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 a task
• 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

The following shows an example of configuring the Send an email task.

Add a task to a bot

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

To copy an existing task:

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

The existing task is copied. 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.

View a task

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

If a task is reused, it displays a reusability indicator (number adjacent to the taks name) to indicate the number of processes using the task.  In the example below, the Send an email task is a shared component that is used in two processes.

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

Edit a task

Note: If editing a task that is reused, consider the impacts to all processes before editing the task.

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

Delete a task

Note: If a reusable task is used in multiple bots, consider the impacts to all bots before deleting the task.

To delete a task:

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

 Deleting a 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: