Improvements to Automations

[Helen_Zeng]

Hey everyone! I’m Helen, the product manager that looks after our Automations product here at Airtable, and I’m really happy that you all are finally seeing the navigation changes that teams at Airtable have been hard at work on. Alongside these updates, I’m also excited to share a series of improvements that we’ve made to Automations in this new navigation that let you focus on creating and editing automations while being able to reference the data you need and make it easier to change up the steps in your automation.

Specifically, you’ll now be able to:

• See your full list of automations on the left-hand pane, similar to views in the data tab
• Open a table or view that you need to reference without leaving the automations tab
• Drag and drop actions to reorder them or move them across conditional groups
• Duplicate an action to easily reuse the logic

Huge thanks to the community for helping us improve upon this product. We’re always striving to make the product better, so as you start using this new experience so please don’t hesitate to drop any feedback you might have!

These updates will be rolled out to 100% by end of day tomorrow. If you aren’t seeing these changes reflected, please try clearing your cache.

New layout and view into data:

Drag and drop:

Duplicating actions:

[Databaser]

ScottWorld:

One automation improvement that I’d love to see is for automations to automatically turn themselves off if somebody accidentally deletes a field that was acting as one of the triggers for that automation (or if they change the view filter for a view that triggers an automation).

As I just found out myself, despite of being warned by @ScottWorld…, this is a HUGE risk of firing 1 or more automations unwillingly. In my case: having “when record enter view” as a trigger; having a checkbox as the filter to make records enter that view and then change the checkbox to a more dummy proof single select field. Although the checkmarks convert nicely to a “checked” option, KABOOM, filter on view is gone and every record in the base enters the view :expressionless: :man_facepalming: Luckily for me, without big consequenses.

@Helen_Zeng, is that something that makes sense to put on your backlog?

[kuovonne]

Helen_Zeng:

• Open a table or view that you need to reference without leaving the automations tab

Am I experiencing A/B testing, or is this something else?

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In one base, I see this icon which opens the table in a new browser tab.

When I have a lot of screen real-estate, I prefer opening the triggering table in a different browser tab. This gives me full control of changing views, adjusting field visibility and width, etc.

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In another base I see this icon which opens a sliding overlay of the triggering table.

I find the sliding panel confusing. I call it a sliding overlay versus a floating panel, because I can only slide it sideways. I cannot move it up or down; it is attached to the bottom of the screen. I can collapse the panel, but I cannot resize it. The panel seems to behave a lot like a locked view, except there are no frozen columns. I can open the view in a new browser tab.

When I have limited screen real-estate, the sliding overlay is nice. However, I have no control over the view that is chosen. What if the first view in my table doesn’t show the fields or records I need? I still need to open the table in a new browser tab.

[Kamille_Parks]

kuovonne:

However, I have no control over the view that is chosen.

You do if your Automation is set to pull from a particular View. The View box has its own selector. Obviously there are some advantages to using conditions vs a defined view, but this is still an option for many use cases. For people setting up steps based on Condition, putting a toggle/box/option for a specific view to preview would likely be confusing (“why are you asking me for a view, I want to select records by condition”), that selector if present would have to be on the table preview window itself.

An alternate for having a sliding panel is to have the window take up the bottom half or 1/3rd of the center pane (where the automation steps are). That way you’d be able to control its width by collapsing or resizing the List of Automations (left) and the Step Settings (right) panes.

[kuovonne]

Kamille_Parks:

You do if your Automation is set to pull from a particular View.

Yes, but I rarely have an automation pull from a particular view. I feel it is safer to set conditions.

Plus, there is no chance to pick a view for the “Update record” or “Create record” actions.

I don’t want to clutter the interface by having users select a view in these places. I’m just pointing out a usability issue that could use some thought. I think it is a complex issue and don’t want to rush to a solution.

[DavidVM]

A pop up warning would be nice.

“This view/table is used as a trigger in xyz automation. Are you sure you want to do that?”

or

“Sorry, you don’t have permission to make this change. Please speak with the admin/owner of your account.”

[Jean_Francois_B]

Right, there should be a View selector within the overlay panel. The “Open overlay” icon launch the last opened view from the Data panel.

[Helen_Zeng]

You should be able to resize it from the upper right corner! We can think about ways to make that more obvious

[Helen_Zeng]

Thanks for the feedback on this, and it’s something we’re thinking about. Out of curiosity, could you talk about how often and why you might change the view in the panel?

[kuovonne]

Helen_Zeng:

You should be able to resize it from the upper right corner!

Ah yes. Now that you point it out, I can resize from that corner. I am used to resizing things from either the sides or the bottom right corner.

The upper right corner of the panel is already quite busy with the minimize and close icons. When I don’t want to do either of those things, I tend to avoid that corner since I don’t want to accidentally close it.

[Jean_Francois_B]

Thank you. Obviously when the trigger depends on a view, but you don’t need a view selector for that as the overlay icon launch the selected view in the configuration panel.

Then, when I’m building an Automation I always need to check something, like what field I want to edit - faster to open a view than searching into the panel - or with find records depending on a condition, I might want to see why there are no records found and make a quick change, so the records can be found in order to test the automation.

Hope this insight is helpful.

Many thanks for the great job, you and your colleagues are doing at Airtable to improve our bases and building experience.