👂 Feedback needed: scripts in automations that shouldn't be scripts

[Dimitri_S]

+1 for formulas getting some love.

I’ve largely moved away from using scripts for automations because they are so fragile because unlike automations the code doesn’t get updated when you change field names and the code is hidden away and easy to forget unlike formula fields.

That being said, a few use case where formula fields aren’t sufficient and I’ve almost had to result to scripts is for required field validation. I know it’s hard to implement in Fibery but even a soft validation of “if this field is empty make this other field border red” or similar would be nice. Not that you can do it in scripts… I have been tempted to use scripts to send a Slack message or similar notification after some time.

Otherwise up end up with a rather ugly formula like this:

[Dimitri_S]

Can’t you do intervals of 12 months already? I believe for one test automation where I wanted it to only ever run once I was able to set it to 88 months.

[JackC]

The most encountered one for me is that adding a thing to a multiple select field (without removing the existing things) requires a script. Can’t even do it as a formula as far as I can tell. It shouldn’t be that complicated.

The other one that would be useful is formulas in the automation filters. So many formula fields that just equate to “does this one automation that runs monthly pick this?” and don’t need to be recalculated every time anything relevant changes.

[Michael_Ichter]

It seems like you’re talking about the frequency of the automation to run (like if it is running on schedule). I’m talking about a filter for an entity’s field, for example “modification date”. For “is within” there is the option of “the next year”, but for all the other date filters (like “is before” and “is after”) the furthest you can go is “one month ago” or “one month from now”.

[helloitse]

Concatenate an encoded URL

New Formula: URL Encoder

It would be great to have encode and decode formulas generating URLs.

I currently use scripts to generate pre-filled Calendly URLs. All the values are in Fibery already but scripts are the only way to encode text.

Automatically set State or Select Fields
I have to use a script to read text fields (from integrations) or extract data from date fields to set the value of State fields and select fields. Examples:

• convert the Deal Stage from Hubspot Integration to a Fibery State.
• set the “Quarter” dropdown given the fiscal quarter of the date field in the Payments database
  It would be great if we could set rules for these field types just as we do for relation fields.

Call a webhook/URL

Emit Webhook as an Action

I’m looking to loop external softwares into actions taken within Fibery. For example, whenever an automation is triggered or a button pressed, I’d want to be able to emit a network call to a specific endpoint, and include query param and body data, pulled dynamically from the entity that triggered the automation (or table which owns the button). Is this possible, currently? It would let me use other services like Make or N8N for very complex automation workflows, based on events from within Fibe…

It’d be a significant UX improvement to create a webhook action instead of writing JS to call webhooks.

Using the Outputs of Prior Script Steps

Do automation actions return step results? Can we use them further down the automation stack?

In my experience, no. I hope this is an update released this year. This kind of functionality makes developing in Airtable quick and easy. It would no doubt save time when building in Fibery too. In my case I need to generate an 8 character alphanumeric string as part of a user friendly ID. This part is easily handled by a script. It would be ideal if I can simply return this string from the script and then reference it as a step result later in my automation.

Many low-code builders allow for thew use of scripts within the workflow and setting properties with the UI. Zapier, HubSpot, and Airtable come to mind most easily. Right now, only other script actions can use the outputs from a script action. In practice, we want to update properties, add the outputs to emails or slack messages using the outputs of a script.

[Robert_B]

Hi Antonio, I want to share something that I think would be a fantastic addition - though it’s kind of the opposite of what you’re asking!

There is a script area that could hugely benefit from AI:

If I want to add a button:

If I choose script I get this:

This section doesn’t allow for AI but it would help tremendously and make customers’ experience better and less complex.

[mdubakov]

@Robert_B

This section doesn’t allow for AI

Can you clarify this please? Do you want to use AI from this section or create script using AI?

[Robert_B]

Yes, create/edit script with AI like n8n, pipedream, zaiper do it in similar contexts - getting the aid of ai would be very helpful here.

I more aggressively tried out the ai space building/modifications of Fibery more recently and it’s extremely good.

[mdubakov]

@Robert_B

Yes, create/edit script with AI like n8n, pipedream, zaiper do it in similar contexts - getting the aid of ai would be very helpful here.

This is in progress already

[carson]

@helloitse

Call a webhook/URL

+1 for easier http call/webhook emit UI.

[Illusory]

@Robert_B

Yes, create/edit script with AI like n8n, pipedream, zaiper do it in similar contexts - getting the aid of ai would be very helpful here.

@Robert_B Related! 🤖 Feature Request: AI Generation for Scripts

@mdubakov

This is in progress already

Very glad to hear this is in progress. Any timeline? I know back in Feb this was not any where near on the roadmap.

[Illusory]

100% to all of these mentioned. We do the same.

I think POST to webook would be at the top of the list.

We should be able to trigger a webhook and send some or ALL entity data to the webhook.

This is a big missing piece to Fibery actions. We make due with scripts but it is annoying to have to create an entire script just use a button or rule action.

[Chr1sG]

I think it would be nice if doing this didn’t require a script, but it’s probably not something that needs to be available in automations, just added (as an option?) to the existing ‘Convert to …’ functionality.

[Michael_Ichter]

This would be great! We regularly turn meetings into other things, like a reference article or into a new project.

[helloitse]

I noticed today that making changes to the rich text field in my wiki database did not update the modification date for the entity. I created a rule that checks a box, uses a script to wait a few seconds, then unchecks the box but it’d be nice to have a setting that lets us include rich text field changes in the calculation.

[YvetteLans]

Awesome if automations can be improved

High prio for us

@interr0bangr

Formulas within automation filters! Would unlock so much more power and minimize many complex workarounds for things.

@interr0bangr

• There’s no way to do multiple/splitting paths (IF statements) in automations without a script.

@interr0bangr

There’s no way to do auto-links with any other condition besides EQUALS, which means we often need to rely on scripts to link related entities for CONTAINS/IS ONE OF scenarios.

@interr0bangr

“Union” function (essentially the existing “Join” function, only with references to entities instead of just a text field)

@interr0bangr

“ToNumber” function** (the opposite of the existing “ToText” function)

@interr0bangr

When using the “Link entity” action in automations, you can use a formula, but when you use the “Unlink entity” action, you cannot use formulas.

@interr0bangr

There is a “User Input” option for button automations, but not for rule automations.

@helloitse

Automatically set State or Select Fields

Automations: Support entity references like "[Step 1 linked item]" in markdown-template Actions

Unlike formulas, automation markdown-template Actions (e.g. “Append to Document”) do not currently support Rule-entity references like [Step 1 linked item].

@Matt_Blais

Transcluding fields from other entities (i.e., JOINs)

Awesome, but lower prio
Since we already found a solution. But would be great if we can simplify our (quite complex) workspace.

@sereganabokar

Sending notifications in Telegram.

Recurring tasks

@njyo

Would be nice if the whole thing can just be compiled with Markdown. Also, the formatting of dates and date ranges is still very unclear.

@njyo

Setting icon, states and emojis if formula:

@helloitse

Call a webhook/URL