Text page
Welcome to the final unit of the “Expanding my first scenario” course in the Make Foundation learning path.
At this point you’ve created a scenario, learned about modules, mapped some content, and even added filters.
If you’ve been following along, you now have a scenario that collects weather data every morning. Great job!
The last topic in this course is about learning when to run once / run a module only.
TABBED SEQUENCE LANDSCAPE INTRO TEXT
Let’s explore what happens when you run your scenario.
The Run Once Button
Selecting the Run once button will execute your entire scenario. This will retrieve the weather and route the data to one of two paths.
Note: The number of credits depends on the filters you may have set up. For example, running this scenario once would normally consume two credits, but depending on the filter, it could possibly consume only one credit.
The Source Module
Data is generated from your source module. This will get the weather from London (or the location you have specified) and generate an output bundle containing information such as temperature, sunrise, sunset, and status.
The Router and Filters
The data you have mapped is passed along the scenario to the Router. It will first be passed to the top module and is met by a filter. If it does not meet the filter criteria, it will not be passed any further. It will then be passed to the bottom module. In the example here, it meets the criteria and is passed to the module.
The Google Sheets Module
Parts of the data that you have generated in the source bundle are mapped to the Google Sheets module. Out of all items you generated in the source bundle, you are only mapping four of them here. They will be reflected in the Make Foundation Use Case Google Sheet. After selecting Run once, the scenario will consume a total of two credits only if the filter criteria is met. Otherwise, it will consume one credit.
Scenario Logs
The scenario log will reflect the running order of a successful or failed scenario run. Any errors encountered in the scenario will appear in red.
Example log entries: 20:02 The request was accepted. Waiting for the server. 20:02 The scenario was initialized. 20:02 The scenario was finalized. 20:02 The scenario run was completed.
Note: You can access the scenario logs when a scenario has executed by clicking the “Logs” icon.
Text page w/landscape image
You can use Run once when you are testing or executing your scenario in its near complete form. The scenario you have built so far consumed only two credits when you selected Run once. Let’s explore what would happen if you did that on a larger scenario.
The scenario shown, which starts with a Weather module, then proceeds to Google Sheets, and then a Router that splits into two paths (one to Slack and Tools, and another to Gmail and Tools), will consume six credits each time you run it. If the scenario is not set up correctly or still under construction, running it can easily consume many credits.
NOTE: a router does not consume credits.
Text page w/landscape image
Another ideal use of the Run once button could be in a scenario where you need to transfer data one time only.
For example, the modules listed here will return all specified records from Airtable and put them into a Google Sheet.
In this instance, you would not need to schedule this to run at set intervals, you just need to run the scenario one time.
Text page w/portrait image
The safest way to ensure that you do not consume unnecessary credits is to be aware of this helpful function:
By right-clicking any of your modules you can opt to Run this module only.
This is especially useful on your source module, as it will show you the bundle of information that you are working with going forward.
It is also incredibly handy to see what your output bundle looks like.
CAROUSEL - 6- IMAGE - PORTRAIT
The bigger a scenario is, the more operations it will perform, and the more credits it will consume when testing. Complete each stage of this exercise before you click Next.
A way to navigate this is by disabling the routes. This will allow you to isolate part of your scenario and consume less credits when testing.
To do this, right-click between any route between the modules and select Disable route. The status of the icon will change from 🔧 to 🚫. This will stop any further data from passing through.
With the scenario displayed here, the Run once would only consume 5 credits; you can disable multiple routes to further save on your credits - just remember to enable the route when you are ready to fully test (Right click → Enable route).
Text page
This concludes unit five – great job!
By now you should have an understanding of:
- The ‘Run once’ function
- Credits used
- Disabling / enabling routes
- Generating a single bundle
You should take your further knowledge into the last unit of this course: Check your learning.
Or click here to restart this unit.