Events: The Essentials

Manage an event in a bot as described in the following sections:

• What is an event?
• Add an event to a bot
• Configure an event
• Copy an existing event
• View events
• Edit an event
• Delete an event
• Example: Trigger a scheduled event on a specific date

What is an event?

Events occur:

• When there is a change to an entity (table) - new data is added, or existing data is modified (for example, status of a service ticket is changed) or deleted
• Periodically at a set time (for example, every Monday morning at 9 AM)
• Based on Chat app interactions, as described in Configure Chat events

External Data Change Events: If you want events to fire based on manual or direct updates to the underlying data sources, external configuration is necessary. Currently only Sheets and Salesforce data sources are supported. For more information, see Sheets and Salesforce.

Events generated due to an app action or as a result of data change due to an API call will fire without any external configuration.

The following example shows a Data Change event triggered by adds only to the Appointments table.

The following example shows a Schedule event.

When ForEachRowInTable is disabled, you can select any event except Run a data action as a valid step type in the process. You may want to use this option if your process doesn’t rely on data in any table.

When the ForEachRowInTable option is enabled (as shown in the previous figure), the option to specify a filter condition appears. Use this option if you want to run a process for each row of data in the table.

The following example shows a Chat event.

Before you can add a Chat event, you must configure your Chat app with AppSheet.

Add an event to a bot

To add an event to a bot:

1. Create a bot.

2. Perform one of the following:

   • To reuse an existing event, select an event under From this App.
     For more information, see Reuse automation components.
   • To create a new event, do one of the following:
     • Click Create a custom event.
     • Select an event from the list of Suggestions.
       AppSheet Automation is an intent-aware platform. The platform understands user intent and recommends configuration options that align with what you are trying to achieve. For example, selecting the following suggestion would configure a process and Send an email task for you:
       When Available record is updated, send an email
3. Configure the event.

4. When you are done, save the task by selecting one of the following:

   • Save - Save the app.
   • Save & verify data - Save the app and verify that it is runnable based on external dependencies.

Configure an event

Configure an event by selecting the event in the app editor and using the settings described in the following sections.

• Configure a data change event
• Configure a scheduled event
• Configure a Chat event

Configure a data change event

For a data change event, configure the following settings:

Setting	Description
Linking	Enable or disable reuse of this component by expanding the Linking panel and toggling the Linking setting. See Reuse automation components.
Event name	Name of the event.
Event Type	Select Data Change.
Data change type	Select the data change types that trigger the event.
Table	Table referenced by the event. Select an existing table in the list. Click View definition to view the structure of the selected table. See Tables: The Essentials for more information about adding tables.
Condition	Condition to check before triggering the event.
Bypass Security Filters?	Toggle to indicates whether to execute as though there are no security filters on the data sources. This setting allows automated tasks (that run as the app owner ID) to continue working. It is useful for generating reports or performing other tasks that require more information.
Event icon	Expand the Appearance section and select an icon for the event.
Descriptive comment	Expand the Documentation section and enter a comment that describes the purpose of the event.

Configure a scheduled event

For a scheduled event, configure the following settings:

Setting	Description
Linking	Enable or disable reuse of this component by expanding the Linking panel and toggling the Linking setting. See Reuse automation components.
Event name	Name of the event.
Event Type	Select Schedule.
Schedule	Set the schedule and time for the event.
Time zone	Set the time zone for the scheduled event.
ForEachRowInTable	Toggle that indicates whether to operate on each row in the specified table. If disabled, you can select any event except Run a data action as a valid step type in the process. You may want to use this option if your process doesn’t rely on data in any table. Enable this option if you want to run a process for each row of data in the table. If enabled, the option to select a Table and Filter Condition displays.
Table	Note: This field only displays if ForEachRowInTable is enabled. Table referenced by the event. Select an existing table in the list. Click View definition to view the structure of the selected table. See Tables: The Essentials for more information about adding tables.
Filter Condition	Note: This field only displays if ForEachRowInTable is enabled. Filter condition to use to identify which rows in table are impacted.
Condition	Condition to check before triggering the event.
Bypass Security Filters?	Toggle to indicates whether to execute as though there are no security filters on the data sources.
Event icon	Expand the Appearance section and select an icon for the event.
Descriptive comment	Expand the Documentation section and enter a comment that describes the purpose of the event.

Configure a Chat event

For a Chat event, configure the following settings:

Setting	Description
Event name	Name of the event. Note: The name will be displayed in Chat.
Event Type	Select Chat.
Chat interaction	Chat interaction that triggers the event: Slash command - Slash command is issued in the Chat space. Added to space - Chat app is added to a Chat space. Removed from space - Chat app is removed from the Chat space.
Name	Note: Valid only if Slash command is selected as the Chat interaction. Slash command that triggers the event.
Description	Note: Valid only if Slash command is selected as the Chat interaction. Description of the slash command that triggers the event.

Copy an existing event

When you copy an event, the name of the new event defaults to the name of the current event followed by a unique number (starting with 1 and incrementing), such as My Event 1.

To copy an existing reusable event:

1. Open the app in the editor.
2. Go to Automation  > Events.
3. Select the event you want to copy in the Events panel.
4. Select More > Duplicate.

We've made some improvements to the app editor.
You are opted in to the new editor by default, but you can switch back to the legacy editor at any time.

If you are using the legacy editor

To copy an existing event:

1. Select Automation > Events.
2. Select the event you want to copy.
3. Click Copy in the event heading.

View events

To view an event in a bot, select Automation  > Bots, select the bot in the Bots panel, and click the event in the main panel.

To view all events by table, select Automation  > Events. By default, only reusable (linkable) events are shown. To view all events, turn on Show all automation components, as described in Configure app editor settings.

We've made some improvements to the app editor.
You are opted in to the new editor by default, but you can switch back to the legacy editor at any time.

 

If you are using the legacy editor

To view all events, select Automation  > Events. Events are organized based by table.

If an event is used by one or more bots, it displays a reusability indicator (number adjacent to the event name) to indicate the number of bots using the event. In the example below, the Scheduled: Every day event is a reusable component that is used in  two  bots.

Click the number to view the list of bots that are using the event. For more information, see Reuse automation components.

Edit an event

Note: If an event that is reused, consider the impact to all bots before editing the event.

To edit an event, view the event in the app editor, edit the configuration, and save your changes.

Delete an event

Note: If a reusable event is used in multiple bots, consider the impact to all bots before deleting the event. If you try to delete an event that is used by one or more bots, AppSheet will prompt you to confirm the operation, as shown:

 To remove an event from a bot in the editor, select Remove in the drop-down menu. It is removed from the bot but retained on the Events tab.

To delete a reusable event:

1. Select Automation  > Events.
2. Select the event you want to delete in the Events panel.
3. Select More > Delete.

We've made some improvements to the app editor.
You are opted in to the new editor by default, but you can switch back to the legacy editor at any time.

 If you are using the legacy editor

 To delete a reusable event:

1. Select Automation > Events.
2. Expand the event you want to delete.
3. Click Delete in the event heading.

Example: Trigger a scheduled event on a specific date

Trigger a scheduled event automatically at predetermined dates obtained from the app's data. This can be done using the Condition setting of the scheduled report.

For example, suppose you have a table called Tasks. Each row in this table is a task that you have to perform, and each task has a Date column that stores the date when you have to perform the task. You can set up a scheduled report that will automatically send you an alarm message to remind you of the task at 7:00 am on the day the task is supposed to be carried out.

To do this, in the app editor, configure the scheduled event as follows:

Setting	Setting
Event name	Any event name
Event Type	Schedule
Schedule	Daily
Time	7:00 am
Time zone	Set according to your time zone
For EachRowInTable	Enable
Table	Tasks
Filter Condition	TODAY()=[Date]

Here's how the schedule works. Every day, at 7:00 am, the schedule will go through each task in the Tasks table and check the date of the task. If the date of the task is the current date, the schedule will be triggered, and an alert message will be sent.

Note: This design will not work if you want to trigger reports at specific times (hours and minutes) obtained from the app's data.