Forum Discussion
MarkShnier__You
Qrew Legend
OK, I finally understand the question.
The references to APIs are a red herring.This kind of APIs are used for a user to click to cause an edit. Nothing to do with your use case.
Also, there is in fact a user causing a record to be edited to trigger a process, so these summary fields are not in fact changing due to the passage of time. They are changing because a User approved a record and hence edited a record.
So we do in fact have a clear trigger event. The event is an Approval Level 1 record being approved.
Notifications to the Approval Level 2 recipients can be done using an Automation.
We need to have a summary field of the [# of Level 2 Approvers already notified]. That will be the summary count of the # of Level 2 approvals where the [Level 2 Approver date/time Notified] is still blank. This date/time field is the one that will be updated by the Automation to trigger the Notification.
Let's make sure that we have a formula date/time field called [Current Date/time] with a formula of Now() on the Approval records. Also we will need to have the lookup of that parent field for [Ready to Notify Level 2 Approvers].
The Automation will Trigger when a Level 1 Approval is done, subject to the filter that [Ready to Notify Level 2 Approvers] is checked and [# of Level 2 Approvers already notified] =0. Presumably, this would then trigger when the last of the approval level one approvals was done.
The Action once triggered will be to Modify Records in the Approvals table , subject to the filter that they have the same [Related Proposal] as the trigger record.
I believe that the modify records action will be done slow enough that it will be seen as a single record notification update for Notifications. If you get this working but the Notification only fires a multi record change notification which would not be suitable for your needs, let me know and we will just daisy chain one automation to call the next and that will slow it down enough to make individual record change notifications.
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Mark Shnier (YQC)
Quick Base Solution Provider
Your Quick Base Coach
http://QuickBaseCoach.com
mark.shnier@gmail.com
------------------------------
The references to APIs are a red herring.This kind of APIs are used for a user to click to cause an edit. Nothing to do with your use case.
Also, there is in fact a user causing a record to be edited to trigger a process, so these summary fields are not in fact changing due to the passage of time. They are changing because a User approved a record and hence edited a record.
So we do in fact have a clear trigger event. The event is an Approval Level 1 record being approved.
Notifications to the Approval Level 2 recipients can be done using an Automation.
We need to have a summary field of the [# of Level 2 Approvers already notified]. That will be the summary count of the # of Level 2 approvals where the [Level 2 Approver date/time Notified] is still blank. This date/time field is the one that will be updated by the Automation to trigger the Notification.
Let's make sure that we have a formula date/time field called [Current Date/time] with a formula of Now() on the Approval records. Also we will need to have the lookup of that parent field for [Ready to Notify Level 2 Approvers].
The Automation will Trigger when a Level 1 Approval is done, subject to the filter that [Ready to Notify Level 2 Approvers] is checked and [# of Level 2 Approvers already notified] =0. Presumably, this would then trigger when the last of the approval level one approvals was done.
The Action once triggered will be to Modify Records in the Approvals table , subject to the filter that they have the same [Related Proposal] as the trigger record.
I believe that the modify records action will be done slow enough that it will be seen as a single record notification update for Notifications. If you get this working but the Notification only fires a multi record change notification which would not be suitable for your needs, let me know and we will just daisy chain one automation to call the next and that will slow it down enough to make individual record change notifications.
------------------------------
Mark Shnier (YQC)
Quick Base Solution Provider
Your Quick Base Coach
http://QuickBaseCoach.com
mark.shnier@gmail.com
------------------------------
PaulStreit
4 years agoQrew Member
Good point regarding the approval response as a trigger. This may work. I’ll mess with it and report back. Might be a few days.
Thanks
Paul
Thanks
Paul
- MarkShnier__You4 years agoQrew LegendDid you set up a separate Automation to listen for the change in the Requested Date/Time and then update the Actually Date/Time?
When I use the word daisy chain I mean that one Automation triggers a separate automation, I am not talking about just an extra action step in an existing automation.
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Mark Shnier (YQC)
Quick Base Solution Provider
Your Quick Base Coach
http://QuickBaseCoach.com
mark.shnier@gmail.com
------------------------------ - PaulStreit4 years agoQrew MemberYep, separate automation. I understood that you didn’t mean multiple actions in the same automation.
I’m going to try to use a pipeline to trigger the notifications instead of automations. I’m thinking that maybe I can design the pipeline to search for a set of records that meet filter criteria for sending out notifications, then step through each record to set the trigger field for the notification. I’m hoping that the sequential flow in the pipeline will force QB to recognize the notifications as single rather than multi. Don’t know if this will work, but worth at least looking at. I’ll report back.
Thanks
Paul - MarkShnier__You4 years agoQrew LegendI have definitely got it to work with Automations. But it can work with Pipelines too.
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Mark Shnier (YQC)
Quick Base Solution Provider
Your Quick Base Coach
http://QuickBaseCoach.com
mark.shnier@gmail.com
------------------------------ - PaulStreit4 years agoQrew MemberMark,
The pipeline worked great. It appears the sequential operation of the For…Each loop on the search results allows for each record to be triggered slowly enough that QB treats it as a single notification.
Thanks for your help, your suggestion to check for QB treating the email as a multi-notification pointed me to root cause. I’m not clear why the automation daisy chain didn’t work, but since the pipeline works I’ll go with that.
Thanks!
Paul