Adding an action in Automation Workflows

JohnAtuphondo

In an Automation Workflow some Actions like Alert Someone will allow one to add another action, others like Generate Document or Change cell value don't! I have 3 workflows where I generate individual documents from the row and then I have to use Alert someone (when an attachment is Added Changed) which sends all the attachments to a person who then has to forward the individual reports to their intended audience.

I want to generate a document and then in the same workflow email that generated document to someone and then perhaps generate the next document and email that to someone else.

Hollie Green

To my knowledge there isn't a way to currently do this in one workflow. However if your first document always contains a specific text that is always only in the first document generated you can add a condition to your alert for when an attachment is added that contains that specific text it sends the alert to the first person then generates your second document. Then again if your 2nd document contains specific text you can set your next workflow to send to someone else when that text appears.

JohnAtuphondo

Where can I find an example of this? The generated documents will contain key identifiers in the name but I cannot see a way to access the name in Trigger or Conditions of the workflow

Georgie

Hi @JohnAtuphondo,

Having tested this, I can confirm that it’s not currently possible to add an action after the Generate Document action in a workflow, so you’d need to continue to use multiple workflows. I found a similar idea post here: Email option for generated documents. Please add your vote to this idea if it matches your request. You’ll then receive updates when the status of the idea changes! If the request provided doesn’t quite match your suggestion, please create a new Idea Post in the Smartsheet Product Feedback and Ideas topic. This will allow other users to vote on your enhancement idea!

There also currently isn’t a way for the content of attachments to be considered for conditions in workflows. I’d recommend submitting a new idea post for this request in the product feedback and ideas topic I’ve linked above. 

However, you could create a column such as a checkbox or dropdown column on your sheet and include this column in an update request workflow when an attachment is added to a row, asking the recipient of the update request to update that column with either a check mark or a value that relates to the content of the document (or you could use an existing column in your sheet if that will identify different content in attachments). You could then have a separate workflow to generate a second document based on the value in that column, and another alert that triggers once that column is changed. 

Hope that helps!

Georgie