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Need Help with Automating Personalized Emails for Multiple Students from a Single Form Submission


I work in a school and manage a process where teachers submit a form after grading tests. This form triggers an automated email to the parents. Currently, if multiple students are submitted in the same form, all their names appear in each email sent out. I want to personalize these emails so that each parent receives only their child’s information.

I am considering writing a script that can be triggered by a button. The idea is that when the button is pressed, the records would be split by each student's name, and an automation would then trigger the sending of these personalized emails.

Has anyone implemented something similar or have ideas on how to best approach this? I would greatly appreciate examples of scripts or advice on setting up these automations effectively.

Thank you in advance!

12 replies

You can use a "Find Record" action to look up the field with the list of students.

From there use a "Repeating Action" and use that previous find record action as the list.

It should send out the emails separately but still as one automation run.


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  • May 9, 2024
Sistema_Aotearo wrote:

You can use a "Find Record" action to look up the field with the list of students.

From there use a "Repeating Action" and use that previous find record action as the list.

It should send out the emails separately but still as one automation run.


Maybe there's an issue in my original set up, this is what's happening after adding using repeating action. 

For example, an email intended for the Jones and Johnson families about their respective children's test results is sent as one, addressed to "Mr. and Mrs. Jones Johnson" and includes details for both students.

The goal is for each family to receive a separate email specific to their child.


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Rabbi_Sebbag wrote:

Maybe there's an issue in my original set up, this is what's happening after adding using repeating action. 

For example, an email intended for the Jones and Johnson families about their respective children's test results is sent as one, addressed to "Mr. and Mrs. Jones Johnson" and includes details for both students.

The goal is for each family to receive a separate email specific to their child.


The way the form is set up is for teachers to be able to select multiple students in one go, resulting in many students being in the same record. i need a way to split each record that has multiple students and send each one an individual email


TheTimeSavingCo
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Rabbi_Sebbag wrote:

The way the form is set up is for teachers to be able to select multiple students in one go, resulting in many students being in the same record. i need a way to split each record that has multiple students and send each one an individual email


Your automation should look a little something like this:

With the assumption that you've got a "Students" table that has a "Email" field:

And here's the base so you can check out the set up yourself: Link


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  • May 12, 2024
TheTimeSavingCo wrote:

Your automation should look a little something like this:

With the assumption that you've got a "Students" table that has a "Email" field:

And here's the base so you can check out the set up yourself: Link


Thank you very much for this!

this issue i'm having now is i cant select the field i want and an error message shows up when i hover over it "no valid nested options"


TheTimeSavingCo
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Rabbi_Sebbag wrote:

Thank you very much for this!

this issue i'm having now is i cant select the field i want and an error message shows up when i hover over it "no valid nested options"


Hmm, your setup doesn't look quite right.  Could you provide some screenshots of your tables?  If you could duplicate your base with no records in it and provide a read-only invite link that'd be very helpful!

For what it's worth, when I hit this issue you have I usually end up having to create a text field where I store the data I want to search by and then use that field instead.  I don't think you should be having this issue based on my understanding of your use case though


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TheTimeSavingCo wrote:

Hmm, your setup doesn't look quite right.  Could you provide some screenshots of your tables?  If you could duplicate your base with no records in it and provide a read-only invite link that'd be very helpful!

For what it's worth, when I hit this issue you have I usually end up having to create a text field where I store the data I want to search by and then use that field instead.  I don't think you should be having this issue based on my understanding of your use case though


thank you so much!

here's a link to a read only version of the base. Note that the student info is linked to another base.


TheTimeSavingCo
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Rabbi_Sebbag wrote:

thank you so much!

here's a link to a read only version of the base. Note that the student info is linked to another base.


Thanks for the link!  I took a look at your base setup and I'm not quite sure how this works I'm afraid.  I assumed the workflow was that users would create a new record in "Retake Tests" and then select the students that need to retake the tests by selecting them via the linked field to the "Students" table

However when I looked at the field setup, the linked field called "Students" actually links back to "Retake Tests":


Could you provide some screenshots of how you would expect the data to be set up when the automation triggers?


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TheTimeSavingCo wrote:

Thanks for the link!  I took a look at your base setup and I'm not quite sure how this works I'm afraid.  I assumed the workflow was that users would create a new record in "Retake Tests" and then select the students that need to retake the tests by selecting them via the linked field to the "Students" table

However when I looked at the field setup, the linked field called "Students" actually links back to "Retake Tests":


Could you provide some screenshots of how you would expect the data to be set up when the automation triggers?


I appreciate all the help!

Here’s how I set up the table: teachers have a form view where they submit a form after a test is administered. In the event where the the student who passed the test (multiple selections allowed), id like the same "Success" email sent to those parents. I then check the box "send email," which theoretically should send separate emails to each parent. This is where I’m having the issue.

If a student failed the teacher would indicate, each student separately, which skills they failed and parents would get an email. This part i have figured out.


TheTimeSavingCo
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Rabbi_Sebbag wrote:

I appreciate all the help!

Here’s how I set up the table: teachers have a form view where they submit a form after a test is administered. In the event where the the student who passed the test (multiple selections allowed), id like the same "Success" email sent to those parents. I then check the box "send email," which theoretically should send separate emails to each parent. This is where I’m having the issue.

If a student failed the teacher would indicate, each student separately, which skills they failed and parents would get an email. This part i have figured out.


Yeap that makes sense

When they submit the form, which table does the data go into?  Which field are the teachers using to select the students that need to have their parents emailed?


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  • May 15, 2024
TheTimeSavingCo wrote:

Yeap that makes sense

When they submit the form, which table does the data go into?  Which field are the teachers using to select the students that need to have their parents emailed?


It links to the student name column in the Student Info table 


TheTimeSavingCo
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Rabbi_Sebbag wrote:

It links to the student name column in the Student Info table 


Ah, apologies, for me to help I need to know which table the record appears in when they submit the form, and I also need to know which field the teachers are using in that table to select the students that need to have their parents emailed

I think that I'm not understanding what you're trying to tell me, apologies; perhaps you'd like to create a new post and someone else will be able to assist!


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