Using placeholder to include today's date on workflow alert

Hi,

I'm creating a workflow that sends an alert to specific people every Monday at 9am. I want to include today's date in the subject line of that alert. Is it possible to add a placeholder to the subject field to include today's date?

Thanks,

Answers

  • Max329
    Max329 ✭✭

    I have a second request on this. Besides adding today's date, I'd also like to add line breaks (i.e new paragraphs) in the message description. Are both of these possible and if yes, can you please provide instructions?

  • Andrée Starå
    Andrée Starå ✭✭✭✭✭✭

    Hi@Max329

    I hope you're well and safe!

    1. You can add a so-called helper column with the following formula and then make it a column formula, so it's included on each row. Formula: =TODAY()
    2. You can add the new line by pressing enter or similar. It should show as it's shown in the text area.

    Did that work/help?

    I hope that helps!

    Be safe, and have a fantastic weekend!

    Best,

    Andrée Starå| Workflow Consultant / CEO @WORK BOLD

    Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community bymarking it Insightful/Vote Up, Awesome, or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

    SMARTSHEET EXPERT CONSULTANT & PARTNER

    Andrée Starå| Workflow Consultant / CEO @WORK BOLD

    W:www.workbold.com| E:[email protected]| P: +46 (0) - 72 - 510 99 35

    Feel free to contact me about help with Smartsheet, integrations, general workflow advice, or something else entirely.

  • Max329
    Max329 ✭✭

    Hi@Andrée Starå,

    Thank you for your response. Adding a new line for paragraph breaks worked but I'm still unable to add today's date to the subject line. I'm not familiar with helper columns but I followed your instructions and added aToday's Datecolumn to my smartsheet. I then added =TODAY() for each row of the smartsheet and they are all accurately showing today's date. But when I then add {{Today's Date}} as a placeholder in the subject line of the workflow alert, the email subject shows(470 entries)instead of the date and it includes a message for each row in the alert (meaning there are 470 separate messages).

    See attached for the email alert I received from smartsheet as well as the workflow I've setup. Please let me know how I can fix to have Smartsheet only send 1 message including today's date in the subject line.

    Best,



  • Andrée Starå
    Andrée Starå ✭✭✭✭✭✭

    @Max329

    Happy to help!

    Can you share some screenshots of the sheet?(Delete/replace any confidential/sensitive information before sharing) That would make it easier to help.

    Also, below is more info on how it works with the Placeholder feature.

    Placeholders will generate separate notifications when using placeholders with Alert or Update Request actions in change-based workflows if six or fewer rows are triggered simultaneously. If seven or more rows are triggered at once, the custom subject and body will be removed.

    Remember!Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community bymarking it Insightful/Vote Up/Awesome or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

    SMARTSHEET EXPERT CONSULTANT & PARTNER

    Andrée Starå| Workflow Consultant / CEO @WORK BOLD

    W:www.workbold.com| E:[email protected]| P: +46 (0) - 72 - 510 99 35

    Feel free to contact me about help with Smartsheet, integrations, general workflow advice, or something else entirely.

  • Max329
    Max329 ✭✭

    Hi@Andrée Starå,

    请看附呈我的内容,我没有包括ny data but you can see the various rows including the Today's Date one. I'm trying to send a weekly email out to everyone shared on the sheet with 1 message that includes today's date in the subject line and includes some messaging and a link to a reporting dashboard in the body.

    Best,


  • Max329
    Max329 ✭✭

    @Andrée Staråare you able to help me with this?

  • @Max329We are running in to the same issue and have the same request. Did you find anything out? Is this feature possible?

  • Max329
    Max329 ✭✭

    @JessicaDunfortunately no, I didn't receive any other guidance so haven't been able to successfully set this up.

What type of plan are you on? Certain plan types require that a system admin give you permission to access group management.<\/p>


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Yes. The \"Field Name\" is the column name. The \"Field Label\" is just what appears in the form.<\/p>"}]}},"status":{"statusID":3,"name":"Accepted","state":"closed","recordType":"discussion","recordSubType":"question"},"bookmarked":false,"unread":false,"category":{"categoryID":321,"name":"Smartsheet Basics","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/categories\/smartsheet-basics%2B","allowedDiscussionTypes":[]},"reactions":[{"tagID":3,"urlcode":"Promote","name":"Promote","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":5,"count":0},{"tagID":5,"urlcode":"Insightful","name":"Insightful","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":1,"count":0},{"tagID":11,"urlcode":"Up","name":"Vote Up","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":1,"count":0},{"tagID":13,"urlcode":"Awesome","name":"Awesome","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":1,"count":0}],"tags":[]},{"discussionID":109197,"type":"question","name":"Forms","excerpt":"I created two different forms and the data entered on both of them is saved in the same sheet. How do I get it to save on two separate sheets?","snippet":"I created two different forms and the data entered on both of them is saved in the same sheet. How do I get it to save on two separate sheets?","categoryID":321,"dateInserted":"2023-08-21T14:53:07+00:00","dateUpdated":null,"dateLastComment":"2023-08-21T21:46:32+00:00","insertUserID":165409,"insertUser":{"userID":165409,"name":"mpatton","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/profile\/mpatton","photoUrl":"https:\/\/aws.smartsheet.com\/storageProxy\/image\/images\/u!1!zDPQszzjyv0!iTHSYpyQ8H0!4mIm1J-gpMN","dateLastActive":"2023-08-21T23:16:32+00:00","banned":0,"punished":0,"private":false,"label":"✭"},"updateUserID":null,"lastUserID":45516,"lastUser":{"userID":45516,"name":"Paul Newcome","title":"","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/profile\/Paul%20Newcome","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6031209\/uploads\/userpics\/082\/nQPUTVFKKWDJ2.jpg","dateLastActive":"2023-08-22T12:31:13+00:00","banned":0,"punished":0,"private":false,"label":"✭✭✭✭✭✭"},"pinned":false,"pinLocation":null,"closed":false,"sink":false,"countComments":5,"countViews":28,"score":null,"hot":3385286979,"url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/109197\/forms","canonicalUrl":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/109197\/forms","format":"Rich","lastPost":{"discussionID":109197,"commentID":391727,"name":"Re: Forms","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/comment\/391727#Comment_391727","dateInserted":"2023-08-21T21:46:32+00:00","insertUserID":45516,"insertUser":{"userID":45516,"name":"Paul Newcome","title":"","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/profile\/Paul%20Newcome","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6031209\/uploads\/userpics\/082\/nQPUTVFKKWDJ2.jpg","dateLastActive":"2023-08-22T12:31:13+00:00","banned":0,"punished":0,"private":false,"label":"✭✭✭✭✭✭"}},"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Home","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/"},{"name":"Get Help","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/categories\/get-help"},{"name":"Smartsheet Basics","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/categories\/smartsheet-basics%2B"}],"groupID":null,"statusID":3,"attributes":{"question":{"status":"accepted","dateAccepted":"2023-08-21T20:23:16+00:00","dateAnswered":"2023-08-21T19:38:23+00:00","acceptedAnswers":[{"commentID":391698,"body":"

You would create the sheet first, then you can click on \"Forms\" in the top right corner of the new sheet to create the form.<\/p>


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If you need a bunch of the same columns, You can \"Save as new\" the existing sheet and then just delete whatever you don't need from each sheet.<\/p>"}]}},"status":{"statusID":3,"name":"Accepted","state":"closed","recordType":"discussion","recordSubType":"question"},"bookmarked":false,"unread":false,"category":{"categoryID":321,"name":"Smartsheet Basics","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/categories\/smartsheet-basics%2B","allowedDiscussionTypes":[]},"reactions":[{"tagID":3,"urlcode":"Promote","name":"Promote","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":5,"count":0},{"tagID":5,"urlcode":"Insightful","name":"Insightful","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":1,"count":0},{"tagID":11,"urlcode":"Up","name":"Vote Up","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":1,"count":0},{"tagID":13,"urlcode":"Awesome","name":"Awesome","class":"Positive","hasReacted":false,"reactionValue":1,"count":0}],"tags":[]}],"initialPaging":{"nextURL":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/api\/v2\/discussions?page=2&categoryID=321&includeChildCategories=1&type%5B0%5D=Question&excludeHiddenCategories=1&sort=-hot&limit=3&expand%5B0%5D=all&expand%5B1%5D=-body&expand%5B2%5D=insertUser&expand%5B3%5D=lastUser&status=accepted","prevURL":null,"currentPage":1,"total":4966,"limit":3},"title":"Trending in Smartsheet Basics","subtitle":null,"description":null,"noCheckboxes":true,"containerOptions":[],"discussionOptions":[]}">

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