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Automation Question? I am trying to create a trigger...running into a snag

Topic Labels: Dates & Timezones
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Alex_Xu
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

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I want to be able create an automation where when the “Scheduled Pick Up” field is input with a date then it would auto create in the Table section for a scheduled event to show?

Might be a calendar interaction? Some guidance would be appreciated.

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6 Replies 6

Welcome to the community, @Alex_Xu! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes: I’m not sure that I clearly understand your situation. What I’m getting so far is that you want to automatically calculate a date based on other settings for a particular record (most likely one or more other dates). Is that correct? If so, then an automation isn’t necessary. All you need is a formula to set the scheduled pickup date X number of days/weeks before another date. Does that sound like it would meet your needs?

Alex_Xu
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Thank you!! My question is…when we put a “date” we want to trigger a creation of the “meeting” set in the calendar. The screenshots above are just an example

Alex_Xu
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

@Justin_Barrett

Using the example above. The first screenshot is a customer record. When we put a scheduled pick up date we want a “meeting” or “event” to generate so when we look at the calendar portion it will coorelate to that customer record.

Does that make sense?

Yes, that makes sense (sorry for the delay; I’ve had to cut way back on my time in here, plus I took the weekend off).

That could be done via an automation if your base is in a Pro-plan workspace or higher. This would need to be triggered by a record entering a view. However, if the view filter is simply looking for records that have a date, it might trigger the moment you begin editing the date, which would be bad. There needs to be a delay of some kind set up so that it triggers a few minutes after the date has been edited. I haven’t tested this setup specifically, but it’s a variation of a setup that I have tested, so I’m confident that it will work.

Add a Last updated time field named something like {Pickup Updated} that only tracks changes to that {Scheduled Pick Up} date field. Add a formula field named {Pickup Update Delay} that takes the date from the Last updated time field and adds 5 minutes to it. Add another formula field named {Pickup Trigger} that compares that delayed time against NOW(), and outputs a 1 when NOW() is later.

Make a new view that only shows records where that formula outputs a 1, and use that to trigger an automation. In theory, this will trigger the automation no sooner than 5 minutes after that {Scheduled Pick Up} date is edited. The automation will create a new record on your calendar table, linking to the triggering customer’s record via its ID (pulled from the trigger step) and copying the date you chose.

I assume after I create a Trigger, the “Action” would be running a script with the above logic?

This could be done via a script, but could also be done with other actions:

  • Create record action to make the new record on the calendar table
  • Update record action to update this new record to 1) add a link to the triggering record and 2) insert the selected date. Both of those data items—the triggering record ID and the selected date—should be available from the trigger step.