Create and edit automations

You need the Create and change automations permission to create or change an automation. With See automations alone, you can open every automation but change nothing. See Permissions.

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Create an automation

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Goals

You can search the goals by their words, for example “unpaid” or “stuck”. The goals come from the modules your organization uses: The last two start with a custom trigger. They show Comes with buttons and scanning and cannot be used until you have at least one custom trigger; see Custom triggers. Some goals are shown but cannot be used yet, because the module they need is not available: Thank the buyer and Ask for a review (Comes with messaging), and Issue a receipt (Comes with invoicing). The Coming from BaseLinker? panel lists BaseLinker’s names next to Omnilinker’s. Type a BaseLinker name in the search to find the matching goal.

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The editor

The editor is one sentence in blocks: When, if, then, and If it fails. Open an existing automation by clicking its name on the Automations list, or Edit in its menu.

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When

Choose What starts it. The triggers are grouped by what they act on, and the editor shows each trigger’s description below it. Some triggers ask for more, such as the status and the number of days. See Triggers. For a trigger that counts days, the editor says: “Checked every hour. “3 days” means at least 3 days, so nothing is missed because a check came late.” Changing the trigger removes what the new trigger cannot use: conditions on fields it does not have, and steps for another kind of record.

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If

With no conditions, the automation acts every time: “Every time, with no conditions. Add one to narrow it down.” Click Add a condition, then choose the Field, How it compares and the value. The order must match all the conditions. You can add up to 20. How a field can be compared depends on what it holds: To remove a condition, click the cross next to it.

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Then

Choose a step under Add a step, then fill in what it asks for. Steps run in the order shown; move them with the arrows, and remove one with the cross. You can add up to 20. See Steps. Turn on Stop here if this fails on a step when the steps after it make no sense without it. For example, a label cannot be printed for a shipment that failed to be created. “Saving applies from now on. Runs already under way finish the way they started.”

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If it fails

Choose what happens once a run has failed for good, after its retries:

• tell the people to tell, and everyone in the role to tell;
• and press a custom trigger, for example one that hands the order to a person.

“Once per run that fails for good. Whoever made the automation is always told.” The notifications arrive in the Notification Center; see Inbox.

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Save

Click Create for a new automation, or Save changes. While you have changes that are not saved, the editor shows Unsaved changes, and leaving asks “Leave without saving? Your changes will be lost.” Saving changes the automation from now on. A run that has already started finishes with the version it started with. To delete an automation, click the bin next to Save changes and confirm: “Delete “…”? Its runs that haven’t finished are cancelled.”

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Check before you switch it on

The panel on the right of the editor, What it would do, changes nothing.

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What it would have done last week

Once you choose a trigger, the panel looks at the last 7 days: “Over the last 7 days, it would have run” a number of times, about so many a day. Below, a funnel shows how many times the trigger happened and how many orders were left after each condition. When orders did not match, the panel names the condition most of them failed on and what they had there. For a trigger that counts days, the panel judges the orders as they are now, so the numbers are close rather than exact. On a busy trigger it looks at the newest 2000 times the trigger happened, and says so.

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Try it on an order

Under Try it on an order, type an Order number, for example #10482, and click Run test. The panel says whether the order matches, and if not, the condition it fails on. It then lists what each step would do, for example “Would set the status to Packing.” “Nothing was done or sent. A test never reaches a carrier, a printer or a buyer.”

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Worth knowing

The panel warns you about two things:

• Another automation sets the same thing, such as the status, at the same moment. It says which one runs first, and so whose value stays.
• This automation’s steps start other automations. It shows the chain, marks the automations in trial, and says where the loop guard would stop it: “A chain stops after 5 automations in a row, so it can’t loop.”

You can also run an automation in Trial for a while before you switch it on. See Trial.

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The Automations list

Automations > Automations lists every automation as its sentence, in the order they run. Each row shows:

• the switch and the state. The switch turns an automation that is on off, resumes a paused one, and turns one that is off or in trial on;
• how many times it ran in the last 7 days, or for a trial, how many times it would have run;
• how many runs failed in the last hour and how many are waiting to retry;
• when it last ran, or No runs in 7 days.

When an automation has failed recently, a banner at the top says so, with See its runs and Pause it. Find an automation with Find by name or what it does, or filter by What starts it, Touches status and State. Clear filters shows them all again. The menu of a row (More actions) has Edit, Switch on or Resume, Run in trial (for an automation that is off), Pause, Switch off, the moves, and Delete.

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Order and groups

Automations with the same trigger run from top to bottom. To change the order, drag a row by its handle, or use Move up and Move down in its menu. Groups keep related automations together, for example “Payment”:

• Add one at the bottom of the list: type its name and click Add a group.
• Drag an automation into a group, or choose Move to followed by the group’s name in its menu. Take out of the group moves it back.
• The group’s own menu has Rename, Move up, Move down and Delete the group. Deleting a group keeps its automations, outside any group.
• Switch a whole group off with its switch. Turning it back on restores each automation as it was.

Groups run in their order, and the automations under Not in a group run after the groups.

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What you can choose

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Triggers

For the triggers that count days, a day is 24 hours, the days are 1 to 365, and the check runs every hour. They fire only for orders that reach the number of days after the automation is switched on, so a new automation does not act on every order that has been waiting for months.

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Fields for conditions

Every trigger offers the order’s fields: Status, Status type, Source, Source account, Payment status, Amount due, Amount paid, Delivery country, Invoice requested, Priority, SKUs, Products, Number of items, Delivery details complete and Has a shipment. Some triggers add fields of their own:

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Steps

Create a shipment books a real shipment with the carrier, which may be charged; see Shipments, labels and tracking. It never books twice for the same run, even when it is tried again.

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Where labels print

Print the shipping label sends the label the way a person’s print would; see Automatic printing and routing. When the run was started by a press at a station, for example in floor mode, it prints at that station when that station can take the label. Otherwise it goes the usual way. A label that waits at a station, for example because its printer has stopped, does not make the step fail: the step says where the label went. To print waiting labels somewhere else, open Devices > Stations and use Send … waiting to … on the station, or move the jobs on Devices > Print jobs; see Print a job somewhere else. A shipment an automation creates when nobody pressed it at a station has no station of its own, so its label prints at the station it is routed to as any label is, and otherwise waits on Devices > Print jobs as Unassigned until someone chooses a printer.

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Next steps