Open Custom Dialog on Column Button Click

Hi,

A client of mine that’s using Monday is asking if I can create a custom app that opens a dialog to allow the user to enter some extra information before going through a recipe/integration. None of the App features in the documentation seem like they would cleanly fit the purpose. What’s a good starting point for doing this?

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Hello @NicholasHarris and welcome to the community!

I hope you like it here :muscle:

Just to be sure we are on the same page here, the flow you are trying to achieve is:

  1. The user installs the app (it is an app with an integration feature)
  2. The user goes to a board
  3. The user goes into the integration center
  4. The user selects your app
  5. The user selects the recipe inside your app
  6. The user sees a dialog to enter more information
  7. The user adds the dialog and then continues to the configuration of the recipe for their board.

Is this accurate?

Which kind of information do you want to add?

What would you use that information for?

Looking forward to hearing from you :slightly_smiling_face:

Cheers,
Matias

Sort of. I want the dialog box to appear every time before the recipe executes, since part of what the integration does requires user input (and can’t be derived from another column). It’s sort of an action item for the row.
Technically, no new integration is even needed, one already exists for the service my client is using. They just want the option to input something into a dialog box before it runs the recipe (the input being used as a field in the recipe).

Hello again @NicholasHarris!

So, the flow you are trying to build would be:

  1. User adds the recipe to a board
  2. The trigger event happens (for example: a change in a status column value) (at this point the action should not be triggered)
  3. The user sees a dialog, and submits some information
  4. With that information, then the action is triggered

Is this accurate? I want to know the exact flow since this is a particular use case.

Looking forward to hearing from you :slightly_smiling_face:

Cheers,
Matias

The only difference would be that the trigger in this case needs to be a button rather than a column change action, but besides that that’s the flow I’m looking for. Is that something that needs to be achieved via a custom app?

Hello again @NicholasHarris!

Yes. The workaround I can think off would be using a custom app:

You would have a built-in trigger that gets triggered when the button is clicked and then a custom action. In this case, if this is an integration app, you could so something like sending the user a notification when the button is clicked, with a link (as text) to the URL in which the user has to write the information and then when that is done, update the item via API. It is not a very elegant or super convenient solution, but it could work.

The other option would be to try to achieve the whole flow inside a view app in which users can interact with the board and also add information as needed.

You could also use a more simple workaround. You could add the text you want the user to input into a long text column and then use that in your custom action querying for that information.

What do you think?

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Cheers,
Matias

I like your idea for a work around.
Is there a way to make this more elegant?

Or can we achieve this by building a custom monday app?

I use status changes as triggers for almost all my automations and I always wanted a pop-up that asked for more information before confirming the status change.

Example: In a sales CRM is a lead is marked as “Lost” I would like a pop-up that requests the sales agent to input the reason the lead was lost before confirming the status change.

I wouldn’t mind investing the resources to develop an app that can accomplish this if that is possible.

You feedback would be incredible.

Thanks

Hello @Alchemist!

The use case is similar to the other one.

I believe you could build the same workaround. Whenever the status column is changed, a notification can be sent to the user with some URL (as text) in which you can implement a way for the user to input some information. You could also build a flow in which when someone changes the status to “lost”, they get a notification and your server can check if the text column “Reason” is empty or not. If it is empty, it can take the status back to empty as well. If the “Reason” column has text, then it leaves the “Lost” label.

You would be using our webhooks and/or apps framework and API.

What do you think?

Cheers,
Matias

I am thinking of something but I can’t figure out how to get the value.

If I create an automation that send an email when a status is changed and it CC the item in the email then this could be potentially solved. The user would get an email and when he replies to the email it would automatically show up in the items updates (as long as the user used the reply all)

Can even build that automation further… once an email is received in the items column then a status will update… if that status isn’t updated for X amount of time the email would be triggered again until the user does reply.

What I cannot seem to figure out is how the items emails are generated. I am thinking I can create a formula to generate the items emails automatically and apply that email ID into the integration.

Maybe I am over complicating it… it sounds like it could work.
The missing variable is being able to get the item email ID… Maybe there is an easier way to do that?

Hello there @Alchemist,

Here is some information that might be of use to you.

But do you want a status column to change when an email is sent? Is that what you are saying?

Greetings @Matias.Monday,

Thanks for the reply.

This is indeed the article I referenced when coming up with my idea.

I want an email to be triggered with the items email id in CC.

So when a status changes to “Deal Lost” and email will be sent to the sales staff asking for a reason why the deal was lost.

I have managed to set up a solution.

The person who the lead was assigned to gets and email via automation when the status changes.

The email then has a “reply to this email” to submit your answer.

That email uses the formula:
acme-company_pulse_{item_id)_bXXX2b0faXXXXX__293XXXXx@use1.mx.monday.com

To generate the items email id so that the reply get automatically placed into the updates.

I have just started to test this workflow and it is currently very crude but I believe I can finesse it with a little more effort.

I would like for a status or column to change when an email is received… without having to rely on CRM only automations.

I would also like the the reply to this email to submit your answer:

“acme-company_pulse_{item_id)_bXXX2b0faXXXXX__293XXXXx@use1.mx.monday.com”

To have some HTML so that I can auto populate the subject and increase the aesthetics.

I hope that makes sense?
Let me know if there is a more elegant solution of if I should elaborate more on this set up.

Hello @Alchemist!

That sounds like a good start.

If you want the status column to change when a new update is created because of the board receiving an email, you would need to create a custom app and use your own server and our API to get the information from the update that was created and change the status column accordingly.

Would that be a possibility for you?