Create Triggers

Triggers are Tonkean’s "When" statements. At least one Trigger needs to be created in order for a Module to work. However, the trigger can be as simple as saying "When ANYTHING happens, do these actions" or as complex as having many IF statements.

Creating A Trigger

1. By default, a brand new Module will automatically have a Trigger box (they have a visual lightning bolt to distinguish their box).

2. To create new Triggers, click on the small [+] sign

3. You then have the option of selecting from a number of different Trigger types.

 

Trigger Types

Before diving into the differences between each type, it's important to know that you can always change the trigger type, and more importantly, name it something specific.

Changing the Trigger Name

At the very top of the Trigger, you'll see a blue pencil. Clicking this gives you the ability to type in a name for this specific Trigger block. We always advise to make it something intuitive and descriptive so that when you (or anyone) reads through the entire workflow, they can understand what each Trigger & Action is representing. The workflow tells a story, and the story is told by the name of each block.

Changing Trigger Type

To change the type of Trigger, simply clicking on the blue pencil in the box brings down a drop-down of the various triggers. Selecting one will reset the existing data you have in the Trigger and provide you a net-new Trigger block to fill out.

Turning Block On/Off

The power switch is always off by default (the dark gray color). In order for a Trigger and its respective actions to be run, you must turn them on (the green color). It's important to know that you do NOT have to delete entire Triggers and their respective actions if you want to temporarily pause them. Simply turning off the initial trigger will render all actions off as well. That way, if you ever want to turn the flow back on, you don't need to re-create it, just simply toggle it back to green!

Match Conditions

This trigger will run when any item matches the "IF" criteria stated. This will run on new and existing items in your dataset, but there is an option to only “run on items once” as to not cause duplicate actions.

Settings

1. Run only once: If you only want an Item to run through this workflow trigger once on each individual Item, and then never again, check this box. This is useful if you know your data won't need to take these sets of actions again, even if the matching criteria do change in the future. Uncheck this if you ALWAYS want an Item to run through the process if it ever meets the criteria. This means that Items matching this criteria will always run, no matter how many times they’ve run on this same path before. 

1. Run on action items: Each Item has Inner-Items. If you only want the Actions for this specific workflow to run only on the root Items, then keep this box unchecked. If you want the Module to run through the same criteria for inner-Items, check this box. They will be treated equally in the Module's eyes as the root Items items.

Run on an Item IF

This is where the matching criteria you specify is located. All logic is defined by IF statements, where the "conditions" can be customized to your specifications. You can learn more about Tonkeans various Conditions here.

There are two types of logic that these IF statements can follow, depending on how strict you want your criteria to be. You can toggle between the two by clicking on the green All link.

1. ALL - In order for the trigger to work properly, every single criteria below needs to match. Example: if you have 5 specific conditions below, and only 4 of the 5 matches, your workflow will NOT run.

2. AT LEAST ONE - In order for your trigger to work properly, any of the below criteria needs to match. Example: if you have 5 specific conditions below, and 1 of the 5 matches, your workflow WILL run.

Defining the criteria based on simple + complex logic

There are a few fields that you need to fill out in order for the simple IF logic to make sense.

1. Master Field - This is the field in your Item that you're going to compare against. This can be a default Tonkean field, a field that you're pulling from a data source (Salesforce Opportunity Stage, Zendesk Tag Name, etc.) or a field you're pulling from a Tonkean form or any custom field you’ve created. Clicking on the Blue magnifying glass will give you the option to scroll through the specific field you want to match

2. Condition - This is where you need to specify HOW you want to match the Master field, with the value you're receiving. There are many different options, but the most common ones are usually: equal to, not equal to, is not empty, contains. 

3. Qualifying Value - Depending on the field type you're pulling in (free text, date field, drop-down, checkbox, currency, etc.) the value may be predefined where you have a limited set of options, OR you have a free-text field.

If you're not finding the fields when you select the magnifying glass drop down, at the very bottom you can select the "Manage Fields" option, which will give you the option of viewing the current data fields you've pulled in, along with giving you the ability to bring in a new data field. You can learn more about mapping fields here.

You'll also notice that there are data values in light gray next to your criteria. These are real values being pulled from a real example of your dataset. This is a light-weight preview, showing you if the criteria you put in matches the example Item. If you ever see this say "No Value" that means that the example Item you're using does not match the criteria you specified.

You can always change the example Item you're using. Learn more about that in this article here.

Field Changed

If you are looking to trigger a set of actions based on a field in any of your data sources or forms, the simplest way to do that is with the "Field Changed" Trigger. You can have one or more fields being monitored for changes, from all your different data sources, along with their respective Inner-Items being monitored as well.

Simply click the "Add Field" and select the field you want to be monitored from the drop-down. If you want to remove that field, click the X button on the right.

Note: If you have multiple fields, know that if ANY of the fields change, the entire trigger will run. They all don't have to change in order for the flow to run.

You also have the opportunity to include IF statements below. This can come in handy if, for example, you want to monitor every time the Opportunity Stage in Salesforce changes and only IF the Opportunity Amount is greater than a certain amount.

Item Is Added

This is the most straightforward of all Triggers. It's simply ANYTIME there is an item added, whether being pulled in from a data source/form, or manually entered in the Live Report, the flow will run.

No IF statements, no other logic. Think of this as a passthrough, no matter what, just run these actions.

Common examples of this are:

• Every new Intercom message, just do these default actions

• Every new email that hits this inbox, do these specific actions

• Anytime a new Lead fills out a form, complete these sets of actions

As with all Triggers, you have the ability to run this logic on all Inner-Items.

Form Filled

Tonkean has natively built forms that you can create. These forms can be a data source that is always monitored, just like how you might always be monitoring Salesforce, Intercom, Jira, or any of the other 1000+ data integrations we provide access to.

When a form is completed, you'll no doubt want to setup a set of actions based on the answers. First, if you don't have a form created, you can click the green "+ Add Form" button. If you already have a form, select the drop-down and you'll see the name of it. If not, you can create a new one. More on creating forms can be found here.

Once the form has been selected, you have the option to include IF Criteria (if applicable). If you want a certain set of actions to run every single time a form is filled out, leave the IF criteria blank, and every submission will pass through to your sets of actions.

More than likely, you'll want to route this data in many ways, all depending on the answers from within the form. Now that you have the form synced up, when you select the blue magnifying glass on the Master Field in the IF criteria, you'll see the fields that made up the form.

Select one or more of these fields, and you'll be given the opportunity to set specific criteria based on the answers to the form.

You might need multiple Form Triggers if you have a more complex logic map based on all these form entries. 

The example we are using above is that there is a field in the form called Urgency with the options of IMMEDIATE and NOT URGENT. If IMMEDIATE then we want to escalate this to the Support team. If it's NOT URGENT, then it will just create a Jira ticket and get added to the queue. These would require two different Form Triggers because there are different sets of actions based on criteria specified in the form.

On Schedule

If you have a process that is required to be done on a specific cadence, and possibly only when specific criteria is met, you now have the ability to automate these flows so everything is happening in the background.

The frequency can be as granular as every X minutes (defined by you), Every X hours, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Quarterly. If you select any of these options, you're then asked to specify the exact criteria, in most cases down to the exact minute!

You also have the option to not run on weekends (Saturday + Sunday). If you select this option, and the time criteria is met to actually be completed on a Saturday or Sunday, it'll just run the report on Monday.

If you want to brute force run this workflow at any time, you can select the Run Now link.

Much like our other Triggers, you also have the ability to select IF Criteria. There may be instances where you will want to run this report every week, but only if a certain set of conditions of the data are met. One example is you want a report of the weeks Opportunity stages, but only on Opportunities that aren't closed-won. It will run the report, and not include any Opportunities where their stage is Closed Won.