Send table data in email

Key Concepts

• Converting a filtered table to Markdown for sending specific data via email
• Converting tables to common file types such as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV
• Inserting the converted table into the body of an email

Autogenerated Transcript

Welcome back to Catalytic! In our last video, we went over how to pre populate web forms using table data to fill in fields automatically.

In this video, which will be the last in our core video series for data processing using catalytic tables, we’ll be going over different ways that a user can display table information outside of the platform.

The two main ways to do this are converting a table to Markdown and inserting it into an email to have a table viewable in plain text or converting the table to a common file type, such as Excel or CSV.

The data that will be sent is going to be from the application table users, which will be filtered for active users only.

To get started, I’m just going to go ahead and navigate over to our workflows.

And I’m going to go ahead and create one from scratch.

I’ll go ahead and give this workflow a name.

Something that’s just easy to keep track of since we’ll be sending table data via email for this workflow, we’re going to keep the rest of the fields as is.

And let’s go ahead and create that.

I’m not going to be adding a trigger or any form fields to this process, because the table we need already exists in our data tab.

So we don’t need any additional information to point to it.

The first step that we’ll be adding is going to be the filter step.

So let’s go ahead and describe that process.

So I’ll close out of our triggers and fields.

And I’m just going to describe the filter table.

Since we’re going to be filtering that application table by active users.

And catalytic grabbed the correct step of tables apply filters.

This is a powerful step that lets you apply logic to your data to filter out unwanted information.

This step is kind of similar to look up data in a column since it allows you to define the data you want, however, you’ll get a table rather than a single result as your output.

Let’s go ahead and set up this action.

We’re going to configure everything by name because the table already exists in our data tap.

So the table that we want is going to be that application table users.

So go ahead and search for that.

And the column that we’re going to be filtering by is going to be the deactivated column.

So let’s go ahead and select that one.

The deactivated column is a true false value, which will tell you whether or not the user has been deactivated or whether or not that user is active.

Since we want all active users the logic used will be to return all rows were deactivated is false, or the user is still active on the instance.

So that will be under our first column filter criteria, we’re just going to save we want to return all the values were deactivated is false.

And that’s all the configuration that needs to be done for this step.

Again, the output is going to be a table.

So now we’re going to be using the result as an input to a few other steps in order to get the data in some different format so that it can be sent via email.

The table data will be sent in the body of the email and displayed as a table by first converting to markdown text.

And markdown is just a text to HTML conversion language that allows you to format text in a normal text editor.

Thankfully, there’s a step that will convert the table to markdown.

So let’s go ahead and save this one.

And then we’ll find that next step.

Now I’m gonna go ahead and describe that process that we want to occur.

And again, it’s going to be converting that filter table to markdown text.

So let’s go ahead and describe that.

And catalytic grabbed the correct action that is under the tables category of convert data table to markdown text.

And now we just have to configure this action.

So I’ll go ahead and start configuring this step, we just need to point to the correct table to use.

So that is going to be by field because it’s going to be the output of that filter table step before it.

So we’ll go ahead and select that table.

And now for columns, we’re going to be entering these manually.

And I’m going to say that I only want these three columns returned or converted into markdown.

So that way, we only have these three columns to show in the body of the text.

And we’ll convert the entire table to an Excel and attach it to that email later.

We’re just keeping it for these three columns just to show some information at a glance when we open that email.

That’s going to be everything that I do in order to configure this step.

So now just go ahead and save it.

So again, the output of that convert filter table to markdown step is going to be text which is great because we can just use a field reference to insert the converted markdown text directly into the body of an email.

As a side note, for those of you that are more familiar with these types of text markup languages, such as markdown in HTML, it’s possible to pretty up the table that is outputted by using the Apply formulas.

Step two, add some HTML.

But I won’t be going over that in this video.

Now that we have that filter table formatted as markdown text, I’m going to go ahead and add a step that will convert the table to a common file type, in this case, an Excel spreadsheet.

This allows us to attach the file to an email as another way of delivering data.

Similar to before it, let’s go ahead and describe the process that we want to occur.

So we want to create an Excel spreadsheet from a data table.

And catalytic went ahead and found that correct step of create a spreadsheet from a data table.

And same as before, now we’re just going to go ahead and configure this step.

So the table that we’re going to use will be again via field, because that’s going to be the output of that filter table step.

And now we just have to define the file format.

So whether or not we want it to be Excel or a CSV, so we want it to be Excel.

Let’s go ahead and define that.

And now we just have to go ahead and define what the output will be for that file name, which will also be the output from this step or the field that is the output or that it is saved in.

So I’ll just go ahead and call this active users list, since that makes sense, based off of what we are filtering to create this table.

That’s gonna be everything I do in order to configure this Excel step.

So I’m just gonna go ahead and save it same as all the others.

And the last step in this process is just going to be send an email with that table information to the user.

In this case, we’re just going to send it to ourselves just because it makes it a bit easier for the point of this video.

So I’ll go ahead and configure this send an email step.

So again, who it’s going to go to will be ourselves.

So I’m going to open up that global fields and just go ahead and copy from owner email.

And then we’ll reference that and the to address the sender name, I’m just going to keep as catalytic and the email subject, I’ll call it active users.

Now for the email body, this is where we can go ahead and insert that markdown text to be viewable in the body of the email.

And it’s as easy as just going to insert a field reference.

And then we just go ahead and find that convert filter table to markdown output.

The last field I’m going to go ahead and set up for this step will be the attachments field.

So I’m going to go ahead and change that drop down to choose via fields since we’ll be referencing the output from that create Excel spreadsheet from data table.

Now, in case we want to know what that output is, or we forget what we named the file, we can go ahead and open that on the right side to see what the output is.

In this case it is active users list.

So I’ll go ahead and select that from our drop down.

And that’s everything I need to do in order to configure this step.

So same as before, I’ll go ahead and save it.

And I will go ahead and actually test this workflow.

So we can have that email sent to us and see what that data looks like when it comes in via email.

And this is as easy as just navigating to the top of the page, clicking that test button.

And now we’re just going to go ahead and start this workflow because we don’t have any form fields to fill out.

I’m going to open this as a new page.

And I’ll go to that tab.

So we could see the workflow running in real time.

And the entire workflow is completed.

So I’ll just navigate to my inbox and we can see what that looks like from the email that came in.

So I’ll navigate over to my inbox where I did get an email that came in, and it is the act of user’s email.

So we’ll see this table that was converted to markdown text and inserted in the body of our email.

And it looks like it’s cut off on the right hand side.

But just you know, you can scroll in order to see all of the different columns that you chose for the body of your email.

Scrolling down here, we can see that scroll bar, where again, we can view all of the information.

And then we have the Active Users list or that Excel spreadsheet that actually is attached to our email.

So let’s open that and view that data.

And again, this Excel spreadsheet has all the data that is the output from that filter table.

Because we only define those three columns to be converted to markdown text, so we can view it at a glance from the body of our email.

This is just a simple process to show you how to convert data tables to different formats that can be delivered to an end user.

This video completes the core work pattern video series on processing data using catalytic tables.

The next couple of videos we’ll be focusing on data processing as well, but using spreadsheets and CSV files.

Thanks for tuning in.