It appears you can only trigger an action from a user interaction, like the click of a button - but you can’t trigger actions as a result of some data changing, or from an API call outside the app.
Example:
A form on a company website is filled in which adds a record to a table → send push notification to relevant user
OR
A record’s status is updated by one user → send email to another user
Even using Make and Zapier, I’m unable to set up any external automations involving Glide that don’t include some user behaviour-triggered activity from within the app.
As an automation enthusiastic (aren’t all Gliders?!) this seems to be the biggest weakest link currently… I’ve heard that automations are coming, but it’s been radio silence in terms of when this might be…
It would allow me to fully move away from Airtable as a data source.
At the moment, the main advantage that I have with Airtable is that they have a variety of triggers that allow me to set up a range of workflows not related to specific user interactions:
When a status is updated, when a record is changed, on schedule, when a record meets certain conditions.
I know there are hacks and workarounds, i.e. triggering via conditions in the data editor, but it’s a bit shaky and have a proper native solution would be better.
It will be interesting to see what solutions are put forward as this be beneficial if this function is added. I’m currently working on an application where this has been requested so currently trying to find a work around for it.
Would also love to see this functionality! Have about 10 uses for this right now and stuck creating a number or workarounds which just clutter up my tables.
Would love this in the form of all included suggestions, including triggering actions from other actions, or the ability to select actions from screens that are not specific to tables.
I agree, automations are pretty much the ONLY reason I’m still using Google Sheets as the primary data source at this point. Automations can’t come fast enough.
We have developed a service that an API can trigger a push notification to a user. Doesn’t solve general actions auto-triggering (I have built a work-around using a cloud function that presses an in app button, which was a bit of a messy solution but worked to an extent if any one is interested in this solution I can share it). If you interested in using the push notifications service we built, I am also happy to connect on it.
This one is just a pain! Having an action trigger from an external change is secondary, but having an action trigger due to user data change without the push of a button is super necessary. It’s the one thing that keeps me using airtable as a data source, but that comes with slow updates. When you add a child item to a parent item it takes way to long to show up. Please Glide, we want to use your solution exclusively, help us!
