Working with Your Records in Workflows

What the Record Steps Are

A workflow can look up a record, find records, add a record, change a record, and work through a long list of records. These are five steps, and they work with any module in any of your apps, including the modules you made yourself: Get a Record (action core.record_get), Find Records (core.record_find), Create a Record (core.record_create), Update a Record (core.record_update), and For Each Record (core.record_for_each). They appear in the list of actions your assistant sees, and saving a workflow checks their inputs like any other step.

Who a Record Step Runs As

A record step runs as the person who turned the workflow on, with that person's access at the time of the step, not the access they had when they turned it on. It uses the same checks the screens use: that person's role, which fields are hidden or read only for them, the records they may see, and Client Protection. If a person could not open or change a record on a screen, the workflow cannot either.

• If that person is turned off or removed, the step stops and says so: "The person who turned this workflow on no longer has access." Nothing runs as anyone else. Turn the workflow on again to choose who it runs as.
• A workflow that was never turned on has nobody to run as. A record step in it stops and says "Turn this workflow on." Press Run only on a workflow that is on.
• Turning a workflow off clears who it ran as. Turning it on again records the person who turned it on.
• A workflow turned on before record steps existed has no person recorded, and turns on again to choose one. This matters only for workflows with record steps.

Marked as a Workflow

Every record a step changes shows "via workflow" in its history, next to the person it ran as. The Activity Log also has one line for each step that names the workflow, the run, and the step, such as Workflow "Tidy Up" run 42 step each: worked 4 records of custom.vendors. A change a workflow makes never starts another workflow, an automation, or a rule, so a workflow can never start itself.

Passwords Are Never Touched

A login field (a saved web address, user name, and password) can never be set by a step. A step that tries stops with "A workflow cannot set a login field." A password typed into a step is not saved at all. A record that is read by a step comes back the way it shows on screen, with a login shown without its password.

Get a Record

Pick the kind of record and its number. The step hands the record's values on to the steps after it (for example, a later step can use the email the record holds). A hidden field is left out. The run keeps only the record's number, its version, and yes or no for found. The values themselves are kept with the run in your own account and shown to no one else.

Find Records

Pick the kind of record and, if you like, up to 5 checks that all have to match: is, is not, is more than, is at least, is less than, is at most, contains, starts with, is there, and is not there. Capital letters and extra spaces do not matter, and 1,250 is the same as 1250 for numbers. You cannot check a field you cannot see, or a login.

Records come oldest first. The step keeps these settings:

• Records per page is how many matching records the step hands on. It starts at 200 and cannot be more than 200.
• Records per run is how many records one run of the step looks at, matching or not. It starts at 1,000 and cannot be more than 1,000.
• Offset is the place in the list to start. Find Records tells you where it stopped (next_offset) and whether it reached the end (done), so a long list can be worked a piece at a time.

A person limited by Client Protection finds only what the screens would list for them.

Create a Record and Update a Record

Pick the kind of record and the values to save, as field names and values. Values can come from earlier steps like in any other step. Update a Record also takes a record number and, if you give a version, refuses a record that changed since you read it. The same checks as a screen apply: required fields, the right kind of value, read only fields, and conflicts with other clients. Each step hands on the record's number.

For Each Record

For Each Record does something for every record that matches, a limited number at a time, and remembers where it stopped so the next run carries on. It is for lists too long for one run.

• Records per run of this step (1 to 200, starting at 200) is how many records it works.
• Records looked at per run (1 to 1,000, starting at 1,000) is how many it reads to find them.
• Batch size (1 to 20, starting at 1) is how many records are worked before the place is saved. Records are changed one at a time, so with 1 the place is saved after every record. A try after a crash starts again from the last saved place.
• Checks are the same as Find Records.
• Place name is the name for where this step stopped. With a name, the next run of the same step starts where this one stopped, and when the list is finished the place is cleared so the next run starts from the top. Without a name, each run starts at the offset you set.
• Steps for each record are one to five: Get a Record, Create a Record, Update a Record, or Tell People Something Is Waiting. Inside them, {record.id} is the current record's number and {record.name} (any field key) is its value. A step that has no record number of its own uses the current record.

A record that cannot be changed (a field rule, a value that does not fit) is counted in failed and the step goes on to the next record. After 5 such records the step stops and gives the last reason. When it finishes, it hands on how many it worked (processed), how many failed, how many it looked at (scanned), where it stopped (next_offset), and whether it reached the end (done).

The place is a position in the list, so if records earlier in the list are deleted between runs, a few records may be skipped. Run a workflow that deletes records rarely, or clear the place.

Test Runs

A test run checks the step's inputs and says what it would do. Create a Record, Update a Record, and For Each Record change nothing in a test. Get a Record and Find Records read nothing in a test either, and show an empty answer, so a test never opens a record.

Limits and What They Count

A For Each Record step works at most 200 records and runs at most 5 steps for each, so at most 1,000 record changes in one run of the step. A Records per page or Records per run above its cap is refused when the step runs or is tested. Every record step counts as an action in Usage when it changes data.

What Is Kept

A run keeps record numbers, counts, and yes or no. It does not keep field text in its log. Get a Record and Find Records hand values on to later steps, and these are kept with the run in your account and are part of Export Everything. No one outside your account can see them.

Who Can Do What

Anyone who may manage workflows can build a workflow with record steps. What the steps can do depends on the person who turns the workflow on: they cannot do anything that person could not do on a screen. Your AI assistant can save a workflow with record steps, and only a person turns it on.