Simplifying tasks with Couchdrop Automations

Automations are a relatively new feature in Couchdrop that offers a simple way to automate file transfers and common actions on files and data streams. Nowadays, there are automation platforms for everything as machines learn to handle more repetitive tasks.

The point of automation is to make your job as easy as possible. The more intricate the automations, the less time you have to spend on a task, which opens up more time for important tasks that are impossible to automate like customer care calls.

Automations are all about speed and reducing human error by making sure tasks are done the same way at the same time, because machines don’t care if no two days are the same on the job. File automation takes the monotony out of repetitive tasks and increases accuracy by taking your time, effort, and boredom out of the equation completely; as long as you can set them up correctly, which can be a challenge if the platform has limited options.

Couchdrop’s no-code file automations are simple to set up and have a wide variety of options to help make your job easier.

No coding and easy to use

If you had to hand-code the automation there wouldn’t be much point for the automation system to exist in the first place. Many platforms like Couchdrop offer no-code automations. Instead of having to manually write out and adjust code, you do it with prompts.

Automations are configured through a graphical interface instead of code which makes them straightforward to set up. For a full list of file actions and conditions, see our guide to Configuring Couchdrop Automations.

So, what can you do with Couchdrop file automations?

An easy way to describe Couchdrop automations is to think about transferring a file every 5 minutes from one server to another. Or from one server to Sharepoint. Couchdrop automate does that so you can create the steps once and let the system perform tasks consistently.

For example, many people who use Couchdrop need SFTP and file transfers that occur hundreds or hundreds of thousands of times each day. Couchdrop designed the automations feature so users can easily make both simple and multi-step automations. The Automations are so easy, you can drop them from the couch.

Suppose you wanted to copy files from a server to a folder on your cloud storage but also send them to a second folder where access expires on a certain date. One advantage of Couchdrop is that these multi-step automations can be set up as part of a single function instead of having to combine multiple separate automations.

Multi-step Automation in Couchdrop

• Interval: Daily
• Action: Copy File
• Path: Server/User/Documents/Source File Path
• Destination: Cloud Storage/Private/Long Term Folder
• Add Sub-action: Copy File
• Sub-action Destination: Cloud Storage/Shared/Folder to Expire
• Add action: Send Webhook

Here’s what the automation summary looks like inside of Couchdrop:

What's the end result of the automation?

This automation copies a file from your server into two places in cloud storage, one that is a permanent location and one where the file will be available temporarily. Because the automations have sub-actions, there’s no need to set a filename condition because other files uploaded to the cloud storage folder won’t be affected.

The one thing that might be hard to figure out from the process is the Send Webhook option, something Couchdrop offers that few other tools have. This allows you to send out a webhook to any app you’ve configured previously for this. In this instance, it could limit access, archive, or delete the temporary folder on a specific date.

File automations on other platforms vs Couchdrop

At Couchdrop, we aim to make file automations as simple as possible. To achieve the same thing with code cron jobs or other platforms you would need to chain together several individual automations, which can be clunky and has a higher chance of having unintended consequences.

For instance, some file automation platforms limit your actions to five or six options (such as with no option to send a webhook). This might be fine for a lite user, but not when there’s a constant stream of thousands of files that need to be securely transported to different systems.

It’s possible to get around some of the limited actions by chaining multiple automations together into a longer workflow. Consider the scenario above with copying a file to multiple files and setting an expiration date. Without multi-step automations, you could try something like this:

Automation 1

• Trigger: Interval “Daily”
• Action: Copy Files
• Path: Server/User/Documents/Source File Path
• Destination: Cloud Storage/Private/Long Term Folder

Automation 2

• Trigger: File Upload
• Condition: Filename matches filestructure.filetype
• Action: Copy Files
• Path: Cloud Storage/Private/Long Term Folder
• Destination: Cloud Storage/Shared/Folder to Expire

Automation 3

• Trigger: Custom Schedule
• Time: April 7, 2023
• Action: Delete Files
• Path: Cloud Storage/Shared/Folder to Expire

What’s the end result of these automations?

With this set of automations, the workflow begins as soon as someone uploads a file into a specific folder on the server. The first automation copies the file to the cloud storage into the folder where it will stay permanently.

This triggers the second automation, which makes a copy to a folder set to expire if a file is uploaded that matches a specific filename structure. Keep in mind that the filename condition must be added or else every file uploaded into that folder would be copied over.

Finally, the third automation will take action at a specific date and delete the temporary folder. Together, these three automations copied the file from the server to cloud storage and made a copy to a folder with a limited access period. While building chains of automations like this works with many managed file transfer platforms, you can see that Couchdrop makes it simpler by having multi-step automations with more options.

Other tasks you can use Couchdrop automations for

There are plenty of recurring or complex tasks you can automate with Coudhrop automations. If you need to move a file from one location to another–especially when it involves multiple storage providers or a combination of on-premise and cloud storage–Couchdrop automations can do it.

Here are a few ways people have used our automations in the past:

• Transferring files from an Amazon S3 bucket to a SharePoint site.
• Automating spreadsheets from an on-premise ERP to a Google Workspace account to give remote workers access.
• Emailing a relevant person to let them know that a file is added to an important folder and that they can action next steps.
• Giving external vendors an option to securely upload files and have those files copied into relevant directories while also notifying appropriate people.
• Automatically adding encryption to files uploaded to secure folders for an extra layer of security.
• Compressing groups of files that are uploaded into a specific folder at the end of the day for easier sending and sharing as needed.
• Sending daily orders generated from an external system into a specific folder in cloud storage and emailing the relevant user upon success.

Get started with Couchdrop automations

With Couchdrop automations, you can automate your file transfers and file actions. Couchdrop supports multi-level automations with sub-actions to accomplish several tasks at once.

Here’s an example of a complex, multi-step automation in a Couchdrop system where a file needed to be copied to specific teams and renamed to something relevant to each team:

That’s 11 actions plus a notification sent out to a custom email afterwards. In many file transfer platforms, this would take 11 separate automations, but in Couchdrop it can all be done in 1. And many other complex situations can be simplified too.

Ready to try Couchdrop file automations?

Ready to get started with your own automations? You can see if Couchdrop automations will work for your use case by trying out the software with a free trial. Then once you see firsthand how useful they are, you can check out our pricing page and choose the right account type for you.