Workflow behavior with Date and Time

Good day,

I hope all is well.

We want to create an email notification to the [Owner]. The email must be automated with the [Callback Date and Time] and the [Status] is equal to “Callback”. We created the following condition and seems it dont want to initiate.

AND([Status] = Callback,
[Callback Date and Time] = NOW()
)

Please help.

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24 REPLIES 24

Comparing some column equal to NOW() will almost NEVER work because it has Time down to the second included. When you save the value, one second later it is no longer equal.

What is the reason for comparing to NOW()? As a check to trigger an activity it doesn’t make logical sense anyway.

Good day,
Thank you for your response. We want to notify the owner to call the client at the Callback Date/Time he chose. Can you help me with the right condition to set please.

You need to set a range. This can be done using the operator “>=”. Bear in mind this equation means it won’t be True, i.e. activity not triggered, until after the set Callback time.

AND([Status] = Callback,
[Callback Date and Time] >= NOW()
)

Also, be aware, if you haven’t considered it yet, you need to protect against inadvertent additional triggers of your email being sent. With the expression above, once a row checks true to send the email it will always be true each time the process runs - unless you do something to recognize it has already sent the necessary email.

It doesnt work. It send an email on the spot without respecting the Callback time set for it.

Sorry! I reversed the logic. Even after 26 yrs, I still get tripped up on the simple things!@!

the expression should be:

AND([Status] = Callback,
[Callback Date and Time] <= NOW()
)

In this condition, the email is triggered when the information is synced and do not respect the condition to email at the callback date and time set…

is there another way to just send a notification to the user when the callback time is now just to remind him he has a call to do now???

I need more information then. Can you show a screen shot of how and where in your app you are using the expression? Either I am not understanding your usage or there is something else impacting the trigger.

We want to send an email to the [Owner] (our employees who created the form) to remind them to callback his client. Easy as it sounds!
If [Owner] speaks to a client now, and the client asks him to call him back tomorrow. We need an email to remind the [Owner] to callback that client at the time the [Owner] set the callback date and time as per the second image.

So we created a BOT for this as workflows doesnt work anymore. As you can see in the first image, the bot is related to a process and task. We did not touch anything in the process and tasks windows as it is not working with the default content (we will change the default content by an HTML when it will work).

For now, the email is not sent when time comes to maturity to callback the client, the email is sent when we change the datas and save the form.

Please let me know if I was not clear.


I think the Bot picture helps. It is setup as a “DataChange” bot. “DataChange” bots will only trigger on a specific row IF there was some user activity to change data on the row and THEN be considered by the bot for triggering.

For example, let’s say I enter a Potential Leads row and set the Callback Date/Time for tomorrow at 1pm.

With your current bot, this new row would need to be EDITED after 1pm tomorrow for the email to be sent.

Is that your intention - that someone edits the row before triggering and sending the email? Or are you expecting the email to be sent automatically without any user action?

We want the row to be sent automatically without any user action when the date and time meets the date and time he chose.

Ok, that’s what I would expect. A DataChange bot will not serve your needs.

The closest you can get is by using a Scheduled bot. Scheduled bots can run as frequently as Daily at a specific time. Hourly is not supported yet. So, to achieve your goal as closely as possible, you would need a set of Scheduled bots.

Let’s say you wish to check every hour on the hour from 8am until 4pm, for any Callback emails that need to be sent. To do that you would need to create 9 different Scheduled Bots - each running daily and the first running at 8am, second running at 9am, third running at 10am, etc.

Why is the Time expressions available then? What people are using it for then? if we can not trigger anything with it?

There are hundreds of other reasons to have Date/Time columns and functions.

But the ONLY way to run a process automatically is using a Scheduled Bot

Creating the bots described above, while not ideal, will not be as difficult as it seems. Create the first one, copy it eight times and simply change the time it runs.

This will trigger unwanted emails as our phone agents has few calls scheduled per day and per weeks, sometimes per month. If an agent has only 3 calls next month, we can not send him 9 emails per day to remind him of the next months’ calls schedule…!?

You mis-understand. The bot simply checks IF an email needs to be sent. If the condition passes for the row then and only then is the email is generated. So most times, rows will simply fail and no emails are sent.

Another simple example out of the appsheet:
I play the game Clash of clans. When an upgrade finishes, it sends me a notification to let me know.

I can tell you that it is IMPOSSIBLE that you dont have this expression in the conditions.

Unfortunately, that is a wrong assumption. You should understand that AppSheet is a User Action based system. Not much happens unless a User takes some kind of action in the app such as adding a row, editing a row or tapping a button. The ONLY time a process can run WITHOUT a User action is with a Scheduled Bot.

Well, I guess there is one other…Virtual Columns can change values upon a Sync. Automatic syncs can be turned on.

You should put an error to those who requires this feature. “No emails or Notifications triggered with time”. This is important as every app (whatever the industry and market) pushes notifications automatically with a specific time that admin sets for it. This is a huge handicap after setting up a full application on your platform and have this feature not existent at all.
I still can not believe that this is not available to trigger an email automatically with a Time expression as there is a list of more than 40 expressions in it…

Please confirm that you understood what we want to do:

“IF John Bayer spoke to Accounts, Accounts asked John Bayer to call them back tomorrow at 1:00pm. John Bayer should receive an email tomorrow at 1:00pm to notify him he has to call Accounts.”

It’s not that the capability doesn’t exist. It simply exists in a different way than you expected.

And yes, I completely understand the feature. AppSheet is by no means a finished platform and a relatively young platform at that. In the past they enhanced in large part based off of community Feature Requests. It most likely is the case that the feature you desire simply was never requested or at the very least prioritized over other requests.

Understood. Thank you John for all the support you provide to us.

What we want to do is the following example:

IF John Bayer spoke to Accounts, Accounts asked John Bayer to call them back tomorrow at 1:00pm. John Bayer should receive an email tomorrow at 1:00pm to notify him he has to call Accounts.

in other words: We just need a reminder to callback at the specific time

if we speak on the telephone now and I ask you to call me back tomorrow at 8:00am. What would be the condition logic to trigger an email to you to remind you your call tomorrow at 8:00am?

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