Create automation button

Suggestion Box
1

Would be nice if we could create an automation from a button, for example, to create a reminder notification to a task or build recurrent tasks.

2

Hi @Guilherme_Salles ,
what if you swap the concept?

If you encapsulate the logic of your execution within a button, then you just decide what should be the trigger:

  • manual: you push the button
  • time-based: the automation “pushes” the button when scheduled
  • event-based 1: the automation “pushes” the button triggered by a row change
  • event-based 2: another user explicit button calls the button’s action

It’s one of the reason why I always suggest not to put logic within the automation itself: a button is more testable.

Let me know if this makes sense for you.
Cheers!

3

I was actually thinking on something to help the team to build a “reminder” option. A way to do this is to be able to create a button that adds a temporarily time-based automation and, after doing it’s job, it deletes itself. Today it’s possible to build a reminder system through automation, but if it checks every hour if a task is comming, it will hit the 100 runs pretty quickly. Do you have any suggestions?

4

Hi @Guilherme_Salles

What I would do would be:

  • Create a button that
    • Selects al the jobs/tasks not done and due by today
    • Sends a notification (Coda/email/Slack/you name it) to each job assignees
  • Create a daily automation (I don’t see more advantages in bombing with notifications, once you know your due tasks of the day)

In case you need to put more pressure, you can still push the button yourself anytime.

That’s pretty much it…

I hope it helps: feel free to ask further!

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5

I already did that. I made a daily automation that presents me the tasks for the day / week. But the problem is I have a short memory and a very distractive routine, which means when I have a meeting scheduled for the middle of the day, it’s hard to keep occupying my mind trying to remember that I need to stop what I am doing to do this specific meeting. That’s why simple reminders are super important, 30min or 1hr earlier of an event. This is a big problem for me. Todoist was the best on this, really easy to schedule reminders, than I migrated to Notion, it’s okay, but not really good and here on Coda this has been a frustrating experience, I lost a lot of scheduled events because of this. But thanks for all the help!

6

Hi @Guilherme_Salles ,

If you really need something specific there is a workaround, but you have to be absolutely aware and accept that:

  • it relies on an unsupported formula
  • could lead to computation delays if the document is heavy

Have a look at this: Automation Simulator [*]

You can obviously customise it as you like, as long as you know the intrinsic limitations above mentioned.

Cheers!

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7

Wow! This is really good! I think I can fit this on my needs. Thanks a lot!

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8

@Federico_Stefanato looks like that doc is no longer available. Is it possible you can still share it?

1 Like