRoot]}System/ReceiveTask/Form/#{processModelInfoId}/10/#{processInstanceId}/#{#q_form_key}/view
Here it is. This represents the URL of the deletion confirmation form. If you are planning to proceed with the configuration as described in this article, please copy & paste this coding part as it is.
A detailed explanation is shown in the following figure.
Setting up a deletion confirmation form
We will now configure the gray rectangular item “Deletion Confirmation Form”. This item is a web form that can be accessed by clicking on the URL in the “Confirmation form invitation email”.
The following figure shows an overview of the settings for this icon.
The Deletion Confirmation Form is the place where email recipients can confirm whether or not they are allowed to delete the seminar application information related to the email address entered in the first “Request for Deletion of Seminar Application Information” form. Therefore, the email address you initially entered will be displayed. In addition, to indicate that the recipient is willing to delete the information, in the line “Do you want to delete the seminar application information including your e-mail address?”, you can check “Yes, no problem”.
Furthermore, you can set a deadline for the Deletion Confirmation Form. The deadline can be set to one day after the application is submitted to prevent unauthorized access due to incorrectly entered email addresses or long periods of inactivity. A little bit of coding is required to set the deadline.
processInstanceStartDatetime.addDays(1)
The above code shows the date and time one day after the request for deletion was made. It’s a bit difficult to understand, but the part called processInstanceStartDatetime is the date and time when the request for deletion was made, and the .addDays(1) part is added to this date and time to represent adding days. If the number in parentheses is 10, it means 10 days later. If it is -3, it means 3 days before.
Setting the record number acquisition for deleted data
The gray item in the workflow diagram, “Get Record Number of Deleted Data” retrieves the record number of the seminar application information registered in the kintone application with the email address entered in the Delete Application Form as the key.
The following figure shows an overview of the configuration of this item. Again, there is a little coding to do.
The place to insert the code is where it says “C8: Search Query”. Enter the code email = "#{#q_email}". This indicates that we want to search the data in the kintone app for a field with a value in the column “email” that is the same as the email address that was requested to be deleted.
Configure deletion of seminar application records.
The gray item “Delete Seminar Application Record” will delete the record in the kintone application with the record number obtained in the previous item.
Operation Check
Questetra App Release
Once you have completed the settings for the Questetra BPM Suite App you will need to enable the settings (to be able to use it).
Click the “Releasing developing Version #” button on the workflow diagram of the App details screen. You can also refer to the manual.
A record being deleted.
You can check the URL to access the form by clicking the “Form URL” button on the configuration screen for the item “Application form for deleting seminar application information” at the top of the workflow diagram.
Enter the email address of the data you want to delete in the Email Address field of the form, and then each step will be automatically processed according to the flow of the workflow diagram.
- An email will be automatically sent to you with instructions for the Deletion Confirmation Form.
- Click the URL in the email to display the Deletion Confirmation Form.
- Check “Yes, no problem” in the deletion confirmation form, and the data in kintone will be deleted.
If it works correctly you will see the flow as shown in the following image.
Summary
Questetra BPM Suite provides an item to delete the data added to the kintone app. By using this item you can build a system that automatically deletes data from kintone with almost no code.
Questetra BPM Suite has items for handling kintone data, and various automations are possible, such as:
- Adding data to the kintone app
- Updating data in kintone app *
- Retrieving data from the kintone app *
* File-type data can also be handled.
As mentioned in this article, automation of business operations not only reduces labor but also prevents mistakes in business operations. Also, in the case of operations that handle personal information such as this one, automation can prevent personal information from being exposed to people unnecessarily.
If you are using kintone and want to automate your work, this article will be a good reference for you.
That’s all for now!
