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Workflows

A workflow is a set of steps that are completed every time a specific event occurs. Workflows do work for you, automatically performing a series of actions within your system that you can configure in response to a trigger.

Workflows offer enormous flexibility, allowing you to configure a workflow to take very specific actions each time it runs.

Behind the scenes, workflows are managed using JSON, but most parts of a workflow can be created and managed in the user interface.

This document describes basic information about workflows and details the process of putting one together.

Important

  • When workflows are first enabled within the tenant, it can take up to two hours for the feature to be fully functional. During this period, errors may be displayed when building a workflow.

  • Workflows limits the fastest executions to 400K executions per day. After that limit is reached, the rest of your executions for the day are still executed, but at a slower rate of 5 executions per second. The quota is reset every 24 hours.

Workflow Terminology

To understand workflows, it helps to understand the parts that go into creating a workflow, and the language used to define it.

  • Data Flow

    Workflows start with a JSON input delivered by the trigger. As this input moves through the workflow, some steps will add additional JSON to it. This JSON that moves between steps is known as data flow.

  • Input

    Each workflow has an input in JSON format, provided by the trigger. This JSON data moves through each step in the workflow. When data enters a step, it becomes input. You can reference any part of this input in most steps using JSONPath, which you can create using the Variable Selector.

  • Steps

    Each workflow is made of a set of discreet steps that are executed chronologically. Each step can add additional data to the workflow in the form of JSON, and that data can be used in future steps.

    There are 3 types of steps:

    • Triggers

      A trigger determines when the workflow runs and provides the initial input used by the rest of the steps in the workflow. Each workflow must have exactly one trigger.

      Some examples of triggers include Account Aggregation Completed, Identity Created, and Source Deleted. Review more in the Workflow Triggers documentation.

    • Actions

      An action is any task a workflow performs outside of the workflow itself or change it makes to its JSON data. All workflows must have at least one action.

      Some examples of actions include Create Campaign, Get Identity, and Send Email. Review more in the Workflow Actions documentation.

    • Operators

      Operators are a broader category of steps that act on the workflow itself by directing the data flow or making conditional choices.

      Any operator that compares two values and makes a choice based on the results of that comparison is known as a choice or comparison step. Some examples of choice operators include Compare Strings and Compare Numbers.

      The Success and Failure end steps are also operators.

      Review more in the Workflow Operators documentation.

  • Inline Variable

    When filling out the fields in a workflow step, most fields allow you to enter a static value or choose a variable from a previous step to use as the complete value for that field. However, in fields that accept text values, you can choose to include a variable from a previous step in your static text value using an inline variable. Review Adding Inline Variables to Text Fields for details.

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