Workflow Automation: Using Collectors, Logic & Actions

Kelley Markoff
  • Updated

Collectors grab Podio data from other Items, Logic is how Field data is manipulated and Actions are the final steps required to complete the workflow. (see below for more in-depth descriptions of each).

What are Actions?
Since Podio restricts their API usage, we have to restrict this to our customers. We chose "actions" as a simpler to understand concept rather than API calls.

You will see the count in each step as (a=1). This means that this step costs 1 action on your usage. Add all these amounts in your flow to see how many actions this flow will cost you. If you are using a For Each loop or a Referenced item action, you will see this count as (a=n). This means that this action will count as many actions as the number of items to perform the action on.

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What are the Action Limits?
The limit per month and per hour is the number of actions that can be processed until the account is suspended. If you exceed this limit, the current flow will complete but no further flows are triggered until the next hour/month.

Hourly action count is reset at the beginning of each hour and Monthly actions at the beginning of each calendar month. If the account exceeds the allotment, no flows will fire until the next hour or month.

Emergency Actions: Please contact Support 

How does it work?
The redundant API queue sends all Podio webhook events to a second location to minimize the chance of losing an event. Since Podio doesn't wait for a response when sending a webhook event, if it didn't reach the destination, nothing would happen and no one would know. With a second location queue, we have a second chance to catch anything like this.

Workflow Automation processes actions synchronously once a webhook event is received, but processes multiple webhook events asynchronously. If you have 3 actions in a flow, it counts as 3 actions, not 1.

COLLECTORS

  1. Get Previous Revision
    Get the previous revision of a Podio Item Field

  2. Get Items Task(s)
    Get all OPEN Tasks on the Item

  3. Get Referenced Item(s)
    Retrieve the Fields of referenced items in another App for later use in Actions

  4. Search for Item(s)
    Find Podio Items in the current or another App for later use in Actions

  5. Get Podio View
    Get Items from a Podio Team View for later use in Actions

LOGIC

  1. Sort Collected
    Sort Podio Items collected in a previous step. This can be used with the Search for Items or the Get Referenced Items collector.

  2. Clear Collected Items
    Forget Podio Items found by a previous collector step.

  3. Custom Variable/Calc
    Create a variable from a Podio Item Field, using a custom calculation, for later use in another Field type.

  4. If (Sanity Check)
    Create an IF Statement in PHP notation to determine if the flow should continue to run after the collection of data

  5. </> End If
    End a current IF (Sanity Check) condition. Actions after this step are once again executed.

  6. Detail Table
    Create an HTML detail table from collected Items within a Podio App

  7. For Each
    Execute the actions "for each" found Item from a collector in a previous step.

  8. </> Continue
    Stop a For Each loop here and continue with the actions on the current item. Actions after this step are executed once only.

  9. Wait(Delay)
    Pause the flow for 30 seconds. When searching for items or deleting items, this could be helpful.

ACTIONS

  1. Send Message
    Send a Podio Chat Message to a Podio User.

  2. Assign a Podio Task
    Assign a native Podio Task to a Podio User.

  3. Add Comment
    Create a Comment for the current Podio Item.

  4. Make a PDF
    Create a new PDF (.pdf) file and attach it to the current Podio Item.

  5. Attach File(s)
    Attach a file or files from previously collected Items.

  6. Send Email
    Send an email to anyone.

  7. Send SMS Text
    Send an SMS Text Message.

  8. Update Item
    Update specific fields of the current Podio Item.

  9. Share Item
    Share this Podio Item with an external contact.

  10. Delete Item
    Delete the current Podio Item.

  11. Complete Item Task(s)
    Complete any or all OPEN Podio Tasks.

  12. Delete Item Task(s)
    Delete any or all OPEN Podio Tasks.

  13. Delete Comment - New Comment trigger type flows only
    Delete the triggering comment on an Item.

  14. Delete File(s)
    Delete a file or files attached to an Item.

  15. Trigger Flow on Current
    Trigger another Flow manually in this App on the current Item.

  16. Create Item
    Create a new Item in another Podio App.

  17. Build Excel Sheet
    Create an Excel (.xls) file from collected Items within a Podio App and attach to the current Podio Item

  18. Trigger Flow on Related
    Trigger another Flow manually on a referenced Item in this App or another App.

  19. Trigger Flow on Collected
    Trigger another Flow manually on collected Items in an App.

  20. Update All Referenced
    Update ALL referenced Item(s) in another App.

  21. Update Collected
    Update the found Item(s) in another App collected in a previous step.

  22. Comment on Collected
    Create a Comment on all found Items in another App collected in a previous step.

  23. Remote POST/GET
    Send data to a remote script via GET or POST and capture the result.

  24. Display Page - External Link type flows
    Display a message on a web page to a user who clicked a special link.

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