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06 Practice exercise: Unlock content for a limited time, based on user's first login

Marie Xhauflair avatar
Written by Marie Xhauflair
Updated over 4 months ago

In this exercise, you will create an automation that unlocks an activity for a specific group of learners, but only for a limited period of time.

Learning objectives

By the end of this exercise, you will be able to:

  • Create an automation with multiple conditions

  • Unlock content for a user group within a time limit

  • Confirm that the automation works as expected

Why use time-based automations?

Time-based automations are useful when you want content to be visible only for a set period. This helps you:

  • Guide learners through onboarding during their first days

  • Release time-sensitive content that should not stay available forever

Example use case

Imagine you want new employees to see a Welcome learning bite only during their first 7 days after logging in. After this period, the learning bite should disappear from their stream automatically.

Requirements before you start

Make sure you have:

  • A published activity (for example: Module 1)

  • A widget in the stream that can display this activity

  • A user group (for example: Belgium)

  • At least one test user in that group

Step-by-step: Create the automation

  1. Go to Behaviour > Automations.

  2. Click Create automation.

  3. Enter a name: Unlock Module 1 – Belgium for 7 days.

  4. Set the Event type to Check periodically.

  5. Add the first Condition:

    • Is group → Belgium

  6. Add a second Condition:

    • User time → profile.first_login → from 0h to 7d after

    • This means the condition is only true during the first 7 days after the learner’s first login.

  7. Add the Action:

    • Unlock activity → Module 1

  8. Save and enable the automation.

Check your practice

What your automation should look like

How to read this automation

  • When the platform checks periodically,

  • and if the user is in the Belgium group and if it is within 0s to 7 days after the user's first login,

  • then unlock the activity Module 1 for that user.

How to confirm it worked

  • Preview the automation

    • Hover over the eye icon next to the automation

    • Check the number of learners who match both conditions

  • Impersonate a test user in Belgium

    • If the user’s first login is within the last 7 days, Module 1 should be visible

    • If the user’s first login was more than 7 days ago, Module 1 should not be visible

  • Test with another group

    • Impersonate a user from a different group (for example, Netherlands)

    • Module 1 should not appear, regardless of login time

Troubleshooting tips

  • Check that the test user belongs to the correct group

  • Confirm the activity is correctly linked to the widget

  • Verify the time condition: if the login happened more than 7 days ago, the activity will not unlock

  • Remember that Check periodically means the unlock may take up to one hour to show

Recap

In this exercise, you practiced:

  • Creating an automation with multiple conditions

  • Unlocking an activity for a specific group within a time frame

  • Testing the automation using preview and impersonation

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