Introduction
Actions are a great way to implement your sophisticated business logic without the complexity of workflows. Using the Actions component of Ultimate Forms, you can make changes in SharePoint and other systems. This includes databases, SMS, Entra ID / Active Directory and business applications. Actions are easy to confgure, even for non-technical users, they do not require deployment and are ready to run as soon as you click Save. And with 19 different action types, there is nothing you can't do!
Action Triggers
Actions can be executed in a variety of way.
- They can respond to list events (such as items being created, modified or deleted)
- They can run on a timer
- They can even be executed manually by a user. That could be accomplished via buttons on list view, form toolbar or even within the form itself.
Timer-based Actions
Let's focus on the timer-based actions. Here we have two choices. We can execute based on a date column (such as run an action two days before the Due Date, with the ability to repeat). Or we can run on a daily, weekly or monthly basis at a specific time and day (where applicable). We also have the ability to run an action every hour, for your fast-changing applications.
I'd like to focus again on hourly/daily/weekly/monthly actions. We've covered this topic before in documentation and tutorials, but there is still some confusion. Every action needs an item to run on (what we call the "current item"). It doesn't necessarily mean that the action is supposed to change this particular item. In fact is could be working with an external line-of-business application.
All it means that the column values of this item will serve as input data for the actions. Also the action execution result will be written into the action history of this item. Without a current item to run on an action cannot execute. In most cases the current item is selected implicitly. This applies to event-driven, manual or timer-based actions involving a date column. The current item is the one that was clicked on, modified or added or one with the date value matching the action settings. Say, it expires in two days and that's when the action is configured to run.
But when an action is set to run hourly/daily/etc., it is simply executed during that time and does not have a current item to run on. Didn't I just say that every action requires a current item? There is no contradiction, these timer-based action do receive a current item.
There are two ways in which it can happen. Each comes with its own set of pros and cons.
1. Static Conditions
We can provide one of more "static" conditions. What makes a condition static? Any action can accept conditions, they ensure that the action only runs when needed. For example, Status equals Completed makes sure the action only runs on completed items. In the condition settings you select a column on the left, an operator and a value on the right. For instance, "Status" was our column, "equals" was our operator and "Completed" - our value. (For more advanced users, yes, I'm omitting "always"/"after change" setting for simplicity). Now the value part is what's important now. Here you can set static values, such as Completed here. But you can also reference column values from the item, such as Due Date greater than [End Date]. In this condition we compare column values of Due Date and End Date.
Hourly/daily/etc. actions might contain one or more static conditions. When the action is triggered, it first executes the static conditions to query the list. Such as Status equals Completed will return all items with Status Completed. Now it will go over item by item and execute itself on it, passing that item as the current item. It will then execute the conditions again, this time all of them, not just static ones and continue as usual.
Please make sure to configure your conditions careful and as narrowly as possible. You don't want to waste your server resources going over thousand of items each time the action runs. Including too many items can also cause your SharePoint to be throttled by Microsoft.
2. Implicit Selection
When action contains no static conditions, we will simply take the first item from the list. We will then treat this item as the "current item" and execute the action based on its properties. This method is suitable for the majority of applications where the current item is not really important. For example, when you want to send a weekly report of open tasks, you can leave the conditions empty. Then under Items section of Action settings you would enter conditions such as Status = Open. This combination will ensure the action runs only once. Then in its actual processing it will collect and include all the open tasks.
Conclusion
When using hourly/daily/weekly/monthly action, you have a choice to make. You might want to run the action once per list or once for every item that passes your conditions. In the majority of cases, running once per list is the most efficient option. All you need to do is leave the Conditions tab blank.
