Workflow trigger / report scheduled - not working

PG_MASS · 02-02-2021 04:36 AM

Hello All,

I’m quite new with Appsheet. The potential of it is just amazing! I’ve created an app for my personal use. It’s based on a gsheet file

Nevertheless, i’m facing issues to trigger notification (email,app, …), I’ve tried 2 ways and I can’t make it work.
The purpose of the trigger is to inform me when it’s time to prepare an order, so i’ve in my “commande_notif” a column called “Notification prep” where is calculated =If (order_date=Today(), “YES”, “NO”)

TRY 1: with workflow: I’ve created a workflow when i’ve a changed in on of my table.
The workflow is supposed to send me an email when there’s a change and when “Notification prep” = “YES” . When i click on “test” it works but nothing happen in the “real life”.
I am wondering if the workflow is able to manage changes in a table when the app is not launch ?

TRY #2: using “Reports”
Same: when i run it works and i receive the email notification but when i do the schedule, nothing happens…

Can someone had the same issue ?
Any idea how i could fix it ?

Thanks for your great support and help

PG

PG_MASS

Hello All,
Any idea why i’m facing those issues ?

Thanks

Rafael_ANEIC-PY

Hello @PG_MASS , regarding the workflow issue, bear in mind the condition for running the workflow is merely a complement, it doesn’t trigger the workflow on it’s own, it just filters when it is allowed to keep running after it is triggered by your update event configuration.

With that said, how is your [Notification Prep] column built? is it a virtual or a standard column? because standard columns won’t recalculate automatically on their own, so the only way that workflow is going to run is if the change that triggered it also set the [Notification Prep] column to “Yes”, or if it was already a “Yes” before the change.

The same applies to reports, workflows and reports are quite similar.

EDIT: Also there’s some issues currently with the “test” function of workflows, try to trigger it from within your app and check the log afterwards.

EDIT 2: “Afterwards” means 5 to 10 minutes, there’s some delay hehe.

PG_MASS

Hi @Rafael_ANEIC-PY ,
Thanks for your prompt reply!
I was thinking about “workflow” not being the right approach as i don’t have any interaction within the app to change the status of my column [Notification prep]. Maybe a report scheduled daily could be the solution (?)

Before to go futher, let me briefly explain you what i’m trying to achieve:
I’ve got some order with future shipping date. the intent is to receive a notification (email, notif, whatever) which will remember me that today i’ve to prepare order 123.

About my colunm [notification prep]: it’s a column from my gsheet which is based on a formula ( if(“Shipping date” -1 = today(), “YES”,“NO”). I though i could use this as a trigger and anytime i’ve got a record with “YES”, it would trigger an App notif / email to me.

again, when i run the “Test” it works but neither the workflow, neither the report are working by itself

Thanks for your precious help

Rafael_ANEIC-PY

Yes, I believe a report would be optimal for your use case.

I see, the thing with sheet formulas is that they don’t update automatically on the app either, I suggest you get rid of that column and create a virtual column in your table, the formula would be:

IF([Shipping date]=TODAY(),“Yes”,“No”)

But even virtual columns require you to sync in order for them to recalculate, so you would have to open and sync the app at least once everyday before your report triggers in order to get the desired behaviour.

I can’t think of a way of automatically recalculating a column without any user intervention at all, but someone else might.

PG_MASS

Thanks @Rafael_ANEIC-PY , much appreciate it
I’m wondering if it’s not a “plan” issue (i’m a free user) because even a simple report schedule don’t work (?)

Rafael_ANEIC-PY

@PG_MASS I just realized you don’t need that virtual column at all, you only need to run the expression I gave you in your report condition.

Just watch out for date formats.

Yes, you’re correct, i just checked the doc for reports:

Hmm, we’ll have to come up with an alternative method then.

PG_MASS

At least i’m not crazy!!!

I would have loved to get a notification on my phone any time i’ve to prepare orders but as this is for internal use,worst case i could find a workaround within my gsheet.

Question: do you think a worflow could work if i open the app at least one a day ?

thanks

PG

Rafael_ANEIC-PY

Well, you could probably set up automatic email reminders in your sheet using google apps scripts.

If you want to keep this within appsheet, you could run the setup we talked about inside a workflow, but you would need to trigger it using an action that changes a column value for all rows of the table that contains the dates.

For that, you would need an action (lets call it Action 1) that “set the value of some columns in this row” , any column or value would do, but it’s common practice to have a “Trigger” column for running workflows.

Then, you should create an action that runs on a set of rows, which of course are the ones that you’d like to be reminded about eventually, and the action to run would be Action 1.

After that, your workflow will check all the rows that had a value changed, and would apply it’s condition to decide on which one it should run, and with that you would get your notifications or emails, but since you’re in the app already to run this thing, you might as well just setup a slice with everything that’s due today and take it from there haha

PG_MASS

Many Thanks @Rafael_ANEIC-PY , I’ll see what i can do it!