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Scheduled automation but on condition

  • July 20, 2021
  • 9 replies
  • 166 views
Burner
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Hi,

I’ve set up a scheduled automation to send me an email reminder everyday for open tickets that I need to resolve. The thing is that I’d like to configure this automation to only be triggered if there are open tickets in the first place, i.e. if the count of open tickets > 0 or if one of the views in my table “Open tickets” has any records in it. I don’t want to keep receiving an email daily that says “You have 0 open tickets”.

How can I set the Scheduled automation to only run based on a condition? Is this even possible?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Best answer by Cameron_Kaiser

Awful way of doing it, but

Schedule Automation: Set field X “On” at 5pm.
Create a formula Y that says “Go” if (Field X == “On” and Tickets > 0)
Logic Automation: When Record Starts Matching Conditions (Y == “Go”), Send email
Schedule Automation: Set field X “Off” at 6pm.

This basically just uses the Scheduler as a primer for a once a day notification. The second scheduled automation resets your setup so that the records can “Start matching conditions” again the next day. It requires 3 automations per day, rather than 1 if Airtable allowed simpler logic.

A more frugal application would be the following formula field and Automation:

If(And(Value(Datetime_Format(Now(), “H”)) > 17, Value(Datetime_Format(Now(), “H”)) < 18, Tickets>0), “Go”, “No”)
Automation: When Record Starts Matching Conditions (Formula == “Go”), Send Email.

The reason I did not lead with this implementation is because the “Now()” feature is unreliable and unpredictable. You will get an email at some point between 5:00 and 6:00, but only the Airtable gods know exactly when.

9 replies

ScottWorld
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  • ScottWorld
  • Genius
  • July 20, 2021

Sadly, Airtable doesn’t let you do this unless you write your own custom JavaScript to handle this. Alternatively, you can turn to an external automation platform like Zapier or Integromat to do this. I prefer Integromat because it is more powerful & more visual & more affordable than Zapier.

Burner
kuovonne
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  • kuovonne
  • Brainy
  • July 20, 2021

You cannot combine a condition and a schedule as triggers in the same automation. An automation also cannot contain branching logic to sometimes send an email and sometimes not.

I typically handle this situation for my clients with an “email table” and two automations. The scheduled automation runs a script to see if there is data to warrant sending the email. If an email should be sent, the script creates a record in the “email table”. A second automation actually sends the email when the new record is created.

Burner
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  • Burner
  • Author
  • Known Participant
  • July 20, 2021

You cannot combine a condition and a schedule as triggers in the same automation. An automation also cannot contain branching logic to sometimes send an email and sometimes not.

I typically handle this situation for my clients with an “email table” and two automations. The scheduled automation runs a script to see if there is data to warrant sending the email. If an email should be sent, the script creates a record in the “email table”. A second automation actually sends the email when the new record is created.


Thank you. That makes sense. I’m not well-versed with scripts in Airtable so that may be something I’ll need to learn about before I can make this to work the way I want it to. Thanks once again for the suggestion.

Burner
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  • Burner
  • Author
  • Known Participant
  • July 20, 2021

Sadly, Airtable doesn’t let you do this unless you write your own custom JavaScript to handle this. Alternatively, you can turn to an external automation platform like Zapier or Integromat to do this. I prefer Integromat because it is more powerful & more visual & more affordable than Zapier.


Thanks, Scott. I prefer Integromat too for the same reasons. I guess that’s the route I’ll take for this one. Thanks once again for the quick response.

kuovonne
C
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Awful way of doing it, but

Schedule Automation: Set field X “On” at 5pm.
Create a formula Y that says “Go” if (Field X == “On” and Tickets > 0)
Logic Automation: When Record Starts Matching Conditions (Y == “Go”), Send email
Schedule Automation: Set field X “Off” at 6pm.

This basically just uses the Scheduler as a primer for a once a day notification. The second scheduled automation resets your setup so that the records can “Start matching conditions” again the next day. It requires 3 automations per day, rather than 1 if Airtable allowed simpler logic.

A more frugal application would be the following formula field and Automation:

If(And(Value(Datetime_Format(Now(), “H”)) > 17, Value(Datetime_Format(Now(), “H”)) < 18, Tickets>0), “Go”, “No”)
Automation: When Record Starts Matching Conditions (Formula == “Go”), Send Email.

The reason I did not lead with this implementation is because the “Now()” feature is unreliable and unpredictable. You will get an email at some point between 5:00 and 6:00, but only the Airtable gods know exactly when.

Burner
ScottWorld
Databaser
Burner
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  • Burner
  • Author
  • Known Participant
  • July 21, 2021

Awful way of doing it, but

Schedule Automation: Set field X “On” at 5pm.
Create a formula Y that says “Go” if (Field X == “On” and Tickets > 0)
Logic Automation: When Record Starts Matching Conditions (Y == “Go”), Send email
Schedule Automation: Set field X “Off” at 6pm.

This basically just uses the Scheduler as a primer for a once a day notification. The second scheduled automation resets your setup so that the records can “Start matching conditions” again the next day. It requires 3 automations per day, rather than 1 if Airtable allowed simpler logic.

A more frugal application would be the following formula field and Automation:

If(And(Value(Datetime_Format(Now(), “H”)) > 17, Value(Datetime_Format(Now(), “H”)) < 18, Tickets>0), “Go”, “No”)
Automation: When Record Starts Matching Conditions (Formula == “Go”), Send Email.

The reason I did not lead with this implementation is because the “Now()” feature is unreliable and unpredictable. You will get an email at some point between 5:00 and 6:00, but only the Airtable gods know exactly when.


Thanks Cameron. I agree this is pretty convoluted, but nonetheless, a very clever workaround. Thanks a bunch for this response. Really appreciate it.

kuovonne
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  • kuovonne
  • Brainy
  • July 21, 2021

Awful way of doing it, but

Schedule Automation: Set field X “On” at 5pm.
Create a formula Y that says “Go” if (Field X == “On” and Tickets > 0)
Logic Automation: When Record Starts Matching Conditions (Y == “Go”), Send email
Schedule Automation: Set field X “Off” at 6pm.

This basically just uses the Scheduler as a primer for a once a day notification. The second scheduled automation resets your setup so that the records can “Start matching conditions” again the next day. It requires 3 automations per day, rather than 1 if Airtable allowed simpler logic.

A more frugal application would be the following formula field and Automation:

If(And(Value(Datetime_Format(Now(), “H”)) > 17, Value(Datetime_Format(Now(), “H”)) < 18, Tickets>0), “Go”, “No”)
Automation: When Record Starts Matching Conditions (Formula == “Go”), Send Email.

The reason I did not lead with this implementation is because the “Now()” feature is unreliable and unpredictable. You will get an email at some point between 5:00 and 6:00, but only the Airtable gods know exactly when.


Can you clarify how you pick the record for which you set field X to “On” at 5pm?

C
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Can you clarify how you pick the record for which you set field X to “On” at 5pm?


I assume Burner is using a universally linked record (all records link to one in another table) to provide a roll-up of the Tickets, in which case he can simply write in the record ID of that record into the Automation. Were someone to apply this feature to multiple records (resulting in multiple emails), I would recommend the second feature, as that obviates the hassle of finding/getting records.

J
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  • Jordan_Scott1
  • Retired Employee
  • January 19, 2022

Hi @Burner I hope you’re well! I wanted to follow up on this thread and let you know that as of today, conditional automations are now available in Airtable and more information can be found here. I hope this is helpful for your use case!

Burner
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