How can a batch action lead to single file send?

[RedVox]

What is best design for starting with a batch action and resulting in a single file send?

I've taken many, many kicks at this can and I still seem to run into problems.  Ultimately, I'm trying to give my users a way of selecting multiple records, click a button and get a file sent to them.   The file should contain content from the selected rows, but that I'm good with that part.  My problem seems to be that I cannot figure out any combination actions and bots that start as a batch selection and yet end in a single result.  Every attempt seems to end up with one file being sent per row selected.   I could just ask the bot to wait 5 minutes after first noticing a table add/update but that seems really inelegant and no shorter delay is possible.  

What is best design for starting with a batch action and resulting in a single file send?

[SkrOYC]

Sample App: Invoicing and Employee expenses, Repor... - Google Cloud Community

[RedVox]

This looks like a very cool app, but I don't see any view where a custom action is available after selecting multiple items, which is kinda the starting point to my problem.  Can you steer me a little more?

[SkrOYC]

Maybe you are looking at the solution from the wrong angle.

You want multiple records to be added to a single report at will.
That's exactly what the app does via filters.

If you already have a bot that listens to changes on a certain field for each of the records, this is not usable for multiple ones, you need another bot. So you won't need to fire any action, you need another table

[RedVox]

I see.  Thanks SyrOYC.  You prompted me to give this approach of creating a separate table and an emumlist of refs one more shot.  I had tried and abandoned it a few times in the past.  I think there's something about the fact that my main tables are stored in. MySQL which brought an added layer of complexity to the problem.  Anyways, I worked out those issues, so thanks!   I think I will write a little post about what I learned so others might avoid the minefields.