Using Knackly Queries

This guide demonstrates how to use queries to reuse data. We will walk through a few different use cases for using queries. You can watch the accompanying video here:

Using Queries as Contacts

Creating a contacts list that is separate from other data is beneficial. This creates a contacts list that you can pull from while using any app. 

To do this we must first create a Contacts catalog. Select Catalog. Select Add a new catalog, label it Contacts, and in the item type select party. Note that the item type is party because party contains all variables about a client. 

Navigate to the Designer tab. You may notice that party is now an object model that can contain apps. 

Select Add a new app. Create an app called ContactInfo. Add any information you immediately need in your contacts list. In our example, we added FullName and InLineAddress. 

Note that we also selected that the app does not generate a new document for each template in the Options section. 

Next, create the query. Select Add a new element, choose query, and name the query. Our example is named party_query because we are pointing to the party model. 

In party_query, select the provider and source. In our example the provider is Knackly and the source is Contacts. Note that your source will be the same for this situation. Select Save. 

Navigate to your main catalog. In our example it is EstatePlan. Select your Client variable. Update these options:

• In the Type selection, select selection. 
• In the Select From section, select A table or query.
• In the Style section, select hybrid. This allows both a dropdown selection and a typing option.
• In the Option Source selection, select the newly created query, party_query. 

Select Save.

You can now add contacts in the Contacts query. Run the app intake in Contacts to add any information about a client. 

After adding contacts, you can now navigate to your main catalog. Our example is Estate Planning. If you run the app intake, you can now select or type contact information from your contacts list. 

Using Queries as Scenarios

Another example of using queries is a set of pre-filled options. For example, if a client is including a will, we can create a scenario for wills and before we fill out any information, we can select the will scenario. This updates the app intake and displays the set of questions or information we need to fill out for that client.

To begin, select Catalog and Add a new catalog. Name the catalog Scenarios and in the Type selection, select your main catalog—in our example it is EstatePlan. 

In the EstatePlan catalog, or your main catalog, select Apps. Create a new app titled ScenarioBuilder and include any information you will need for your scenario in the App Template section. 

In our example w,e created two if statements that included the variables: WillTF, ClientWill, MarriedTF, SpouseWill, HealthPOATF, and HealthPOAClient.

Select Save.

Since Scenarios is reliant upon EstatePlanning, we need to disable the ScenarioBuilder app from EstatePlanning. Navigate back into the Catalog tab. In the Apps On This Catalog section in the ScenarioBuilder selection, select Disabled. 

Navigate to the Scenarios catalog and disable the Estate Planning app as well. 

Next, add a ScenariosName variable. Create this variable in the EstatePlan catalog. 

To finish setting up the scenario name variable, select Templates. Edit or create the FileName template. Add the ScenarioName variable to the template—in our example, we used an if statement. 

Navigate to the Scenarios dashboard. You can create the different scenarios here—and name them. Use whatever questions or settings you need for your specific scenario. 

In our example, the first scenario includes the Will and Health POA. Be sure to name the scenario.

After selecting complete and creating multiple scenarios, you will see them in the Scenarios Records section. 

After creating the different scenarios, we need a way to pull them from the Scenarios catalog into the EstatePlanning catalog. To do this, create the scenario_query. 

Select Add a new element. Name it and select Query.

Finish setting up the query by adding the Provider and Source. The source is Scenarios, and the provider will change based on your workspace. Select Save.

The last step to creating the scenario query is to return to the Estate Planning app and in the Select From section, select scenario_query.

Navigate to the Estate Planning dashboard. Create a new record and now you can select any scenario you preset. 

Using Queries to Store Lease Information

This example does not walk through creating a query. Instead, it is a brief explanation of using this query.

Our query catalog is Land Lords. This contains information about our landlord, their properties, banking information, etc. 

At a glance, it appears as the following:

When we open a record, we see all of the information about the landlord: 

In the Lease Documents dashboard, creating a new record shows questions about the lease. The first one is Who is the Lessor? We designed this as a selection hybrid—meaning you can select or type an answer. 

Selecting a lessor then populates the list of properties that the landlord owns. 

By using a query to showcase landlords, we clean up the client intake information and keep it organized by only adding information relevant to the client. Therefore information about the landlords themselves is not presented to the client—however, is stored and linked inside Knackly.

Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions on how to improve this guide.