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Custom Workflows Introduction
Custom Workflows Introduction

Process your incoming data in a way that best suits you.

Updated over a week ago

Build a Custom Workflow to process your incoming Form data to best suit your business needs.

Workflows are automations that process incoming Form data and move it between GoFormz and your data systems in real time.

GoFormz offers pre-made recipes for common Workflows. These recipes include tasks like emailing or uploading completed Forms. If you need to automate Form data in a way the available recipes do not offer, then you should consider a Custom Workflow.

Manage Workflows in the Workflows tab of the GoFormz web app.

Screenshot displaying the navigation bar as displayed on the Workflows page of the GoFormz web app.

In this article you will learn about what a Custom Workflow is and how you can use it to process Form data.

Workflows and Custom Workflows

Using Custom Workflows, you create your own Workflow recipe. Each Workflow contains a series of steps. These steps include a trigger and one or more actions to create a Workflow recipe. With a Custom Workflow, you are creating your own recipe to meet your exact needs.

A common pre-made Workflow uses the trigger of a completed Form to deliver that Form to third-party storage (like Box or Google Drive). With a Custom Workflow, you can have that same trigger of a completed Form:

  • Complete another Form,

  • Send an email notification,

  • Add rows to a connected data source,

  • Export a Form to PDF and send it to your third-party storage,

  • Or all of the above at once.

Choose from a selection of triggers and actions to process incoming Form data. Below you will learn about the details of a Custom Workflow.

Custom Workflow inputs and outputs

The data provided for each Workflow step is called its input. When you create inputs, you should always specify the corresponding step input. This will assure that you receive the correct data.

Action input can be required or optional. An action with a required input will only result in a successfully completed Workflow when the user provides the requested data. If an input is optional, then the requested data will add detail but is not necessary to successfully complete the Workflow.

Each input has a corresponding output, which is the data collected from the input. The output from a step can be used as the input for any steps that follow.

Common inputs include Form Fields, Object IDs, Form metadata, and DataSet specifications. Below you will find details about each of these inputs.

Form Fields

Add GoFormz Form Fields to your action to source their collected data as part of your Workflow.

Use the Form Completed or Get Form actions to output individual Form Fields. The Create Form and Update Form actions automatically fill in individual Form Fields.

Note: While you can use field inputs from third-party apps within your actions the results may vary.

Object IDs

In GoFormz, every object has a unique 32-digit ID known as an Object ID. Examples of objects include Forms, data sources, and Templates. The image below shows an example of a Template's Object ID.
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Screenshot displaying an example of an Object ID in the form of a Template ID in the Template Editor of the GoFormz web app.

Object IDs can be used as the input in an action to identify as a data source.

Note: Please reference this article on Workflow Variables for more specific details about using variables in your Workflow.

Below is a table displaying the variable and location of commonly used Object IDs.

Variable

Location

formId

Use the formId ID to include a Form as your Workflow step input.

Access the Form you want to use in the GoFormz web app's Form Editor. You will see the 32-digit Form ID in the page URL.

Also, when you use the Form Completed trigger, the Form ID for the completed Form displays as one of the Form outputs.

formTemplateId

Use the formTemplateId ID to include a Template as your Workflow step input.

To find the formTemplateId ID, you must open the desired Template in the GoFormz web app Template Editor. You will find the 32-digit Form ID in the page URL.

Also, the Get Form action returns the Template ID for the chosen Form as a result.

dataSourceId

Use the dataSourceId ID to include a Data Source as your Workflow step input.

In the GoFormz web app, open the source you want included in your action. The corresponding 32-digit Data Source ID will display in the page URL.

Form metadata

Use Form metadata Workflow variables to capture information about a specific Form rather than about specific Form Fields.

Below you will find examples about common Form metadata variables.

Variable

Details

formName

Use formName to capture the completed Form name.

Note: Your settings may cause each Form to have a unique name.

formStatus

With the formStatus variable you capture the corresponding Form's status.

formChangeDate

Capture the timestamp for the Forms last status change using the formChangeDate variable.

This will display the month, day, year, hour, minute and second in the following format: MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss

This variable captures status changes including Form completions and transfers.

formLastUpdateDate

The formLastUpdateDate variable indicates the time of the most recent Form update.

This will display the month, day, year, hour, minute and second in the following format: MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss

formLocationLatitude

Include formLocationLatitude to capture data for the location latitude where the corresponding Form was completed.

formLocationLongitude

Use formLocationLongitude to capture location longitude data for the corresponding Form.

formAssignmentId

Include the formAssignmentId variable to capture the unique ID for the assigned Form user or group.

formAssignmentType

The formAssignmentType variable captures data indicating whether the Form is assigned to a user or group.

DataSet specifications

DataSet files in Custom Workflows are JSON files that represent a two-dimensional data table with rows and columns. Use DataSet files as inputs and outputs for your actions to collect related data.

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