Workflows Example: Out of Office Process

Not knowing why someone is not responding to your message can be very impractical, which is why this page will explain how to display an extension to a person’s username, that will be displayed on their profile, in a chat message, or in a stream post.

Steps to create this workflow

1. As a first step, we need to build the form that will allow employees to submit their request. Go to the “Dashboard” and click on “Toolbox”, then “Forms”.
2. Set up your absence leave request form. We recommend using the date field for the start and end dates of the time off, a short text for the number of days the person will be gone and a single-select for the type of leave. In most cases, you will also want to let employees select their manager when submitting a time-off request. In this case, we recommend building the form with a ‘user select’ field at the end, which will allow your employees to select their manager, and use that input in a later step when defining who should approve the request. It should look like this:       
3. Make sure that your form is visible: Copy the link of the form by clicking on the Options > Share Form > Get Link and create a new shortcut for your form under Toolbox > Shortcuts in the Dashboard.
4. Then, create a custom profile field that will be populated automatically with an out of office message. Go to the Dashboard and select the Settings, then “Profile Fields”.
5. Add a new profile field by clicking on “+ Add Profile Field” on the right side. Select the “Text” type.
6. Label your new profile field, for example “Availability Status” or “OOO Status”. Visibility should be given to Everyone, and the User should be able to modify it.
7. Under Dashboard > Settings > General, scroll down to “Display Name” and then select the placeholder “Availability Status” in the Display Name Extension. That way, the OOO status will be shown in their profile as a display name extension until the person is back from their leave.           
8. Next, build the automation. Go to the “Dashboard” and click on “Toolbox”, then “Workflows”.
9. Click on “Create new Workflow” if this is the first workflow in your tenant or  “Add New” if there are already some workflows.
10. In the “Workflows settings'' panel enter the workflow name and optionally add a description.
11. Then click on the “Add a Trigger” placeholder to add a trigger.
12. Select “Form submitted” from the trigger list and click on “Add”.
13. Within the panel on the right side, in the field “Form name” select the Form which should trigger the workflow. This is the name of the form you created in the first steps. You can just start typing, and a proposition of forms will pop up. Select the correct form.
14. Then click on the “Add an Action”.
15. Select an Action: “Get form answer” and click on “Add”. We are going to retrieve the start date of the leave.
16. Choose the form you are trying to retrieve a form answer from. In this example, we want to retrieve the form answer to the question “What’s the first date of the leave” from the form ‘Leave Request, so we get the start date as an output in our example. This value is dynamic, meaning that if another user submits a form and selects a different date, then that date will be the output value.
17. Repeat the same two steps for the end date of the leave. Select an Action: “Get form answer” and click on “Add”. We are going to retrieve the end date of the leave.
18. Repeat the same two steps for the type of leave (e.g. wedding, vacation, training, bereavement, etc.). Select an Action: “Get form answer” and click on “Add”. We are going to retrieve the type of leave.
19. Click on the “+” below the action to add the next step.
20. Select an Action: “Retrieve user profile data” and click on “Add”.
    This step allows to get more information from the selected user’s profile such as: first and last name, role, user email, user name, # of comments, # of likes, # of posts, last activity date, profile creation date…etc. You can reference these fields in the further steps of the workflow, for example to create a dynamic file name or address the chat message or email.
21. Fill in the fields in the panel on the right side: Beekeeper user ID(s) – Enter the ID of the person who should receive the chat message. To select the ID of the Form Submitter use the Magic Variables on the left or type their name directly.
22. Click on the “+” below the action to add the next step.
23. Select an Action: “Wait until” and click on “Add”.
24. Fill in the field on the right side and select the first “Form Answer” output from the steps above. The first “Form Answer” will be your start date.
25. Click on the “+” below the action to add the next step.
26. Select an Action: “Update User Profile Field”.
27. Fill in the fields on the right side panel:
    1. User – Enter the ID of the person whose profile should be updated. To select the ID of the Form Submitter use the Magic Variables on the left or type their name directly.
    2. Field name – Select the profile field name that should be changed. In our example, it is called “Availability Status”.
    3. Field value – Choose what should be displayed in the Availability Status profile field of the user. We recommend for example: “On {{Answer}} until {{Answer}}”, the first {{Answer}} variable being the Type of Leave that we retrieved higher up, and the second {{Answer}} being the end date of their leave.
28. [Optional] If you want to send a chat message to confirm to the user that their availability status has been updated, you can do so by clicking on the “+” below the action to add the next step.
29. Fill out the fields on the right:
    1. Send to – Enter the ID of the person who should receive the chat message. To select the ID of the Form Submitter use the Magic Variables on the left or type their name directly.
    2. Message – Draft your message. You could write something like “Your availability status has been updated in your profile.”
30. Click on the “+” below the action to add the next step.
31. Select an Action: “Wait until” and click on “Add”.
32. Fill in the field on the right side and select the second “Form Answer” output from the steps above. The second “Form Answer” will be your end date this time.
33. Click on the “+” below the action to add the next step.
34. Select an Action: “Update User Profile Field”.
35. Fill in the fields on the right side panel:
    1. User – Enter the ID of the person whose profile should be updated. To select the ID of the Form Submitter use the Magic Variables on the left or type their name directly.
    2. Field name – Select the profile field name that should be changed. In our example, it is called “Availability Status”.
    3. Field value – Leave it empty, so that the profile field will be updated as soon as the person is back from their leave.
36. [Optional] If you want to send a chat message to confirm to the user that their availability status has been updated, you can do so by clicking on the “+” below the action to add the next step.
37. Fill out the fields on the right:
    1. Send to – Enter the ID of the person who should receive the chat message. To select the ID of the Form Submitter use the Magic Variables on the left or type their name directly.
    2. Message – Draft your message. You could write something like “Your availability status has been updated in your profile.”
38. Validate and save your workflow. Now that your entire workflow is ready you can validate the trigger and each action and save if everything is correct. The system will not let you save the workflows in case something is missing or not correct. Correctly updated trigger and actions will have a green checkmark, while incorrectly updated trigger or actions will have a red cross and the field which is not updated will be highlighted in red.
39. When the trigger and all actions have a green checkmark, you can save the workflow.
40. Flip the toggle to activate the workflow.