Workflow: Actions

Contents

Actions are exactly what their name suggests, a way to define something you want the application to do. Examples of actions include: Sending an in-app notification, creating a new record or updating an existing record. Actions need to be launched to actually do their work, and this is done using either Workflow Action Buttons or Triggers.

An App Designer can create and edit actions from the Actions Dashboard. To access the Actions Dashboard:

Actions Dashboard

The Actions Dashboard shows all available actions for the current application, displayed as a list. An App Designer can create, update and delete actions from here. Each action has it’s own row menu (three vertical dots on the far right side) which lets you work with the action.

Each action row has the following options:

Item	Description
	Expand Details – Click on to see summary details of the actions settings.
	Action Menu – Click on to see menu options:
Test Webhook	Trigger the webhook now, used for testing the action. (This option only displays for Webhook actions.)
Edit	Opens the action so it can be reviewed edited. (See Creating a new Action, below, for details of the Action Form.)
Remove	Deletes the action from the application.

Creating a New Action

To create a new action, click on the + Create New Action button at the top of the dashboard. You will then be presented with the New Action dialog box:

All actions share the same first three fields, and the Cancel and Create buttons:

Item	Description
Select Action Type	Select the action type, options are: – App Notification – Send an in-app notification. – Assign User to Role – Assign the user names stored in a form field to a dynamic role. – Create Record – Create a new record in the app. – Update Record – Update one or more existing app records. – Webhook – Interact with external systems via webhooks.
Action Name	The name of the action. (This name is only seen by App Designers. Try to make it descriptive of the action’s purpose.)
Description	[Optional] More detailed description of the action, if needed.
Cancel	Cancels the creation of the new action.
Create	Creates the new action and opens the action editor so you can see the configuration for a final review. The action has already been created and saved.

We will now describe the specific configuration options and details for each of the action types.

App Notification Options

Item	Description
Setup
Application	Fixed value of the current application. It can’t be changed.
Form	Select the form to use with new app notification. Allows values from the form’s fields to be included in the notification text, similar to how field values can be added to the subject or body of an email template.
Title	Enter the text for the message. Typing a “@” character brings up a list of fields from the selected form and allows the field’s value to be included in the message.
Recipients
Stage Roles	All of the Roles who have access to the record being processed by this action, at it’s current workflow stage, will be sent the notification.
Selected	Displays message recipient fields that work exactly the same way as defining recipients for email templates. (See this article for details on defining recipients: Workflow: Email Template Editor.)

Assign User to Role Options

Item	Description
Setup
Application	Fixed value of the current application. It can’t be changed.
Form	Select the form to use.
Role to Assign	Select the name of the dynamic role you want to update.
Create a new Dynamic Role	Displays ‘Role Name’ and ‘Description’ fields for you to define a new dynamic role to create and use in this action. The new dynamic role is created as soon as you click on ‘Create’ to create this new action. This has the same outcome as creating the new dynamic role first, and then creating the action and selecting its name.
Field	The name of the field on the form to get the user name(s). Only user name related fields will display in the list.

Create Record Options

Item	Description
Where will the new record be created?
Application	Select the application where the new record will be created.
Form	Select the form to use for creating the new record.
Copy values from (Source Form)
Source Application	Select the source application.
Source Form	Select the form containing the fields that will be included in the new record creation.
What values will the new record have?
Target Field	The field in the destination form, and hence the new record we are creating, who’s value we want to set.
Value	The value to set for the Target Field. Options are ‘Field’ to define a field from the source form to copy the value from or ‘Custom’ to define a specific value.
Source Field	The source field or custom value that will be added to the destination field.
+ Add Field Map	Adds a new Target Field row so you can define an additional field to be set on the new record. You can add as many as you need.

Update Record Options

Item	Description
Where will the record be updated?
Application	Select the application where the record(s) you want to update resides.
Form	Select the form used by the record(s) you want to update. You can only update records from a single form in a specific action.
What fields do you want to modify?
Target Field	The field in the destination form, and the target record(s), who’s value we want to set.
Default Value	The custom value that the Target Field is going to be set to.
+ Add field Map	Adds a new Target Field row so you can define an additional field to be set on the new record. You can add as many as you need.

Webhook Action Options

Item	Description
Select Form	Select the form that the webhook will receive information from.

The full configuration of a webhook action is done in the Action Editor, which opens as soon as the ‘Create’ button is clocked.

Item	Description
Name	Gvien name of the webhook action.
Description	[Optional] Brief description of the action.
Request Details
Method	Webhook REST method to execute.
Protocol	Protocol supported by the webhook (HTTP or HTTPS).
Webhook URL	URL of the webhook that will receive data from GW Apps.
Security
Authentication type	If the webhook requires authentication you can pass the required authentication information. Options are: – Basic Auth – Required Username and Password fields display. – Bearer Token – Required Bearer Token field displays. – JWT – Algorithm, Expiration, Secret and JWT Payload fields display.
Header Details	You can add header Key-Value pairs supported or required by the webhook.
Request Body
Request Body	You can choose what type of Body to include in your request: – Full Record – Data from all fields is sent in the JSON payload. – Partial Record – Displays ‘Select fields to include’ field. Only listed fields will be sent in the JSON payload. – Advanced – Displays ‘Custom JSON Body’ field. Enter the required JSON.
Request Content Type	Supported Content Type is Application/Json
Response Details
Accepted Status Codes	Select: ‘Single Code’ or ‘Range of Codes’
Status Code	Enter the status code that signifies a successful submission. (Displays if ‘Single Code’ is selected for ‘Accepted Status Codes’)
Range From	Enter the lowest numeric value of status code that signifies a successful submission. (Displays if ‘Range of Codes’ is selected for ‘Accepted Status Codes’)
Range To	Enter the highest numeric value of status code that signifies a successful submission. (Displays if ‘Range of Codes’ is selected for ‘Accepted Status Codes’)
Request Timeout	Maximum time GW Apps will wait for a response code from the webhook recipient.
Retries	Should GW Apps retry the webhook submission if the first attempt times out, and if so, how any times. Options are: – Don’t Retry – 1 – 2 – 3

Create Word Doc Action Options

This feature allows you to create a MS Word Doc from a record’s data. The Word Doc layout is first created externally, and then uploaded to GW Apps when creating the action. GW Apps will match the field Short Codes on the Doc with data from the associated fields on a form. The exported document is a Word Doc file (.docx).

How to Use

Begin by creating and designing the layout of your Word Doc (.docx file) externally in a word processor of your choosing. The file must be saved as a .docx file.
Add field Short Codes in curly brackets to your Word Doc to designate field data you’d like to capture (see image below). The Short Codes in your Word Doc must match the field Short Codes on the form selected in the Select Form dropdown when creating the action.
Upload your doc when creating the action using the Upload MS Word Document button.
Finally, choose whether to attach the doc to:
- An Attachment Field: For this option, you must have an Attachment Field on the selected form. This option will update the record with the Word Doc attached.
- An Email Template: For this option, you must have an existing email template for the selected form. This option will attach the the file to the selected email template as a Word Doc.

Fields not currently supported: Images | Embedded Views | Dynamic Tables

PDF Attachment Action Options

This action will automatically generate and attach a PDF Template to an Email and/or an Attachment Field on the selected form. Note that you must first design the PDF Template, and that you must have an Email Template and/or an Attachment field associated with the selected form.

Item	Description
Select Form	Select the form that contains the desired Attachment field and/or Email Template you want to attach the PDF to.
Select PDF Template	Select the PDF Template you want to generate and attach.
How would you like to share the PDF Document?
Email PDF Attachment	Select this option to attach the PDF to an existing Email Template. After selecting this option, a dropdown menu will appear where you must select the Email Template to attach the file to.
Attach PDF Attachment to Field	Select this option to attach the PDF to an existing Attachment Field on the selected form. After selecting this option, a dropdown menu will appear where you must select the Attachment Field to attach the file to.

Calendar Event Action Options (Google Calendar)

This action allows you to automatically create Google Calendar events from your applications. After authorizing access to your Google Calendar, you can create new calendar events based on a form in your app. Conditions and filters can be applied to ensure events are only created under specified conditions.

Item	Description
Select Form	Select the form that contains the event data.
Select Calendar Type	Choose the Calendar Type. At the moment, “Google Calendar” is the only option.
Where will the record be created?
Select Calendar	The Google Calendar where events will be created.
Create or Update calendar event when?	Set the conditions that determine whether or not the action adds /updates an event to the calendar.
Event Setup
Event Title	The title of the event that will display on the calendar. You may use field short codes to dynamically determine the event title.
Event Description	The description of the event. You may use field short codes to dynamically determine the event description.
Start Date & End Date	Choose the fields or set a custom value for then Start and End date of events created with this action.
Event Properties	Set whether the event is an All-day Event, and if the event will include a Google Meet conference room link.
Start Time & End Time	Choose the fields or set a custom value for then Start and End time of events created with this action.
Notify attendees when invite is created?	Optionally send a notification to all event attendees notifying them of their invitation.
+ Add Attendee	Select to add attendees either based on form field(s) or custom value(s).
Delete Event	Optionally automatically delete an event when certain conditions are met.

Updated on January 24, 2024

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