Action Widget

The Action Widget provides a simple way to configure "if this, then that" (sometimes referred to on the web as "IFTTT") situations in your campaigns. It does so by providing a list of all of the events that the widgets on your campaign can initiate and allows you to set up actions to take when these events occur.

The list of events and actions available to the Action Widget depends on the widgets already on your campaign, which means it's generally best to configure any Action Widgets last, after adding and configuring all of the other widgets you’re going to use.

To add one of these widgets to your campaign, click the Action Widget icon in the Add Widgets Panel, or click and drag the icon into your preview area.

Note: Action Widgets are never visible in your live campaign, so feel free to place them wherever works best for the organization of your campaign. However, if you place an Action Widget into a hidden container, the action will no work unless the container is no longer hidden.

Widget Settings

The widget settings pop-up is where you'll make changes to your Action Widget. To change the widget name, click on the pencil icon in the top-left (next to the name) then type your new name. Then click the blue check button to confirm.

You will also see the CSS ID (starting with a #) of your new widget listed in the top-right corner of the pop-up.

You'll want to move through each item in the menu on the left side to ensure you've completely customized the Action Widget in the way you'd like. You can navigate these sections using the Back and Next buttons at the bottom.

When you're finished making changes to your widget, click the blue Save and Exit button.

Setup

There are three things you'll want to consider when setting up your Action Widget; the WHEN (the condition[s] that has to happen to trigger the action), AND IF (any additional condition[s] that you want to be required for the action to trigger), and the THEN (what action[s] is triggered). You'll set these both up in the Setup section.

WHEN

In the WHEN section (the top-most section), you'll choose the condition that has to occur for your action to be triggered; by default, Manually triggered by another widget is automatically set up for you - this allows you to trigger this Action Widget with a few of the other widget types, like the Buttons Widget. This condition is required, so you won't be able to delete it; but to remove any other conditions you may have added, click the trashcan icon on the right of the condition you'd like to remove.

Click the blue + button directly underneath your existing condition(s) to see your other options for adding a condition - the Add WHEN window will pop up.

Configuration for your new trigger is broken up into three sections:

• Category: Here there are two options - to trigger the action when a widget does something, or when the campaign does something.
  
  
• Widget: If you've selected to trigger your action when a widget does something, this is where you'll select the "widget" and the "something". Use the Widget dropdown to select an eligible widget from your campaign, then use the Event section to select what action must occur in that widget to trigger the action. Each widget type has its own unique set of events, and not every widget type has events available for use.
  
  
• When: If you select campaign, the default option in the When section will be set to The campaign has finished loading - more options can be found in the Advanced subsection.
  
  
• Advanced: Options dealing with Points for Actions and eTokens are included in this section.
  
  If you select the Points were awarded for completing an action option (available only if you're using Advanced Points for Actions), you'll also need to select the Form Widget in which APfA is enabled, as well as the specific Action label. For more information on how to set up Advanced Points for Actions, check out our Points for Actions help doc.
  
  Note: The Advanced Points for Actions feature is only available by request. If you would like more information, please reach out to our sales team.
  
  If your visitor arrives at your campaign using an eToken link, the following two options allow you to take actions based on that eToken:
  
  
  • An eToken is validated against a list: This is required if you wish to show protected content only to validated eToken visitors. The eToken will be validated against either all the entries in your account (the Any List option in the Trigger Configuration section), or one specific list - click the Any List link to open a pop-up where you'll be allowed to select a specific list from your account.
    
    
  • The current eToken is validated by another session: This trigger is optional and would be configured in a separate Action Widget from the first trigger. You can use this when you want to prevent users from sharing their eToken links with others. If another user arrives at your campaign using the same eToken, you can use this trigger to invalidate the first user by hiding the protected content.
    
    Note: For more information on the eToken feature (available on the Pro Plan or higher), check out our eToken help doc.

When you have your trigger configured the way you want, click Save. Your new trigger will then display in the widget settings.

AND IF

Setting an action in the AND IF section allows you to further customize the trigger(s) that fires an action. All triggers set up in this section must be true for the action to fire.

For example, if you wanted to set up a form where an action fires when a specific option is selected from the section to the right: You would add triggers for when that field is changed, and when that specific option is selected (two separate triggers) in this section.

Adding actions to the AND IF section is the exact same process as adding them in the WHEN section.

THEN

Once your trigger condition(s) is established, you'll need to decide what action (or actions) is executed. To get started, click the blue + button. A pop-up will appear that allows you to configure your new action.

Configuration for your new action is broken up into three sections:

• Category: You'll decide whether it's a specific widget that performs the action or the entire campaign.
  
  
• Widget: Use the dropdown in this section to select the widget on which you'd like to focus your action. The list of widgets appears in much the same fashion as it does in the Edit Widgets Panel, with indentations used to show which widgets are nested in containers. This makes it easy to find the specific widget you're looking for.
  
  
• Action: Click the radio button next to the action that will apply to your selected widget. These options will be different depending on which widget was selected.
  
  
  • Effect: If your chosen action has any customizable effects, they will be shown in this panel. Click to check the box next to the effect you'd like to apply, then configure that effect using any fields that appear once the box has been checked.
    
    

Once you've finished tweaking your action, click Save in the bottom corner.

If you wish to have more than one action triggered by the same event, it's not a problem. Simply click the blue + button again and set up your new action in the pop-up - you can add as many actions as needed.

The actions will be performed in the order in which they appear on the list, top to bottom - make sure to keep this in mind when troubleshooting any potential issues. To change the order of an action, click on the  icon and drag the action up or down into its new position.

To delete an action entirely, click the icon.

When you're done setting up your actions, take a step back and look at the widget settings as a whole. It should be pretty easy to decipher exactly what actions are being triggered, and what condition is triggering them:

Smart Labels

When setting up the Action Widget triggers and actions, you may have noticed the toggle Target by Smart Labels. Smart Labels are labels given to Widgets to identify and group them into specific categories.

To learn more about using Smart Labels please read this help doc. 

Visibility

Visibility works slightly differently for Action Widgets. Since they are invisible on live campaigns by default, the options are to have the widget normal (active) or inactive. If you set a date or country-specific settings, those settings will determine when/where the Action Widget is active. More information about these settings can be found in the Widget Visibility help doc.

Special Considerations

As previously mentioned, the order of the actions makes a difference in more advanced configurations. For example, consider a Rich Text Widget that's set to Starts Hidden. The Action Widget can be configured to both show the Rich Text Widget and scroll to the Rich Text Widget, but if the Action Widget attempts to scroll to the Rich Text Widget before it has been shown, the browser may not scroll to the expected location.