automations: "when column changes..." TO- specifying column change

Feature requests
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I have connected board B to board A, and so in board A there is a column that is called “B”. On board, A, I want to create an automation that says "When column B changes to ((name of record on board B)), send an e-mail (that contains info about the record on board B, for example).

There is an option for “when column changes…” then this happens…but there is no option to specify which specific change that is, which I find rather obvious?

Does anyone know how to do this, and if not, does anyone else have this problem?

All the best

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2

I am not sure which column types you are using, so I do not have the exact answer for you, but wanted to point out the “+” sign when you are creating automations as it is pretty easy to miss.
The “+” allows you to add a layer that acts as an “and only if” layer to your automation which if I am understanding correctly is what you are hoping to accomplish.

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1 Like
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Hi Kayla! Thank you for this. I do know about the “+”, which has really helped me a lot. In this case, in board B (the board I connected to the main one, A) I created a column that could contain the name of an animal, for example.

Let’s call board B “animals” and board A “clients”.

A client will fill in a form (associated to A) that in which they will choose their favourite animal, from a drop-down menu associated to column B (Each -item- in board B is an animal, and columns are “name of the animal”, “average size”, “diet” etc. ). The mirrored column on board A (clients) would be “name of the animal”, in text.

I want to create a rule (in board A, clients) that determines "when (mirrored) column (name of the animal) changes to “elephant”, then send an e-mail (one that has info specifically on elephants).

This was a silly example, but it illustrates my problem.
Did any of this make sense? :slight_smile:
Thank you!
Miguel

5

Hi Cody,
Thank you for sharing this! It sounds genius, but I’m afraid I don’t see how it would solve my problem. If I could make the trigger work, the resulting action would be sending a specific long e-mail.

To illustrate my point:

In this case, in board B (the board I connected to the main one, A) I created a column that could contain the name of an animal, for example.

Let’s call board B “animals” and board A “clients”.

A client will fill in a form (associated to A) that in which they will choose their favourite animal, from a drop-down menu associated to column B (Each -item- in board B is an animal, and columns are “name of the animal”, “average size”, “diet” etc. ). The mirrored column on board A (clients) would be “name of the animal”, in text.

I want to create a rule (in board A, clients) that determines "when (mirrored) column (name of the animal) changes to “elephant”, then send an e-mail (one that has info specifically on elephants).

As I understand, however, I can crate an action when a connected board / mirror column is changed, but I cannot create one when it is changed to something specific. This means I could send an e-mail about “how people change their mind about their favourite animals” when “name of the animal” (the connected column or mirror) is changed, but I cannot send one about elephants when “name of the animal” is changed to elephant.

Did this make sense?
Sorry about the long text…
Miguel

8

Hi Cody,
Thank you for explaining so thoroughly! I understood everything you said and realize my example failed to illustrate why this couldn’t be done by a “fill in the blanks” recipe, so I’ll dive into the actual practical reason why this would be useful. It might get a little complicated, I hope it doesn’t bore you :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

This is a collective of make-up artists for weddings, and the goal is to easily get the clients (brides) to read the conditions, prices etc and know which make-up artist is available for a specific wedding date. For this, the client fills out a form, where she chooses which make-up artist (from a drop-down menu, which is associated to the connected “make-up artist” board)- so In reality, column A is “clients” and column B is “make-up artist”. The client’s record (“item”) will appear on the “clients” table and the “progress status” is automatically set to “inquire artist”.

After that, I’ll read the entry and ask this make-up artist if they’re available, and click a button that was created on the clients board that says “artist available”- this triggers an e-mail saying the artist is available and, according to a “fill in the blanks” recipe, will send all the specific info on this artist’s pricing, conditions, etc. and progress status changes to “waiting for client to accept conditions”.

Here’s the catch- when the make-up artist is not available, I want to give the client options, so she’ll know who the alternatives are. Let’s say the client chose Samantha as her artist, who is not available. I’ll click on another button on the board called “artist not available” which will triger an e-mail saying “This artist is not available, please stand-by as we find an alternative” and changes the progress status to “find alternatives”.

After asking all the artists on the team, I’ll send her the options and she’ll send an e-mail saying who she prefers. Let’s say she e-mails saying that of all the options I gave her, she would like to book Charlotte.

What I would like to do is create a rule that says that when I change the “make-up artist column” to Charlotte (her second option), an e-mail is sent (same e-mail that would have been sent if Samantha were available, but applied to Charlotte; and the status would be changed to “waiting for client to accept conditions”.

I know this was long, I hope it was easy to understand!

All the best,
Miguel