How to Create a Trigger

Step 1

Creating a Trigger

Creating a trigger is very easy to set up if you just go to System > then go down to Manage Triggers > and just click through to Create New Triggers.

 

Firstly, create a new trigger and then give it a new title.

 Now, there are many different triggers that you can set up. I will take you through a few and show you which one we will choose today. To begin with, we will look at the formatting options you have for creating a trigger

 

Step 2

Formatting Options for Creating a Trigger

When you are creating your trigger, you need to decide on the following details:

 

Title

Insert the Title you want for the Trigger. For example if you want to set a trigger on a staff member's birthday, you might name it ‘Birthday reminder’.

Note

You can add a quick note about what the trigger is for as a reminder to yourself. 

Triggered When

You need to decide what action triggers a response (I will show you the actions in a minute). So, if I want something to be triggered, e.g., a document or something similar, you can choose from the drop-down list when you want it to be triggered and what will trigger this action.

 

So effectively, if you go through and have a look, I could choose, for example, ‘when account details are updated’, ‘when a staff contract is changed’ or when a personal record has been added. You can get any of these to then trigger an action. Other options included when a staff member is added to a venue or assigned to a skill, certificate, absence awards, field dates, or any of these things.

 

You can scroll through and have a little look at these and see if any of them you might use. I'm going to put in a birthday. I want a birthday reminder, so basically, I can get this triggered so I don't have to worry about it and will be reminded of that. 

Exempt Level

You can also include an exempt level, so if there are certain people or levels that you don't want to be included in this trigger you can put that in here under exempt level.  

For example, you might decide you don't need system managers or freelancers to have a birthday reminder so you can choose to exempt them. 

You can create an even broader exemption by only setting the trigger to certain groups. By default, it's set to include all staff, but you could say you only wanted to apply this to certain venues, for example, or specific venue groups.

 

Step 3

Adding an Action

Now you have created the trigger, it's going to what you want the trigger to do and what is the action it should take. 

Title

So again, you can set your title. Then you will need to format your action options.

What Should We Do?

The system is going to ask what you want it the action to do once the trigger is released. 

You should be able to see a drop-down menu under this heading with a variety of different options, including following the trigger ‘Do you want to add an exam?’ Or 'Do you want to assign a task for the line managers?’.

By choosing an option here, you give the trigger a consequence. For example, if you chose 'Do you want to assign a task for the line managers?’ this would mean that a task would be assigned to the line managers, such as sending out a notification once the trigger is released. Or you could choose instead to ‘email the team’ or to ‘send an email to line managers’. Our most recent addition to actions is to 'Assign a Check-in form'.

Once you choose your options, additional formatting options for that specific action will drop down. For example, it will give you space to include the email subject.

 

Step 4

Dynamic Formatting

You then have the option of including dynamic formatting options, which work in a similar way to mail merge. This option provides more detail to your trigger.

 

 

So how it works is you have to copy and paste which features you want to include into the main text box. For example if you copy ‘Name; here into the text, it'll then include the full name of whoever triggered the event.

Another example is if you copy and paste ‘link’, the system will go through to find the name, and then it will also give a link to their account.  This is so the actual line manager will know the name and the link to the account of the person who triggered the event, and they'll be able to know whose birthday it is. 

 

Once that has all been put in there, you have an action ready to go. If you want to put in another action, you can include multiple actions.

 

Finally, head back to view the triggers you have created. Then, to turn the trigger on, just switch it on, and it will turn green. 

 

Overview

This means that now when a staff member's birthday is approaching, a birthday reminder will be triggered.

There will be exempt levels here for those specified who will not trigger an action. 

 

Then, equally, what will happen if their action is triggered? For example, an email will be sent to my line managers. They will get the email ‘It's team members' birthday today! Name and a link to whoever has triggered this event and, therefore, has a birthday today. 

 

It is worth noting that triggers can be set up with many different alterations, as you can see there’s a variety of action options so it is a good idea to go through them, have a little look and see if our triggers can save you some time today.