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

  • 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.

  • 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 Date列内容。我今天又说= ()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.

  • 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,


  • @Andrée Staråare you able to help me with this?

Hi @David Sprague<\/a>, <\/p>

I hope you're well and safe!<\/p>

There's a known issue at the moment.<\/p>

I'll get back to the post if I can find the thread.<\/p>

I hope that helps!<\/p>

Be safe, and have a fantastic weekend!<\/p>

Best,<\/p>

Andrée Starå<\/strong><\/a> | Workflow Consultant \/ CEO @ WORK BOLD<\/strong><\/a><\/p>

Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community by <\/em>marking it Insightful\/Vote Up, Awesome, or\/and as the accepted answer<\/em><\/strong>. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!<\/em><\/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":108880,"type":"question","name":"Recover a Row that was accidentally moved then deleted","excerpt":"I was attempting to copy a row from sheet 1 to sheet 2, but I accidentally moved the row then deleted it, but then realized belatedly that the original (now deleted) data in sheet 1 had been moved. Apparently one can not simply use the \"undo action\" arrow after moving something--the option is grayed out as in not…","snippet":"I was attempting to copy a row from sheet 1 to sheet 2, but I accidentally moved the row then deleted it, but then realized belatedly that the original (now deleted) data in sheet…","categoryID":321,"dateInserted":"2023-08-11T22:27:56+00:00","dateUpdated":null,"dateLastComment":"2023-08-12T05:12:42+00:00","insertUserID":165013,"insertUser":{"userID":165013,"name":"GlennJo","title":"Riparian Stewardship Program Manager","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/profile\/GlennJo","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6031209\/uploads\/defaultavatar\/nWRMFRX6I99I6.jpg","dateLastActive":"2023-08-12T03:46:04+00:00","banned":0,"punished":0,"private":false,"label":"✭"},"updateUserID":null,"lastUserID":165013,"lastUser":{"userID":165013,"name":"GlennJo","title":"Riparian Stewardship Program Manager","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/profile\/GlennJo","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6031209\/uploads\/defaultavatar\/nWRMFRX6I99I6.jpg","dateLastActive":"2023-08-12T03:46:04+00:00","banned":0,"punished":0,"private":false,"label":"✭"},"pinned":false,"pinLocation":null,"closed":false,"sink":false,"countComments":2,"countViews":29,"score":null,"hot":3383611238,"url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/108880\/recover-a-row-that-was-accidentally-moved-then-deleted","canonicalUrl":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/108880\/recover-a-row-that-was-accidentally-moved-then-deleted","format":"Rich","lastPost":{"discussionID":108880,"commentID":390348,"name":"Re: Recover a Row that was accidentally moved then deleted","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/comment\/390348#Comment_390348","dateInserted":"2023-08-12T05:12:42+00:00","insertUserID":165013,"insertUser":{"userID":165013,"name":"GlennJo","title":"Riparian Stewardship Program Manager","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/profile\/GlennJo","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6031209\/uploads\/defaultavatar\/nWRMFRX6I99I6.jpg","dateLastActive":"2023-08-12T03:46:04+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":"2023-08-12T03:46:02+00:00","dateAnswered":"2023-08-11T23:45:38+00:00","acceptedAnswers":[{"commentID":390342,"body":"

\n \n https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/108880\/recover-a-row-that-was-accidentally-moved-then-deleted\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n

Hey @GlennJo<\/a>,<\/p>

the sheet should be available in the owner of the sheet, deleted files. If it is specifically a row of data that was deleted, you can try checking the activity log to see if it shows the removed data there.<\/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":108822,"type":"question","name":"Activity Log | Rows Deleted Filter","excerpt":"I've got a conundrum on my hands where a record has gone missing. In the Activity Log, I'm able to find the record of when it was created. However, there is nothing I'm seeing indicating that it was deleted (even though the Activity Log doesn't have a specific filter for this, I traced through the log for the past 11 days…","snippet":"I've got a conundrum on my hands where a record has gone missing. In the Activity Log, I'm able to find the record of when it was created. However, there is nothing I'm seeing…","categoryID":321,"dateInserted":"2023-08-10T21:46:08+00:00","dateUpdated":null,"dateLastComment":"2023-08-10T22:01:16+00:00","insertUserID":121055,"insertUser":{"userID":121055,"name":"Jake Gustafson","title":"","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/profile\/Jake%20Gustafson","photoUrl":"https:\/\/aws.smartsheet.com\/storageProxy\/image\/images\/u!1!-lnW91tuGTw!bO9UmyNQSXQ!WUYBUm0HF6t","dateLastActive":"2023-08-11T20:29:49+00:00","banned":0,"punished":0,"private":false,"label":"✭✭✭✭✭✭"},"updateUserID":null,"lastUserID":121055,"lastUser":{"userID":121055,"name":"Jake Gustafson","title":"","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/profile\/Jake%20Gustafson","photoUrl":"https:\/\/aws.smartsheet.com\/storageProxy\/image\/images\/u!1!-lnW91tuGTw!bO9UmyNQSXQ!WUYBUm0HF6t","dateLastActive":"2023-08-11T20:29:49+00:00","banned":0,"punished":0,"private":false,"label":"✭✭✭✭✭✭"},"pinned":false,"pinLocation":null,"closed":false,"sink":false,"countComments":2,"countViews":37,"score":null,"hot":3383410044,"url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/108822\/activity-log-rows-deleted-filter","canonicalUrl":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/108822\/activity-log-rows-deleted-filter","format":"Rich","tagIDs":[447],"lastPost":{"discussionID":108822,"commentID":390131,"name":"Re: Activity Log | Rows Deleted Filter","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/discussion\/comment\/390131#Comment_390131","dateInserted":"2023-08-10T22:01:16+00:00","insertUserID":121055,"insertUser":{"userID":121055,"name":"Jake Gustafson","title":"","url":"https:\/\/community.smartsheet.com\/profile\/Jake%20Gustafson","photoUrl":"https:\/\/aws.smartsheet.com\/storageProxy\/image\/images\/u!1!-lnW91tuGTw!bO9UmyNQSXQ!WUYBUm0HF6t","dateLastActive":"2023-08-11T20:29:49+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,"image":{"url":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6031209\/uploads\/SIFFD1TSN3Q6\/image.png","urlSrcSet":{"10":"","300":"","800":"","1200":"","1600":""},"alt":"image.png"},"attributes":{"question":{"status":"accepted","dateAccepted":"2023-08-10T22:01:20+00:00","dateAnswered":"2023-08-10T22:01:16+00:00","acceptedAnswers":[{"commentID":390131,"body":"

Ok, I found it. Classic case of submit something for help, then find the answer. I think what may have happened previously, is that I turned on all the filters, but since there isn't one for a Deleted Row, maybe the Deleted Row was hidden. When I came back, I didn't click anything on the filters for the Activity Log and when scrolling through looking for the 'magic' delete word, I found the record I was looking for.<\/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":[{"tagID":447,"urlcode":"activity-log","name":"Activity Log"}]}],"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":4941,"limit":3},"title":"Trending in Smartsheet Basics","subtitle":null,"description":null,"noCheckboxes":true,"containerOptions":[],"discussionOptions":[]}">

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