Cook Up Faster WordPress Automations with Action Tokens & Filters

Trying to manage all of your WordPress automations can feel like trying to cook a 10-course dinner. There are just too many pots on the burner and buns in the oven. That’s why you should hire a chef de cuisine—or Uncanny Automator.

Using Automator’s new action tokens feature, you can cook up faster and more efficient WordPress automations without losing any functionality (or flavor). Combine automations to cut down on clutter, use filters to streamline workflows, and take advantage of token IDs to create more dynamic automations.

With Automator, it’s like having your very own kitchen brigade, complete with a saucier, rotisseur, patissier, and commis. So let Automator cook up a storm—then kick back, relax and dig in!

Combine WordPress Automations Using Action Tokens

Automator’s action tokens make it possible to combine previously separate recipes so you can cut back on clutter and run more efficient WordPress automations. While we don’t recommend putting your soup in your salad (unless you like warm, soggy salads), combining Automator recipes will definitely improve your workflows.

If tokens are an ingredient you’ve never heard of before—like cherimoya or berbere—you can read all about them by clicking here. You can also learn more about action tokens specifically by clicking here. (p.s. We also don’t know what berbere is. No idea. But we hear it’s delicious.)

Automator’s new action tokens feature allows you to take data related to one action and use it in another action. Suppose, for example, that one of your actions creates a new post or user. You can now add another action to that recipe that uses the newly created post or user data to carry out additional workflows. In other words, you can use action tokens to pass data between actions within the same recipe (and even within action conditions and filters).

Here are some examples of how you can use action tokens to combine recipes. Just keep those hors d’oeuvres away from the appetizers.

Update Courses, Users, Posts, and Pages

Whether you want to change the featured image of a LearnDash group or update your compliance training, editing your WordPress posts and pages is a great way to keep your website active and interactive.

Usually, however, you would need at least two automations to do this: one to publish/edit the post or page and another one to share that post to social media, update your external records, and notify your team. Using action tokens, however, you can combine those recipes.

Step 1: Create a New Recipe

From your WordPress Admin Sidebar, navigate to Automator > Add New. In the pop-up window that appears, select Logged-in users and click Confirm.

Step 2: Name Your Recipe

Give your recipe a name that makes it easy to recognize at a glance. We’ve named this recipe LearnDash-Facebook: Update Group.

Step 3: Configure Your Trigger

In the Triggers panel, click LearnDash. From the drop-down list, select A Group Leader is added to a group. Automator will prompt you to select the group. When you’re finished, click Save.

Step 4: Configure Your Primary Action(s)

When you use action tokens, some of the actions in your recipe will rely solely on information from your trigger(s) while others will rely on information from both your trigger(s) and other actions. You can think of the former actions as “primary” actions and the latter as “secondary” actions.

In the Actions panel, click Add action. From the menu of available integrations, click WordPress. From the drop-down list, select Set the featured image of a post.

Automator will prompt you to select the specific post whose featured image you would like to change. You can then copy and paste the image URL from your WordPress media library. When you’re finished, click Save.

We’ve also included another action to update the title of the post. This is what our “primary” actions look like:

Step 5: Configure Your Secondary Action(s)

Now you’ve added some actions to your recipe, subsequent actions that you add can use tokens from these existing actions.

Click Add action. From the menu of available integrations, click Facebook Groups.

From the drop-down list, select Publish a post with an image to a Facebook group.

Automator will then prompt you to select the Facebook Group, Image URL and draft a message. By clicking on the Asterisk (the token icon) in each field, you can use action tokens from your primary actions to fill out these fields.

For example, we used the Post featured image URL token from our first action in the Image URL field.

When you’re finished, click Save. We’ve also included another secondary action to inform our team on Slack that we’ve updated the title of our LearnDash group. Your actions panel should now look something like this:

Step 6: Set Action Delays

The actions in your recipe won’t always run in the order that you have added them. Some actions take longer than others to execute. If you have a preferred order in mind, however, you can use Automator’s delay feature to ensure that your entree doesn’t come before your appetizer.

While delays aren’t necessarily required, because this recipe has several actions, we’ll err on the side of caution to make sure the values for the action tokens have had time to cook all the way through.

Hover your mouse over the action you would like to delay then click Delay.

Automator will present you with a pop-up window where you can set your delay or schedule a specific time for the action to fire. We’ve set a one (1) minute delay for our Facebook Groups action so that our “primary actions” will have more than enough time to render. When you’re finished, click Set delay. 

Set the delay(s) for any other actions you may have. When you’re finished, your Actions panel should look something like this:

Step 7: Go Live and Dig In!

You can now toggle your recipe from Draft to Live. Bon appetit!

Automate Product and Price Changes

Leftovers are not exciting—unless you make some changes to them. Product and price changes keep your business new in the eyes of your customers. They also take a lot of time to manage. Unless you use action tokens.

In this specific example, we’ll show you how action tokens can create more powerful automations for cost-sharing groups in your BuddyBoss social platform. However, you could just as easily apply similar action tokens to your e-commerce store or membership website to automate price changes, product updates, and new releases. Here’s how.

Step 1: Create a New Recipe

From your WordPress Admin Sidebar, navigate to Automator > Add New. In the pop-up window that appears, select Logged-in users and click Confirm.

Step 2: Name Your Recipe

In keeping with our naming convention, we’ve named this recipe BuddyBoss-WooCommerce: Cost-Share.

Step 3: Configure Your Trigger

In the Triggers panel, click BuddyBoss. From the drop-down list, select A user joins a private group. Automator will prompt you to select the group. When you’re finished, click Save.

Step 4: Configure Your Primary Action(s)

In the Actions panel, click Add action. From the menu of available integrations, click WooCommerce.

From the drop-down list, select Change the price of a specific product to a new price.

Automator will prompt you to select a product. We’ve selected our group access pass product. After you’ve selected your product, click Save.

Automator will then prompt you to input your new price. You can hardcode this by typing a value into the Price field but we want the price to change more dynamically. To do this, click on the Asterisk, unselect Only float tokens then select Modifiers > Calculations.

A Calculation window will appear with a Formula field. Click on the Asterisk. Notice that we can now use action tokens. Select Change the price of… > Product price.

The Product price action token will now appear in the Formula field. In our cost-sharing example, we reduce the cost of access to the BuddyBoss group by $0.25/member. When you’re finished, click Add token.

The Price field in your WooCommerce action should look something like this:

If you’re satisfied, click Save. The completed action should look like this:

Step 5: Configure Your Secondary Action

With other automation tools, you would need a second automation to tell all of your group members that their costs have dropped. But, using Automator’s action tokens, you can combine these two automations into one—same portion, much better plating!

Click Add action then click BuddyBoss. From the drop-down list, select Send a private message to all members of a group.

In the Message content field, use action tokens to tell your group members what their new cost will be. Because this action token data updates dynamically, you’ll never have to hardcode it!

When you’re finished, click Save. And don’t forget to add a delay to this secondary action so that your primary action has ample time to execute. Your action should look like this:

Step 6: Go Live and Share!

Shareables are everyone’s favorite menu items so this cost-sharing group is sure to take off. Toggle your recipe from Draft to Live.

Streamline Your Workflows with Filters

Trying to create a 10-course dinner can be a challenge when everyone has different dietary restrictions. Unless you use Automator’s filters feature. Then you can make all kinds of adjustments to your recipes to make sure that no one goes into anaphylactic shock—or messes up your workflows.

Create a Cost-Sharing Floor

Referencing our previous example, we can use filters to create a cost-sharing floor for the group. Here’s how.

Step 1: Add a Filter

Hover over the three dots in the WooCommerce action then click Filter.

Step 2: Set the Filter Condition

A pop-up window will appear. Select General > A token meets a condition.

Another pop-up window will appear where you can select your token (even action tokens from within the recipe). Select Advanced > Post meta.

Automator will then prompt you to select the specific post metadata that you want to retrieve. We’ve selected the Post ID and Product price meta key by using action tokens. When you’re finished, click Add token.

You will then return to the previous window where you can define the conditions of the filter. We have set a cost-sharing floor of $5.00. Seeing as though our recipe will reduce the cost by $0.25/member, we’ve configured the filter to run only if the value of the meta key Product price (i.e., the price of our group access pass) is $5.25 or more.

When you’re finished, click Save filter.

Step 3: Group Actions Under Filters

Notice that the filter currently only applies to the WooCommerce action.

Naturally, you wouldn’t want to tell your members that their costs have dropped when, in fact, they haven’t. To prevent this from happening, you can group actions under filters. Simply click and hold on BuddyBoss action tab and drag and drop it into the filter field.

That’s it! No allergic reactions.

Order Up!

With action tokens and filters, you can easily cook up just about any WordPress automation you can dream of. Though you might still need some help in an actual kitchen if you want to pull off a 10-course dinner.

Nevertheless, by combining action tokens and filters, there’s no need to feed meat to vegans or tofu to carnivores—you can now accommodate all kinds of customers within the same recipe. Click here to learn more about how Automator’s advanced features can improve your workflows and save you time. Or, if you’re just getting started, feel free to download the Free plugin and sample Automator’s core functionalities.

Have any questions about action tokens? Ask us in the comment section below—we’re happy to take your order!