Automations are a powerful feature of SeaTable that lets you automate processes. By automating steps, you not only save time, but also minimize human errors when working with data.
Basic information
- Automations are always created individually for a table and a view. Consequently, they work exclusively in the selected table view.
- The two most important components of an automation are the trigger event and the automated action(s).
Trigger events
A so-called trigger is an event that acts as a trigger for the automation. You define this event individually for each automation rule. A trigger can be the addition of entries in a table view or the fulfillment of certain conditions after editing. Likewise, a periodic trigger, i.e. a specific point in time in a defined interval (daily, weekly or monthly), can trigger an automation.
For certain events, such as adding entries, you can also make additional settings. For example, you can specify whether all columns in the table view or only selected columns are to be monitored for the occurrence of the trigger event. If you select isolated columns in this context, the automation will also only be triggered if the event occurs in the selected columns.
In addition, you can narrow down the conditions of the trigger event so that the automation is triggered exclusively when certain data is found in certain columns. For example, you can define exact values that must be present in a selected column after an entry is added or changed for the automation to fire.
You can learn everything else in the article Automation Triggers.
Automated actions
Automated actions are those actions that are triggered by the occurrence of the specified trigger event. Automated actions are therefore always a sequence of trigger events and occur only when those events occur under the specified conditions.
Depending on the selected event, you can choose between different actions, such as sending an e-mail or notification to one or more users or adding, changing or locking an entry.
For certain actions, you can also add further Settings to make changes to the table. For example, for adding and changing an entry, you can specify which value is newly added in which column of the table or to which value you want to change an already existing value as soon as a certain case occurs.
If you want to learn more about automated actions, read the article Automation Actions.
How automation works
The How automation works is explained in more detail below using an example.
You could use the sample table shown in the image in a company's HR department to record, in addition to the names of employees, their employment status and the status of their salary payments.
For the table view, you then create an automation that is to automate a work step. Specifically, you want to automate that in case of termination of an employee (and the associated change of the entry in the Employment Status column from "employed" to "terminated") the entry in the Salary Payment column is adjusted from "active" to "discontinued".
To automate this process step, first define the event "Entry meets certain conditions after change" as a trigger. You specify the "Employment status" column as the column to be checked. As a concrete condition for triggering the automation, you define that the entry in the corresponding column must be changed to "terminated".
As an automated action, you then select the Edit entry option. Specifically, after the trigger event has been triggered, the entry in the "Salary payment" column is to be changed from "active" to "set".
After you have created the automation, the manually made change in the "Employment status" column will automatically result in the desired adjustment of the entry in the "Salary payment" column.
