Automation Wait for Condition question

Koichi_Tsuji · 03-01-2021 10:24 PM

Current workflow is supporting conditional trigger, i.e. on data change based on [_thisrow_before].[AnyColumn]<>[_thisrow_after].[AnyColumn] to fire the actions.

On testing Automation, I assumed it could be applied to it, for “wait for a condition” part, by pusing the same expression into it.

On the process, firstly we change the value of A row. and once the Automation confirmes the change in column a value, then we wish to run the next process.
Howeve, it looks like Before/After expression seems not to be supported. Or am I missing something ?

At the same tim, we tried another scenario. First process it is to add task to another table. We wish to apply 'Wait" condition to it. Meaning, we wish to run the subsequent process upon confirming the new row is added to the data base.
How can we detect the event of adition of new row to the table? We need to separete the process?

@Takuya_Miyai

Dan_Bahir

Hi Koichi

Thanks for reporting this. There is a bug in the evaluation of before/after images in the wait step. We are working on fixing this.

Dan

Koichi_Tsuji

Probably there might be conceptual misunderstanding with me about Automation in general…
Probably I should have place this before/after expression into Event rather than steps.

But what I actually wanted to do is different.

I m not sure if we are able to accomodate this unique requirement with new bot or not.

What I want to set up was to arrange sort of async. With the appsheet, once any data change is made, the virtual column calulation need to wait for server to complete all the logic and calc, which take a time.

Once a data change is made, for instance, on the same row, we have virtual column storing the number of the rows in that table, then we add new row.
Appsheet need to wait for calculation for whole up until the vc value change (increment by one on this case)

but Automation is kicked to start the rest of process. I wish to wait until backend server finish the calculation and VC value are refreshed as a whole. Then kick off the rest of the process, as the rest and reminder of the process is relying on the VC value. Currently, process is running without waiting for anything, so it pass the old vc value (assuming no row added) to the subsequent process.

Former Community Member

The “Wait” step is designed to monitor a condition for the current row of data that is presented to the process (containing the wait step) by the bot when the appropriate event is triggered. So long as the condition refers to the “current row” that the process is executing on, it will wait till the condition evaluates to true and then advance to the next step in the process.

What you could do is have a “Call a process” step in your process (before your wait step). The called process can have a wait step that has a condition which checks for a specific value of the virtual column. It will wait till the condition is met, add a return step which will return the new VC value. The parent process should be able to use the new value in subsequent steps. LMK if this works for you.

Koichi_Tsuji

Hi @prithpal

Any quick working sample makes my life little more easier, can you share with us? Still dunno how to set them up…

Koichi

Former Community Member

We are working on sample videos @tsuji_koichi & @1111 . Office hours/live webinars are in the works @JCadence FYI

Ami

Hi,
As i’m reading this thread i find myself thinking that i have not yet seen any videos or “office hours” about automation. What was great for me when starting with appsheet was the large scale of videos and documentations. Can you add a pinned post with all new videos and documents and also bring back those live webinars.
Thanks

jcadence

Hey @1111

Aside from the current primer available, there is documentation you can review for the time being.

One caveat to note- we are in preview (beta) right now working through bugs, feedback, etc. That will help influence the videos and other content we create to help with the learning process. If there are particular concepts you’d like addressed within Automation please don’t hesitate to let us know. We have our own beliefs as to what we should be teaching, but we also have our own biases. Input from you all helps us be more helpful.

Ami

Thanks for your reply.
I am trying to figure out if a row is added to my google sheet through a third party app or directly by a user, can the automation bot detect that and sync the data/send notification etc?

Dan_Bahir

Regarding the question let me see if I understand.

You wish to have Process A that works on Table A’. You would want a Process A to be triggered by an update or add to Table A’. Then you would want Process A to wait until a row is added to table B’ ?

Is that correct ?

Is there a relation between table A’ and Table B’ ?

Could you describe the what you are trying to automate ?

Thanks,
Dan