Linked tasks (task dependency)

[Hans_Kristian]

As a Builder I want to be able to link my tasks so that I can be certain that the tasks run in the correct sequence.

Scenario:
Daily Task 1 [1/2] - Updates records in a connected table/object or sends en email
Daily Task 2 [2/2] - Updates the record to indicate that it is done and does not have to be repeated

As of today I have postfixed the labels of my tasks [1/2] and [2/2] (as above) and made them run with a several hours time difference. However I am still getting issues (for task concurrency reasons ) that Task 2 sometimes runs before Task 1. This will mean that the whole operation is marked as done, even though it isn’t.

For the same reasons it sometimes happens that Task 1 is completely skipped for a whole day (because of task concurrency limits on the server and high utilization of tasks in same or other apps or even other customers apps). Typically this can happen in the end or middle of months. This also can result in the operation marked as done even though Task 1 is never run.

The last scenario is that if there is a long timespan between Task 1 and Task 2, the users can change the data both tasks use as a select criteria. This can also result in Task 2 triggering before Task 1. Again this will lead to the operation marked as done even though Task 1 has never run.

This is a data consistency issue as long as we can’t trust the tasks running exactly on the scheduled time. Even though we could, the idea of linked tasks (task dependency) would be a safer and cleaner way of implementing slightly more complex tasks.

[JulianKirkness]

Hi Hans

For this type of process I always use Integromat. You can process multiple records, update them one or more times and so on. So the process would be:

Search for the records you need
Send an email (or whatever)
Update each record when sent

Pretty simple to set up - see all my posts about using Integromat to program Knack on my blog:

Online Database Expert

[Hans_Kristian]

Thank you Julian!

I still think this is something that needs to be offered within Knack, but I have a suspicion that I may need a workaround for some time. I guess Zapier would work also, even writing my own custom scripts using the API. But the simpler solution the better

[Dynamic]

@KnackSupport Any plans for doing something about this? It seems so trivial to fix, and is long overdue…

[Paul1]

I have a series of tasks that require to be run in a certain order, once a month. Normally everything works fine. However recently, for some reason, the first task was delayed several days for an unknown reason. The remaining tasks ran on time, but since the first task had not run yet, the entire database was incorrectly updated. It was a mess to fix. Chaining the tasks is not only a good idea, it seems the logical way do any series of tasks.

Here is how the first task was delayed.