Automation Bot Fails to Process <<Start>> Expression in PDF Template

[Diego04]

Hello, I have an Automation Bot that is triggered by new rows in my 'Reportes' table. The bot has a step to create a PDF from a Google Docs template.

The bot runs successfully according to the Audit History, but the generated PDF body is always empty because the <<Start>> expression is not being processed. The PDF only shows data from the parent 'Reportes' row.

We have already debugged and verified the following:

• The data structure in Google Sheets is correct.

• The Ref relationships, Keys, and Labels are correct.

• We have completely revoked and re-granted all account permissions, including Google Drive access.

• We have tried multiple <<Start>> formulas, including SELECT() with a DATE() condition, and also a direct reference to a Virtual Column [ArticulosDelReporte].

• The virtual column [ArticulosDelReporte] correctly shows a list of IDs when displayed in the app's detail view.

This seems to be a platform bug. My App ID is 3e5ef532-2ca9-45f4-a3e5-f24d82e14e0e.

My template <<Start>> expression is currently: <<Start: [ArticulosDelReporte]>>

Please advise. Thank you.

[Suvrutt_Gurjar]

It sounds that you are facing an issue described in the section "Send an email only after adding a parent record and all of its children" described in the article referred below. If so, please take the solution mention in the relevant section of the article.

Example automations - AppSheet Help

[scott192]

Can you please verify your [ArticulosDelReporte] field on your 'Reportes' table?

The field should be an ENUMLIST of Type = Ref and the Ref should be the correct Table (or Slice) that holds the child records of your 'Reportes' table.

Usually, Appsheet creates fields for you and names them [Related ArticulosDelReportes] if it can see a link from your child table back to your parent table.  But, in the cases where you are making the link manually Appsheet may mess up the table the ENUMLIST of Refs that is being pointed to.

Another thing to check is the order of how items are added to your database.  You said that the PDF generator bot runs when a new record is added to your 'Reportes' table.  However it seems that you expect there to be child records in your report also?  When did these child records get created?  Am I right to assume that you have a Form to add new records to your 'Reportes' table and that within this form you have added a subform to add the child rows at the same time?  If this is the case then @Suvrutt_Gurjar 's reply is where you should be researching.