Tasks: The Essentials

Define the tasks you want to run in a process in your bot:

• What is a task?
• Supported task types
• Add a task to a bot
• Copy an existing task
• View tasks
• Edit a task
• Delete a task

What is a task?

A task is a simple activity that runs quickly. For example, you can send someone a message (email, SMS), change data, or call an external service.

You add a task as a step in a process. Tasks can be reused across processes.

Supported task types

AppSheet supports the following types of tasks:

• Send an email
• Send a notification
• Send an SMS message
• Call a webhook
• Create and save a file
• Call a script
• Send a chat message

Add a task to a bot

Add a task to a bot as a step in a process using AppSheet:

1. Click Add a step in the process flow
2. Select Run a task.
3. Optionally, do one of the following:
   • Choose 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 bot suggestion would configure a basic Send an email task for you:
     
     When a new NationalParks record is created, send an email
   • Reuse an existing task. Click Custom task and select an existing task from the list.
4. Select the task type and configure the task.

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

Add a task to a bot as a step in a process using AppSheet in one of the following ways:

• Choose 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 bot suggestion would configure a basic Send an email task for you:
  
  When a new NationalParks record is created, send an email
• Reuse an existing task. When creating a custom step in a process, click Run a task and select an existing task from the list.
• Create a custom task.
  • When creating a custom step in a process, click Run a task, then select Create new task in the Task to run list to create a reusable task and include it in the existing process.
  • Select Automation > Tasks and click + New Task to create a reusable task that can be used in any bot process.

Copy an existing task

Copy an existing task. The name of the new tasks defaults to the name of the current task followed by a unique number (starting with 1 and incrementing), such as My Task 1.

To copy an existing reusable task:

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

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 a task:

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

View tasks

 To view all tasks, select Automation  > Tasks. Tasks are organized by table.

By default, only reusable (linkable) tasks are shown. To view all tasks, turn on Show all automation components, as described in Configure app editor settings.

If a reusable task is used by one or more bots, it displays a reusability indicator (number in the task header) to indicate the number of bots using the task. Click the number to view the list of bots that are using the task. For more information, see Reuse automation components.

Edit a task

Note: If editing a reusable task, consider the impact to all processes before editing the task.

To edit a task, view the task in the app editor, edit the configuration, and save your changes.

Delete a task

 Deleting a reusable task that is used in one or more processes may negatively impact the execution of those processes. If you try to delete a task that is used by one or more processes, AppSheet will prompt you to confirm the operation, as shown:

To delete a reusable task:

1. Select Automation > Tasks.
2. Select the task you want to delete.
3.  Click More   > Delete in the task heading.

To delete a task used in a bot:

1. Select Automation > Bots.
2. Select the task in the process flow.
3. Click .

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 resuable task:

1. Select Automation > Tasks.
2. Select the task you want to delete.
3. Click Delete in the task heading.

 To delete a task used in a bot:

1. Select Automation > Bots.
2. Locate the task in the process flow.
3. Click More   > Delete.