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In this section you will learn about Automations & Workflow |
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The Automation and the Workflows in their essence are the same product with the biggest difference being the types of triggers (Schedules, data chance, etc vs a button click) and the place from which they're being set up
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There are two places to initiate the creation of an Automation or a Workflow: the Automation tab (1):
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Which you can use to create automation, triggered by time intervals, schedules, data change, webhooks, or a manual run:
And the workflow builder (2), that is used solely for workflows, and can be set only from the action in the UI:
{% hint style="warning" %} Automations (workflow builder) have just been launched. We've tried and tested it, but if you have any suggestions or issues with automation, please let us know in the chat! {% endhint %}
Automations allow you to create a sequence (or workflow) of events that are executed based on a specific trigger. Workflows consist of triggers and steps.
Here's an example of a workflow that is triggered when a button is clicked and then it either creates a record in Airtable or shows a notification based on whether the "Yes/No" condition is met.
The workflow builder consists of several key parts:
(1) Triggers determine when (on what condition) the workflow will run. For example, this might be a button click or a row click in a table.
(2) Steps consist of actions, which run sequentially when a workflow is triggered, and rules, which allow you to branch the sequence based on certain conditions. An example of an action would be "Updating a record in Airtable" and an example of a rule could be "If condition" that will divide a workflow into two branches.
(3) You can add new steps before or after any step, just click the "+" icon
(4) Workflow result closes the sequence and can be used to configure the workflow outputs
(5) The configuration tab that opens up when you select a trigger or a step
For the most part, you'll need a single action, such as changing a status or making a refund. However, in specific cases, you'll need a whole sequence of actions to be executed, often involving conditional logic.
Typical tasks for workflows might include:
- Changing a user's status and sending a notification via Sendgrid
- Showing an error notification and sending a notification with details in Slack
- Getting to a specific page after submitting a form and downloading an attachment
- Making a refund via Stripe and: a) for transactions marked as "wrong item", create a new record in the "Coupons" Firebase collection and notify a manager via Slack b) for the rest change the status in the "Customers" collection
Learn how to build and test automation with dedicated sections:
{% content-ref url="page-1.md" %} page-1.md {% endcontent-ref %}
{% content-ref url="steps/" %} steps {% endcontent-ref %}
{% content-ref url="inputs-outputs-parameters.md" %} inputs-outputs-parameters.md {% endcontent-ref %}
{% content-ref url="test-and-debug.md" %} test-and-debug.md {% endcontent-ref %}
Also, check the sections that are not part of the workflow builder but can help you automate even more:
Approval workflow is a built-in functionality that for any chosen action, allows to inject the intermediate step of approval before the action is executed. You can assign different people as the approval owners - they'll receive approval requests in their feed.
Learn more here:
{% content-ref url="task-approval.md" %} task-approval.md {% endcontent-ref %}
In Jet, you can choose different secondary actions that are being executed depending on whether the initial action execution was successful or not.
Learn more here:
{% content-ref url="actions-workflow.md" %} actions-workflow.md {% endcontent-ref %}
This workflow node will help you to go through a list of items to make actions individually.
{% content-ref url="iterators.md" %} iterators.md {% endcontent-ref %}
Create a sequence of actions in Zapier or Make (formerly Intergomat) of any complexity using triggers within Jet.
Learn more here:
{% content-ref url="action-sequences.md" %} action-sequences.md {% endcontent-ref %}