Non-time based automation not triggering : Any workaround?

[Pch]

Hi everybody !

I’m trying to get notified (within Coda) when a row is modified is one of my table.
The rule works when tested but doesn’t trigger outside the test.

Specifically, I’ve got a field Status that changes from Running to Ready when a countdown hit 0.
The countdown is triggered by a button in that table. And I simply would like to be notified when ThisRow.Status="Ready".

I’ve got several rows in that table but the fields concerning the countdown remain Blank() unless the countdown in that row is triggered too.

I’ve tried to play around with checkboxes, with Modified(thisrow), I’ve tried to Count() the number of rows where Status="Ready". Each time the automation works when tested, but doesn’t trigger when needed.

I’ve got no idea left to try and solve this .

Searching here, I’ve found this topic :

Trigger an automation from formula

I received a question about how to trigger an automation from a formula recently, and with the help of @Adam_Ginzberg came up with a solution. This is just a workaround for now, and we plan on making this easier to use in the future. In the doc below, Calculated Column outputs “Greater than 8” if the sum of Input 1 and Input 2 is greater than 8 (outputs “Less than 8” if the sum is less than 8). If we wanted to trigger an e-mail notification when the Calculated Column is “Greater than 8,” we cou…

But I wasn’t able to apply this to my doc because I’m not sure to follow the suggested solution .

I’ll be profoundly grateful for anyone having a solution, workaround
(I know nothing about Zapier or Integromat, but I’m ready to go there if needed )

Thank you very much in advance !

[Dalmo_Mendonca]

Generally speaking, I don’t think automations can detect changes from formulas. Al’s workaround actually depends on manual (or API) input to trigger the Row changed flag.

That’s the same principle for Modified on. It only updates when the formula code (including its references’ values) is modified, but ignores changes to the displayed/calculated value.

So you need to actively poll the table to detect any changes (that’s what happens when you Test the automation rule).

That can be done with a time-based automation. Then if you need more resolution than 1 hour, you’d fall under the same case as this one:

Sending a reminder at times other than on-the-hour (e.g. 5:45 instead of 5:00)

As the title says, I’m trying to let doc users set a reminder for themselves. However, I can’t find a way to do that within Coda, since the automation just checks once per hour. Any ideas on how I could do this?

Integromat offers 15-min resolution. So what you can do is:

1. Set up a checkbox column on your table and create an automation to watch row changed and test if that checkbox is true.

2. Setup your Integromat connection, then create a scenario like this:
   

   
   
   The first block is pretty straightforward. On the second one you need to map the row coming from the first block. Then you can do some logic to test Status and update the checkbox.
   
   

After Integromat updates the row, the Coda internal automation will kick in.

[Pch]

Thank you very much for your help @Dalmo_Mendonca !

It took me a while to get this in place but it seems to be working !