Using a button to trigger Process

[Thilina]

So my requirement first, I have email Processes triggered on a schedule (once a month) but I also need to trigger these Processes via a button press.

After bots were introduced I can’t find the option to trigger then manually, I remember you could trigger workflows(Old) with an action earlier.

My Question: How do I put an action to trigger my email processes manually on press?

My current workaround: I made a new column (Y/N) with reset on edit ticked and made it so that the processes trigger when this column’s value is Y, this works except for the issue of RESETING. If the action is pressed twice without any edits happening (Say Process is triggered but since there is no response the first time and it needs to be triggered again) it will not work as the column already has Y stored and it will not trigger the processes.

is there any way to resolve my reset issue (So as soon as the process is triggered and the app syncs for the column to be reset)
OR
is there an entirely proper way to trigger processes using an action so I dont need this workaround?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanx

[Marc_Dillon]

Thilina:

I have email Processes triggered on a schedule (once a month) but I also need to trigger these Processes via a button press.

This is a great situation to show off one of the benefits to switching from Workflow/Reports over to the new Automation Bots. Here you’ll need to create a new Bot, with a new Event, but then you’ll be able to re-use the exact same Process-Step-Task sequence that you’ve already built!

Thilina:

I remember you could trigger workflows(Old) with an action earlier.

This is not quite accurate.

Workflows/Reports/Bots trigger off of 1 of 2 things:

1. Schedule
2. Data change

Action buttons can cause data changes, which when set up well, will trigger the Workflow/Bot. The trick is to set up the data change in a smart way.

My standard way is to always have a “trigger” column in every table that will require a Workflow/Bot. To trigger the automation, I use an Action button to set this “trigger” column to the value of UTCNOW(). Then your condition for the Workflow/Bot-Event will be:

AND(
  ISNOTBLANK( [trigger] ),
  [_THISROW_BEFORE].[trigger] <> [_THISROW_AFTER].[trigger]
)

[Thilina]

Marc_Dillon:

My standard way is to always have a “trigger” column in every table that will require a Workflow/Bot. To trigger the automation, I use an Action button to set this “trigger” column to the value of UTCNOW() . Then your condition for the Workflow/Bot-Event will be:

Ok so I did not completely understand you here, so a couple of things to clarify

1. I need to set change my trigger event from (check if column I made for the button is TRUE) to

Marc_Dillon:

AND(
  ISNOTBLANK( [trigger] ),
  [_THISROW_BEFORE].[trigger] <> [_THISROW_AFTER].[trigger]
)

This?
2.How is the column resetting? So action can be reused to trigger again WITHOUT any edits happening to the row

Thanx in advance

EDIT 1: After studying this further I understood how this works, there is not reset required. Thank you, I’m relatively new with only a couple of apps under my belt so most things I try on appsheets is a first

[zchichak]

Marc_Dillon:

AND(
  ISNOTBLANK( [trigger] ),
  [_THISROW_BEFORE].[trigger] <> [_THISROW_AFTER].[trigger]
)

I did something similar, but I too wanted the ability to generate multiple reports. Change the field to a numeric value and have the action add a count to the column each time the button in clicked. You can then create a condition that checks for changes to that column. I had the initial column value start at one, for display reasons on the UX that is why it also ensures the value is greater than 1.

AND([_THISROW_BEFORE].[Export SnapShot of Current Data] + 1 = [_THISROW_AFTER].[Export SnapShot of Current Data],
[_THISROW_AFTER].[Export SnapShot of Current Data] > 1)

[ed_day]

Marc_Dillon this is really helpful, but it is not working for me. When I click on the action button the app asks me to refresh and I do and data changes in my Google Sheet but the report doesn’t run. Any pointers? It looks like [_THISROW_BEFORE].[trigger] and[_THISROW_AFTER].[trigger] are always the same.

[Dario]

Just want to thank you for this, fantastic little nugget of trigger based automation.