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Automatically check a box after a certain amount of time?

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CMH
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

We have an “Archive” check box field that, when checked, removes the record from all views except for one view (called the Archive view). This keeps our views clean and also allows us to have a historical record of everything we’re done working on.

Problem is, collaborators have to remember to check that box.

Is there any way to automate this process? Ideally, the box would automatically check if it has been say, 3 days since the date in a date field.

Thanks in advance for any help.

4 Replies 4

If your need for filtering them into an archive is entirely based on relative dates, then why not just use relative dates as your filters for all your views (working vs archive) instead of the checkbox?

That’s a good idea, thank you.

The problem in our case, is we need to see everything that is a work in progress, too. The date field I would go off of is “Publish Date.” Sometimes people don’t know when a record will be published until the day it is published. But if they leave the “Publish Date” field blank, it won’t appear in their view when filtered by “‘Publish Date’” is before one week ago." Hope that makes sense. Using “or Publish Date is blank” doesn’t help, because it overrides our first filter (filter where Show is [specific show]), and people would be seeing records that don’t pertain to them.

CMH
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

For more info, we also have a “Status” field, where “Published” is one of the options. However, we don’t want it to automatically disappear when it has been published, as it is useful to see things recently published on the view too. It’s kind of like a to-do list, where it’s important to see what you’ve recently finished. This is why I was looking for it to disappear from the view after a few days to a week.

Ok, so here’s what I’m understanding - “Published” is the final status of a record, and when it is marked with the status of “Published” it is also marked with the date it was published in a Date field. Often that “Publish Date” field is filled in before the actual day of publishing, but not always.

Ultimately, you want records to archive themselves a few weeks after they’ve been marked as “Published”.

How about this - make a formula field called “Archive Date”. Give it this formula:

IF(
  {Status} = "Published",
  DATEADD(
    {Publish Date},
    14,
    'days'
  )
)

(fill in your actual field names and desired interval)

You can hide this field, but still filter on it in all your working views:
And - {Archive Date} - is after - today

And then your Archive view will filter to show only archived records:
Where - {Archive Date} - is on or before - today

Edit - now I’m thinking about it a bit more, I’m not sure how the filter in your working views would respond if that field were blank - you might need some placeholder value way off in the future as the third option in the conditional in case the first part of the conditional evaluated false, instead of leaving it blank.