Workflow Preview

[Aaron_Moolb]

I think it would be awesome to have a workflow preview action. I imagine this action would generate the type of workflow you set (like PDF), then displays it in the app with options to download, share, print, email, save, etc.
What do you think?

[MultiTech]

You can accomplish this, it’s just not as straight forward as flipping a switch.

You can create files using workflows, and save those files inside your associated file source. (I’ll stick with Google Drive for this answer.)

Then inside your app, you can use the “File” column type and insert the relative file path for that file (that was just saved inside your Gdrive) into a record - which you can then click on in the app and open that file.

How To...

You need the following elements to make this work:

1. An action to write the filepath into the file column
2. A workflow to make the file and save it in your drive
   • which contains a second step of enacting that first action.

Save File Archiving | AppSheet Help Center

Creating and Saving a File from a Bot, Workflow Rule or Scheduled Report | AppSheet Help Center

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But I think this will be fulfilled when they new PDF creation facility is made public.

Try the New PDF Creation Facility Announcements

AppSheet allows you to include PDF attachments via a Workflow or Report Email action. It also allows you to archive PDF files via a Workflow or Report SaveFile action. PDF attachments and files are created as follows: You normally begin by creating a Google Doc or Microsoft Word doc template file. When the Email or SaveFile Workflow or Report runs, it reads the Google Doc or Microsoft Word doc template file in HTML format. It replaces any “variables” you have included in your template file wi…

[GreenFlux]

Aaron_Moolb:

I think it would be awesome to have a workflow preview action. I imagine this action would generate the type of workflow you set (like PDF), then displays it in the app with options to download, share, print, email, save, etc.
What do you think?

Yes, I agree. This would be very helpful from the developer side, and add to the UI/UX.

I’m hoping the iframe view will support this once it’s released. Seems like it could be added as part of the iframe view that’s already being developed, instead of it’s own feature.

iFrame UX? Feature Requests

I had a similar idea for embedding a page that is generated from an HTML template. Instead of the GDoc template generating an HTML email, it could be used as the template for viewing a certain row inside an iframe. Then we could preview email templates/attachments before sending them! It would be awesome if the exact same DocId (template) could be used for an email/attachment, or an iframe view for that row. @Arthur_Rallu, are there any plans for AppSheet to be able to generate the iframe c…

[Aaron_Moolb]

Good suggestion and I do this in one of my apps. I still think it would be cool if we can “preview” the workflow before it writes and file path or archives/saves anything.
I imagine it working like a print preview. You can see what the page will look like before it actually prints.
If we stick with the printer analogy, your suggestion (although a great one which I use in other apps) will print the paper and then you look at the paper.

I am not really looking for a solution here, just thought it would be a cool idea.