6. Tonkean Foundations - Actions and Triggers
In Tonkean, your module workflow is made up of triggers, which look for a certain condition or update to activate, and actions, which are the processes the module takes when the relevant trigger is activated. In this way, Tonkean modules operate on a "when, do" model: "when" a particular condition occurs (such as a user submitting a request interface, "do" a series of actions (such as assigning a category to the request and assigning it to the appropriate reviewer).
Let's look at actions and triggers individually in more detail. Select the links about the relevant action types or triggers to read more about each one:
Actions
Actions are the core logic components of a Tonkean module. They respond to the triggers you've set up and, broadly, do one of three things: communicate with a person, act on or manipulate data, or interact with a data source. There are a large number of actions you can take within Tonkean, and we've broken them up into four specific categories:
People Coordination - People Coordination actions allow a module to interact with people in various ways. These actions range in complexity from simply notifying someone that a process has completed to something as complex as asking a series of question in order to route data or documents to a targeted location.
Workflow - Workflow actions provide more conventional options for interacting with other systems, such as updating fields, setting delays before continuing a process, or leveraging AI and machine learning for text extraction or optical character recognition (OCR).
Data - Data actions provide access to your data sources and take the actions relevant to those sources (for example, sending an email using Gmail). Tonkean features native support for most common apps and data sources while offering the option to integrate a custom data source.
Sequence - Sequence actions are special actions that are only available within an interface or form sequence. In this context, a sequence is a trigger and its related series of actions that correspond with a guided experience (the most common example is an intake sequence).
Triggers
Triggers function like "when" statements. At least one trigger must be created for a module to work, but the trigger can range in complexity from beginning a process when a new item is created (such as a new Salesforce opportunity) to containing numerous "if" statements that target specific conditions (such as only opportunities that fit certain parameters).
Item is Added - The workflow runs when a new item is added, whether that item is generated from an update in the intake source or is added manually. This is the primary trigger type in the module.
Interface Submitted - The workflow runs when an interface, such as for a new internal request, is submitted by a user.
Form Filled - The workflow runs when a Tonkean create or update form is submitted by a user.
Match Conditions - The workflow runs when any item matches the "if" criteria specified. This trigger is especially helpful for running workflow logic when a combination of conditions occurs, such as the item status changing to "In Progress" while being greater than X days old, for example.
Field Changed - The workflow runs when the value of a specified field changes. In addition to monitoring for any change, this trigger can also activate when the selected field changes to a specific value.
Button Clicked - The workflow runs when the specified button is selected on an item interface or workspace app.
On Scheduled - The workflow runs at a specified time and date, or at a specified interval, such as every 3 days or every week.