Workflows: Possible to refer to person assigned in People column?

[kasperhusted]

Is it possible to refer to a person assigned to an item, when creating an Update or Notification with workflows?

I can either refer to the user triggering the change or the item’s Creator ID (see below), but somehow I cannot refer to the People column itself. It is not possible to chose e.g. the ‘Owner’ or ‘Person’ assigned to an item.

A bit strange, as you have so many more options in automations?

[WLane (Wally Lane)]

Hi @Kas , the people column seems to be only referenceable for certain actions. So I’d say this is a feature request.

I have this need also. Here’s what I did to get around it, and something that I find I have had to use for a few things where it’s outside the scope of a workflow.

• Create a column on your board (can be a hidden column) with a list of labels, A, B, C, D
• Trigger: In your workflow, where you would want the update to be posted, instead of that action, add the action ‘Update status’ and select that new hidden column, for example to status A
• Action: On your board automation, create the automation when status changes to A, post an update. In that update, you can tag a people column.
• Continue along your workflow.

Tip: in your naming convention on the workflow action, "Trigger board automation [bla] and on the board automation "Workflow trigger - Name] or you can’t really tell if editing one is going to impact the other.

[kasperhusted]

Hi @WLane, thank you for your reply and for that workaround

I was beginning to think about creative workarounds myself - after all, I am used to having to figure things out with automations - so this is a helpful step-by-step approach (and one I can imagine might be useful for other cases, now that I think of it).

However, it is disappointing that we have to resort to these “hacks” so soon, as I was hoping Workflows would be a little more robust. Maybe it will be in the future!

I will post a feature request.