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How do Workflows work?

A description of how to use workflows.

Cory MacVie avatar
Written by Cory MacVie
Updated over 7 months ago

Workflows are built as multi-step operations. Step 1 defines the Trigger, step 2 configures the Filters, and step 3 sets the Action. Please note that only Owners and users with the Change Organization Profile and / or Manage Roles permissions can create, edit and delete workflows.

Creating a New Workflow

Creating Workflows

The Create New Workflows page includes a detailed list of the steps you need to follow to create your Workflow successfully. Let's review each of them in detail.


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Step 1. Triggers

Triggers set when to initiate the workflow.

The current trigger options are based on record events.

  • Record Created or Updated - Fires when either a record is created OR modified.

  • Record Created - Fires when a new record is created

  • Record Updated - Fires when an existing record is modified

  • Record Deleted - Fires when an existing record is deleted

Trigger Limitations

  • Triggers are currently limited to record events generated by the official web & mobile clients.

  • Records coming from imports cannot be used for triggers. If you would like us to implement this feature, please vote on this feature request.

Filters

Filters allow you to conditionally determine when to proceed with the workflow, based on record values. You can build filters by selecting a field with corresponding operator and value.

Applying filters as conditions to the workflow

The Operator options will vary according to the field type selected in Form Field. Some of the existing operators include: 'is empty', 'is not empty', 'has changed', 'equals', 'does not equal', 'text contain', 'text does not contain'.

If you have more than one filter field, you must select the and/or combinator to build out the complex expression.

Adding multiple filters requires that the combinator is set to either 'and' or 'or'.

If the selected combinator is 'And', then both the specified conditions have to become true in order for the workflow to be triggered, on the contrary, if the combinator is 'or' it means that one or the other needs to be true in order for the workflow to occur.

The following metadata fields are currently supported:

  • Created By Name

  • Created By Email

  • Updated By Name

  • Updated By Email

  • Record ID

  • Title

  • Status

  • Project

  • Assigned To Name

  • Assigned To Email

  • Latitude

  • Longitude

The following form field types are not currently supported:

  • Labels

  • Sections

  • Record Links

  • Repeatables

  • Classification Sets

  • Media Fields (Photos, Videos, Audio, Signatures)



Actions

Actions are the final step of the workflow where you do something with the record data.

There are 4 options for you to choose from: email, webhook, sms, assign record.

This step is where you configure the input values for the action template. Each action has a different set of inputs that can pull in values from the record.

Mustache Templating

Fulcrum workflows use Mustache templating for field/value replacement. You can manually configure the input tags by wrapping the field data_name with double curly braces: {{my_field}}.

By default all variables are HTML escaped, but you can include the & character after the first set of double curly braces and before the tag key if you want the unescaped value: {{&my_field}}.

Supported Actions

Currently there are 4 actions supported in Fulcrum's Workflows: Email, Webhook, SMS, and Assign Record. Let's review each of them in detail.

Email

Sends an email to specified receiver(s) with a customizable subject, body, and optional PDF report attachment.

Only Active reports are available to select as email attachments.

If you are unsure of the name of a field, just click the 'Insert Value...' button. It brings up a list of fields for you to select from and insert into your template. When the action runs, the template is evaluated and the field tags are replaced with the corresponding data values.

Email Template

Email Output

Webhook

Sends a customizable data payload to a specified URL endpoint.

The URL must contain https for security reasons.

Action to send a data playload to the specified https url.

SMS

Sends an SMS (text message) to specified receiver with a customizable message.

Only a single 10 digit phone number is currently supported in the SMS TO field.

Send an SMS to a single phone number if the trigger is fired.

Assign Record

This will assign the record to an individual selected. You must have Assignment Enabled in Advance Settings in the app builder for this option to be available.

If there is a conflicting assignment due to two workflows being triggered on the same record, an assignment will not be made.

If you have Auto Assign Record enabled, this workflow action will overwrite the assigned to field.

Selecting a user from the Fulcrum Account to Assign the Record to that individual.

Logging

Logs are available to help monitor workflow activity. Access the logs from the workflows index page by clicking on the list icon in the row of buttons on the right-hand side of the screen. This will bring up a table showing workflow actions with information useful for troubleshooting issues.

Workflows keep track of all the times that the workflow has been triggered.

Workflow items are also tracked as user activity in Audit Logs .

Errors

A status of Error in the logs indicates that the workflow could not successfully complete due to errors within the workflow configuration (trigger, filter) or the corresponding action (ie '400 bad request'). Note that changes to an app made after a workflow has been enabled could potentially affect its ability to execute properly. Fields used in active workflows are indicated with a warning in the app builder.

If the user disregards the warning and saves changes that may impact the workflow, the last user who edited the workflow will receive an email notification alerting them to review the workflow.

Notes

  • There is a workflow rate-limit of 10,000 per day. If you frequently encounter this limit, please reach out to our support team via the chat icon in the bottom left, or at support@fulcrumapp.com

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