How to store data from WebForm to Excel?

I've just started Catalytic.
I'd like to have an usecase to have better understanding.
1. Create WebForm
2. Submit WebForm with some values
3. The values are stored in Excel file.

Could you please let me know how can i simply build my workflow?

Answers

  • Sean_510793
    Sean_510793 Posts: 69 admin

    Hi Jang, welcome! You can use one of the templates if you want it “preloaded”. If you type in “survey” or “form”, you’ll find a few examples. If you want to build it from scratch, here’s a rough guide if you want to create a URL that you can send to people to fill out the form (or create a form that you can embed):

    1. Create a new workflow
    2. Add the webform trigger and form fields (https://help.catalytic.com/docs/web-form-trigger/)
    3. Add an action that will create the Excel (https://help.catalytic.com/docs/excel-create-a-spreadsheet-from-a-data-table/)

    When you create a Workflow, a Table is also automatically managed. It will by default store all of the data from the form as well as any other data from any actions that you add. So when you run the above Workflow, the form fields automatically are saved to the Table and you don’t have to do anything to make that happen. The action to create an Excel file is purely to take the data from the Table and put it into an Excel file.

    Odds are you want to do something with that Excel file. So you might want to add a second action that emails the Excel file to yourself. Or saves it to Dropbox. On the other hand, if you don’t need the data copied to an Excel file every time, you could just send yourself an email with the data fields or send it to a Slack channel. Then you could set up another Workflow with a scheduled trigger that will send a compiled version periodically.

    Happy building, and there’s a video in the help that might be helpful too => https://help.catalytic.com/guides/5-minute-tutorials/.

  • Hi Sean,
    Thank you very much for your detail and kind explanation.
    As you guide I've create workflow as below.

    By the way, when I test run. It shows error.

    Could you please help me to find what was the missing?

  • Sean_510793
    Sean_510793 Posts: 69 admin

    Hi Jang, it looks like the parameter you are selecting for Data table is set to a field which is good for dynamic selection of the table to use for creating the Excel file. In this case however, the value of Department is not the name of the Data table. What I think you want is the name of the Data table associated with the Workflow. Set the drop down that is currently set to Use table via field to Use table by name. Based on the version of the Catalytic platform you’re on (I forget what’s in production because our internal version is ahead of production), you will either be able to type the name of the table or you will get a drop down to select the table. Give this a try and see if you are able to get it to work. if not, we can definitely walk you through the steps!

    https://help.catalytic.com/docs/reference-fields/#how-to-reference-a-workflow-or-table-by-its-name-field-or-id

    Note that this will create a spreadsheet from the data table which will be every submitted form. So you will get a spreadsheet with the complete values every time someone submits the form.

  • @Sean_510793
    Thanks for your feedback. Now it works! and I have also found out that running started with 'Test' button is not added as a row. :smile:
    And Yes, whenever the Web form is submitted, the spreadsheet is created with the complete values. Do you have any idea for improvement?
    By the way, how can I save the Excel file to my local directory?