Workflow and Automation

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to do automated workflows. This is an example of one such process:

1. Member fills in a request to host an event using Caldera Forms (at the moment). I currently have some custom code that creates the event in CiviCRM for me, using the API, upon submission.
2. Reviewers must approve the event request
3. Once approved, an email needs to be sent to the event host with specific event information
4. We then wait for the event host to send us a document with the announcement
5. Reviewers must approve the announcement
6. An announcement is then bulk emailed to all members
7. Opens to the general public 3 days after the given date of opening to members

I've looked at CiviCase, which would be great to manage each of these events but is there a way to trigger the activities above from a Case? I need to be able to pull information from the event record for various parts of this (steps 3 and 6, for example). I currently do this manually - I send the email by manually updating the email before sending. We get so many requests that I sometimes lose track of where I am with each of these events. If I also have to manually update CiviCase, that adds to the workload and kind of defeats the purpose of streamlining this process.
Thoughts? Suggestions? I can write scripts to call the API if need be, if that is the only way but seems that it would be part of the app? Thanks Norm

Answer 1

Take a look at civirules, with the email api extension also enabled so that the action of sending an email is available. That might get you partly there. You can set rules for when events change or activities are added, which could trigger your email.