Engineering Design Tracker Workflow - Add Attachment & Possibly Form Within Workflow

Conv_Eng

Hello,

I am developing an engineering design tracker and I am trying to implement a workflow that notifies the recipient in the ‘submitted to’ column that a design has been submitted once the checkbox in the ‘submitted’ column has been checked. I was able to accomplish this portion, however, I would also like the notification/email generated by the workflow to include a pdf attachment that is added to the corresponding row. Below is the workflow I came up with. When I ran this workflow, the notification and pdf attachment came through the first time. However, I deleted the attachment and re-uploaded another pdf attachment to the same row, and the pdf attachment didn’t come through when I retested the workflow. The notification came through without the pdf attachment. Is there a way to modify the workflow so that the notification and pdf attachments will always be sent together?

Additionally, in this same design tracker, there is a ‘Design Comments’ column I would like the client to utilize to capture any design notes that correspond to the design submittal. Ideally, the client would not need to go into smartsheets to add comments, rather, they would access a form that they could use to enter any comments they have, and it would be dumped into the ‘design comments’ column in the appropriate corresponding row (i.e., if they are adding comments for the Rev 0 submittal, the comments should be placed in the ‘design comments’ row corresponding to Rev 0). My thought was to include a link to a form in the initial workflow created to notify the client a design has been submitted but I’m not sure if this is the best approach or if it is a viable option. The form would need to be able to capture multiple comments in the same cell. For example, maybe the client adds a comment on one day for the Rev 0 submittal and then decides the next day there are additional comments they want to add. The comments from both days should be captured in the same cell. I’ve included a screenshot of the design tracker I’m developing below for reference.

Ryan Sides

Hey @Conv_Eng

Read this entire section before making changes :)

You want your trigger to be the checking of the Submitted box. So change the trigger to When rows are changed and set the field to Submitted when checked.

Remove the condition.

Then in your message, you can change it to "Links to sheet and specific fields". Then you can include the comment and attachment selections.

Keep in mind that only the attachments and comments that already exist on the row will be included in the email once the Submitted box is checked. If you want the Submitted to to receive an email when attachments and comments are added AFTER the box is checked, leave your original automation there and the above as a second automation.

To your second issue...

You can't use a form to use an existing row. Forms can only be used to add rows to sheets.

If you want them to update the sheet directly, you'll need to share them to the sheet as an Editor so they can edit the notes column. To prevent them from editing other columns, you can right click and "lock" them.

Tell the client to use Alt+Enter to move the cursor to the second row in the cell.

Hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Ryan

Andrée Starå

Hi @Conv_Eng

I hope you're well and safe!

The only way to include already added attachments in a Workflow is by using the Update Request feature. Otherwise, they will not show.

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Conv_Eng

Hi @Andrée Starå,

Thanks for your reply. See the screenshot below. I was able to make this work when I first ran the workflow. As you can see, an attachment is included in the workflow, and I could download it. The problem I am having is recreating this. I deleted the pdf attachment from the row and reattached it and tried to run the workflow again, however, the attachment no longer appears.