Processes - Steps: "Wait for a condition" TIME expression

Hello,
I have created a time condition for a step “Wait for a condition”. Normally, the formula compares the time NOW with the time the last row was created. After 1 minute, the expression should be TRUE and the next step should be triggered . I have used this kind of condition as action filter in behavior field before and it worked good, but in automation seems not to be working. I have tested it in the expression builder and it gave me the value I was expecting.

MINUTE(TIMENOW()-TIME(LOOKUP(MAX(SELECT(Timesheet[_ROWNUMBER], AND([Useremail]=USEREMAIL(),[Fecha]=TODAY(),[Tarea]=‘Ejercicio’ ) ) ), “Timesheet”, “_ROWNUMBER”, “Hora Inicio”)))>1

QUESTION: time conditions does not work in “Wait for a condition” steps?

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11 REPLIES 11

Dan_Bahir
Participant V

Hi Dani,

The wait steps work off of changes to the actual data sources that are backing the process.

So if you have a google sheet that is the data source that is being used and that sheet has a row.

Once the process is a wait condition, if the row is updated it will check if the wait condition is evaluates to true.

So if you are trying to have it wait for one minute this will not work.

Would have a step that can wait a given amount of time be desirable for your use cases ?

Thanks Dan for your fast answer! I got it: the row needs to be updated for the condition to be evaluated.
As an answer to your question “Would have a step that can wait a given amount of time be desirable for your use cases ?” For me this feature would be helpfull. Lots of times I try to implement some time conditions, for example:
If you always perform some behaviour at same time, you can just schedule a report, BUT sometimes I cannot have a fixed time everyday to do some stuff. Examples:
-In my country work break must last at least 15 minutes by law, so the action to finish break time should only be visible 15 minutes after the beginning of break (to avoid people registering shorter breaks).
-Same with some tasks: they need to be performed at certain times, but starting time varies depending on when you started working that day. By showing and hiding actions depending on relative times, I can avoid mistakes when clicking on wrong actions. These are “fake” data inputs I prefer to avoid.

Former Community Member
Not applicable

Thanks for sharing your use case. We will look into supporting this in future releases.

@prithpal
@Dan_Bahir

I too would find it beneficial to have a step that can wait a set amount of time. If I dont have this, I WILL make 6-18 scheduled automations/workflows that do the exact thing (check if created time of row is X hours ago).

Use case: In a deployed Timelogs app, I have users (and their supervisors) asking me to create an “auto-notice” to remind them about their active log after 2 hours (and preferably also after 4 hrs, 6 hrs, etc).

I have several other ideas where a delayed-notification like so would be very handy, possibly days after (new contact not yet contacted, invoice not yet sent out, etc). Such things would be quite bulky and frankly ugly to create with the current features available.

Former Community Member
Not applicable

Yes @Ferret we are aware of this requirement and plan to address this in future releases.

Definitely interested, any progress yet?

Valuable for informing up the chain if workflow activities aren’t completed in timely fashion.

Hi Scott,

We are planning to release a new feature on the wait step where you can control the timeout behavior.
The Wait step type allows the process to pause execution and before resuming:

  • [Wait for a condition] to evaluate to TRUE or a timeout period to be reached
    And here you can add steps in case the timeout period has been reached

  • [Wait for a period of time]

Note: Process execution will not resume at the exact time that time period is met. There may be a delay of up to 10 minutes. Therefore, the Wait step does not support use cases where accurate timing is required.

Would you be interested in getting early access? If yes, just let me know your appsheet user id.
@Ferret and @Dani_Mi as well.

Thanks!

Why yes I would!

Hi @Ferret
I have added your account to the rollout of the new feature.

Thanks!

@Zhifeng_Lin 

Hi,

I'm using this new feature and encounter a weird situation which I'm not sure if it's buggy.

One of my bots is set to wait for a user status changed to Enrolled before register a new fee to them.

I also have another bot monitoring the enrollment status to change the user status accordingly.

The thing is, the fee bot does not recognize the status change by the status bot.

It only seems to execute the condition met when I manually switch the user status out of Enrolled and back into Enrolled again.

Appreciated if there's any confirm or update on this.

 

Please start a new topic for help with this.

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