Automation not triggering reliably

[dbaum]

I've been struggling all day to troubleshoot an automation that doesn't trigger reliably. I'm pretty sure that when I originally developed it, I successfully tested the exact scenario that's now not working. I appreciate any guidance from community colleagues regarding what I may be overlooking, or confirmation regarding whether others are observing problems.

• My automation's event is an "updates only" data change.
• The event includes a condition that a boolean virtual column changed from false to true. The virtual column's App formula evaluates a few other conditions to resolve to either false to true. Some of those other conditions reference solely non-virtual columns that receive user-entered data changes. One of the conditions is based partly on the value of another virtual column (which counts down how many assigned rows the user has remaining to process).
• The automation reliably triggers when the data change involves a non-virtual table column. However, it does not trigger when the proximate data change comes from another virtual column. I note this correlation because I've observed it, but I don't know whether/how it's involved in the problem.
• I confirmed that the virtual columns in question calculate appropriately as other data changes. I did this by repeatedly opening the table's View Data function as I changed data via the app UI.
• I confirmed via the automation monitor that the problem is not that the automation triggers but errors out; it doesn't even trigger.

[Marc_Dillon · Accepted solution]

Bots trigger on data changes. The re-evaluation of a Virtual Column is not a data change.

[dbaum]

Thanks for noting that crucial distinction. I'll noodle on an alternate approach and report back anything interesting I come up with--although I assume this is a common scenario that others have long since solutioned.

The distinction really ought to be explicit in the help articles about automation--e.g., in the How bots are triggered section of Bots: The Essentials - AppSheet Help and in Events: The Essentials - AppSheet Help. I submitted that suggestion via the article feedback feature.

[dbaum]

Update

I changed from virtual to real the column referenced in the following sentence from my original post:

• "The event includes a condition that a boolean virtual column changed from false to true."

Nonetheless, I continued to struggle with inconsistent automation triggering--even though I could see the value of the triggering column change from false to true.

I just now also changed from virtual to real the column referenced in the following sentence from my original post:

• "One of the conditions is based partly on the value of another virtual column"

Based on preliminary testing, it looks like this has resolved the issue. However, I'm not clear on how a virtual column upstream from a data source column's app formula can affect triggering of an automation event based on a data change in that data source column. I imagine it's tangled up in the matter of what gets calculated where and when between the client and server on either side of a sync.

Regardless, of course, I'm pleased it seems to be working. Also, if the right takeaway is that columns referenced in an automation event's Condition property should not have app formulas that reference virtual columns, that's helpful to know.