Learning Objectives

After completing this lesson, you’ll be able to:

• Explain how FME Flow Automations can save time.
• Create an Automation to run a workspace on a schedule.
• See the other Automation options available.

Instructions

In this lesson, you will:

• Scroll down to read the text below.
• Complete the exercise by following the steps.
• Complete the Quiz toward the bottom of the page.
• Optional: Let us know if you found this lesson relevant to your role by filling out the survey at the bottom of the page.
• Click 'Next' to mark the lesson complete.

Resources

• Starting workspace (should already be published to FME Flow as per the previous lesson’s instructions)
  • C:\FMEData\Workspaces\IntegrateDataWithTheFMEPlatform\publish-a-self-serve-workspace-to-the-web-complete.fmw
• CommunityMap.gdb.zip
  • C:\FMEData\Data\CommunityMapping\CommunityMap.gdb

Scenario

Frank's colleague Fatima, a Business Data Analyst at the city's Business License Office, has asked to receive a monthly Excel report of all food vendor data without any manual effort from Frank. His workspace already reads feature classes from the community mapping geodatabase and writes them to a user-selected output format. To fulfill her request, Frank builds an FME Flow Automation that runs his workspace on a schedule and emails Fatima the results automatically.

In this exercise, you will:

• Create an Automation in FME Flow with a Schedule trigger set to run on the last day of every month.
• Add a Run a Workspace action to execute the community mapping workspace with specific parameters.
• Add an External Action to deliver the results by email or log a message.
• Start the Automation and use the Trigger button to test it immediately.

1) Open FME Flow Automations

• Log in to your FME Flow instance (2026.1 or later).
• Click Automations in the left navigation menu.
• Click Create

• If the Get Started window appears, click Close.

2) Configure the Schedule Trigger

• Click the lightning bolt icon on the Trigger on the canvas to open the Trigger Details pane.
• In the Trigger drop-down, select FME Flow Schedule (initiated).

• Keep Schedule Type set to Basic.
• Set Start to the last day of the current month.
• Set Recurrence to Last day of every month.
  • If this option does not appear, confirm that your Start date is set to the last day of a month.

• Click Apply.
• Click Menu > Save As, name it Automation Monthly Food Vendor Update, and click OK.

3) Add a Run a Workspace Action

• Click the empty circle icon above Next Action on the canvas to open the Next Action Details pane.
• In the Action drop-down, select Run a Workspace.

• Set Repository to Self-Serve.
• Set Workspace to CommunityMapping.fmw.
• Under Parameters, set Output Format to Microsoft Excel and Feature Types to Read to FoodVendors.
  • You may have to disable Use Default Value.

• Click Apply.
  • Two new Next Action options appear on the canvas — one for the ✔ (Action Succeeded) port and one for the ✗ (Action Failed) port.

4) Add an Email External Action (Optional)

• Click the Next Action icon from the ✔ (Action Succeeded) port.
• In the Action drop-down, select Email (send).
  • If you prefer not to configure email, select Log a message instead, enter "Hello World" for the Formatted Message, and proceed to step 5.
• Click Load Template and select the appropriate template for your email provider.
• Fill in the following fields:

• Click Validate to test the connection.
• Click Apply.

  5) Start and Test the Automation

  • Click the Save icon in the toolbar to save your Automation.
  • Click Start in the top-right corner to start the Automation.
  • Double-click the FME Flow Schedule trigger on the canvas to open its details.
  • Click Trigger to run the Automation immediately for testing.
    • If you used Log a message, go to Menu > View Log Files > action_fmelogaction.log to confirm the Automation ran.

Tips & Tricks

• Automations takes data integration to the next level. Designing your FME workspaces with this in mind lets you create reusable, modular, and integrated applications for your organization, rather than one-off, single-use workspaces for every workflow. Automations support automated schedules and event-driven workflows that can:
  • Eliminate manual intervention.
  • Remove schedule-based delays.
  • Ensure data is always current and available.
• Automations let you implement the enterprise integration patterns popularized by Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf: repeatable solutions to commonly occurring problems encountered when integrating applications or systems.
• Automations are composed of three objects:
  • Triggers listen for and receive messages from an external client or within FME Flow. Every Automation begins with a Trigger.
  • Actions process messages between triggers and external actions in an FME workspace or through another tool.
  • External Actions send a message to an external client or another process in FME Flow. What happens afterward is no longer part of this Automation.
• If you use Gmail or another email service that requires two-factor authentication, you must create an app password to allow FME Flow to access your account. Use this app password in place of your regular password. Create a Gmail App Password

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