Building Automations

The Automations page

Go to Actions → Automations. Above the list:

• Add New starts a new automation. See Create an automation.
• Automations Limit shows how many automations you have and how many your plan allows.
• Action Limit shows how many actions your automations have taken this month and your monthly allowance. ∞ means unlimited.
• Templates Gallery opens your saved workflow templates. See Templates Gallery.

Once you've used part of your monthly allowance, a note above the list says how much: Note: You have already used … actions this month. See Plan limits.

Use the search box to find an automation by name. The table shows:

Column	What it shows
Name	The automation's name. A warning icon after it means Mumara ONE paused the automation; click the icon for the reason. See Paused by Mumara ONE.
List Name	The contact list the automation runs on, or All Lists if its trigger reacts to any list.
Event Type	Which trigger starts the automation.
Updated At	When the automation was last changed.
Status	A switch: on means Running, off means Paused. See Status: Running and Paused.
Stats	A chart icon that opens the automation's statistics. See Automations Stats.
Actions	A menu with Edit, which opens the builder, and Delete.

Create an automation

1. On the Automations page, click Add New.
2. Enter an Automation Title. It's how the automation appears in lists and statistics.
3. Click Confirm.

The builder opens with an empty canvas and a single step, Click here to begin. Click it to choose the trigger, and choose the contact lists there. See Automation Triggers.

New automations start Paused, so nothing happens until you switch them on.

Limits

If you already have as many automations as your plan allows, Add New shows a message instead of the dialog. Delete an automation you no longer need, or move to a plan that allows more. See Plan limits.

The builder

The header

The bar across the top of the builder shows:

• the automation's name, with a warning icon (Automation Warning) while any step still needs setting up,
• when the automation was last saved automatically. The builder saves every change as you make it,
• Finish, which takes you back to the Automations page,
• the Export menu, with Export Automation and View Automation. See Export and import,
• Switch Automation, a list of your other automations. Pick one to open it in the builder.

The side panel

When you open an automation, the panel beside the canvas shows its Workflow Options:

• Status: switch the automation on or off. See Status: Running and Paused.
• Automation Name: rename the automation, then click Update.

When you click a step, the panel shows that step's settings instead.

The canvas

The builder reads from top to bottom. The trigger sits at the top, and actions hang below it in the order they run. A condition splits the canvas into a Yes branch and a No branch that continue independently.

To do this	Do that
Set the trigger	Click the top step and choose an event under Select Automation Event.
Add a step	Click + below the last step of a branch and choose an action under Next Step.
Edit a step	Click it.
Name an email step	Set its Action Label. The label shows on the canvas and in statistics.
Remove a step	Click it and choose Remove Action. See Removing steps.

A step that isn't set up yet shows a notice, such as ! Email not set up yet or Condition not set up yet. Click it to finish setting it up.

Rules the builder enforces

A few rules catch people out, so they're worth knowing before you hit them.

Set the trigger first. Adding an action before choosing an event gives Automation Event is missing: Correctly choose and configure the automation event before proceeding to design the workflow. Click Set Automation Event.

Finish a step before adding the next. An incomplete step blocks the workflow: Finish the last node before incorporating additional events or actions into the workflow.

Add new steps at the end of a branch. You can't splice a step into the middle of a sequence: Not allowed to take action inside the automation. You can only add it at the end node. To change the middle of a workflow, remove the steps below the point you want to change and rebuild them.

Put a condition straight after an email. A condition asks whether the contact opened or clicked the email directly above it, so Evaluate a condition is only offered after a Send an email step, at the end of a branch. It isn't offered straight after the trigger, a wait, another condition, an operation or an admin notification. See Evaluate a condition.

No doubles. Two Wait steps can't follow each other, and neither can two Notify admin steps. Use one longer wait instead.

Mind the step limit. Your plan caps how many steps one automation can have. At the cap, Next Step shows You've reached the maximum number of actions allowed in this automation. Adding more actions is not permitted.

Status: Running and Paused

An automation is either Running or Paused. Switch it with the Status switch in the Automations list or in the builder's side panel.

Only a Running automation enrols new contacts and moves existing ones along.

You can only switch an automation on when it's complete: a trigger with its lists chosen, and every email, condition and operation set up. Otherwise the switch turns itself off again and you see Firstly Complete Automation! When the change is accepted, you see Changed Automation State Successfully!

Editing a live automation

You must pause an automation before you edit it. While it's running, each step's settings are greyed out, with this note:

The first step is to pause your automation, after that you can make edits. While the status is paused, trigger against a particular subscriber will not execute until the automation is resumed.

Contacts who are already partway through carry on from where they were once you switch the automation back on. But events that happen while it's paused don't enrol anyone, and they aren't replayed later.

Plan edits to busy automations

On an automation that enrols a lot of contacts, the pause is a real gap in coverage: contacts who trigger it during the pause are never enrolled. Keep edits short, or make them at a quiet time.

Paused by Mumara ONE

Mumara ONE pauses an automation by itself when it can't carry on, and puts a warning icon after its name in the Automations list. Click the icon to see the reason in the Automation Error dialog:

Reason	What to do
Your SMTP failed. For more details visit the Issues page. The pool the automation sends through stopped working.	Check the pool under Setup → Dedicated Pools, or contact Mumara support. Once the pool works again the automation resumes; if it's still paused, switch it back on.
Your automation actions limits exceed. The monthly action allowance is used up.	The automation starts again by itself when your allowance resets. To keep it running sooner, move to a plan with more actions. See Troubleshooting.
Automation Lists are blocked. A list the automation uses has been blocked.	Choose another list on the trigger, or contact Mumara support to ask why the list was blocked.

Removing steps

To remove a step, click it, choose Remove Action, type delete in the Confirm Delete box and click Delete.

Removing a step also removes every step below it on that branch. Removing a condition removes both of its branches; Mumara ONE warns you first: If you delete the condition, will all its children be deleted on both sides.

Statistics belong to each step, so a step you remove and rebuild starts its statistics from zero. See How statistics accumulate.

Deleting an automation

In the Automations list, open the automation's Actions menu and choose Delete, then confirm. The automation, its contacts' progress and its statistics are removed, and it no longer counts toward your automation limit.

Deleting can't be undone

The statistics go with the automation. If you need them, export them from Automations Stats first, and export the workflow itself with Export Automation if you might want it again.

Templates Gallery

The Templates Gallery stores workflows you've saved, so a journey you've built once can be started again without rebuilding it.

Open it with Templates Gallery on the Automations page. The page is titled Automation Templates Gallery and shows one card per template:

• Use This starts a new automation from the template. Enter an Automation Title and click Confirm, and the builder opens with the template's steps.
• The eye icon shows the template's thumbnail full size.
• The trash icon deletes the template.

Back to Automations returns to the list.

A template carries the shape of a workflow, not its settings. After Use This, open the trigger and check its lists, because an automation made from a template starts out reacting to any list. Then open each email, condition and operation and set it up before you switch the automation on.

Importing a template

1. On the Automation Templates Gallery page, click Import Template.

2. In Upload a Template, fill in:

   Field	What to enter
   Name	The template's name in the gallery.
   Thumbnail	A preview image, at least 500 × 500 pixels.
   Select File	A workflow file exported with Export Automation.

3. Click Upload.

Download sample gives you a small example file in the right format. The file must be a .json workflow file; anything else is refused.

Export and import

To keep a copy of an automation, open it in the builder and choose Export → Export Automation. It downloads the workflow as a .json file, which you can import into the Templates Gallery as a starting point for new automations.

The file holds the structure: the trigger and the steps in their order. It doesn't carry your contacts, your emails' content or the statistics collected so far.

Export → View Automation opens a read-only diagram of the automation in a new tab, which is handy for sharing or checking a large workflow.

Export before a big edit

Because new steps can only be added at the end of a branch, changing the middle of a workflow means rebuilding the steps below it. Export first, so you have the old structure to refer back to.

Next steps

• Automation Triggers: choose the event that starts your automation
• Automation Actions: every action, field by field
• Worked Examples: build a complete journey step by step
• Automations Stats: see how it performs