In this article, you will learn about Manual Flows. Manual Integrations are different from automated workflows, as these integrations require the user to start them. In a regular Flow, the integration works automatically after a Trigger occurs. But manual integrations do not wait for a Trigger to happen. Instead, the user's initial input Triggers the integration. A manual integration is mostly a part of another Flow, i.e., a Flow within another Flow.
Say that you are syncing tasks in your app with another task manager like Jira. You might want to push a few selective tasks to Jira and not sync all the items in the list. For this, you will have a manual functionality like a "push task to Jira" button with each task. Clicking on this for any task will Trigger the integration and sync it with Jira. This is how the user gets the ability to select the items and the app they want to perform the Action in for any Trigger in real-time.
How do Manual Flows Work?
Manual Flows are most commonly used inside other Flows. This is for when a user wants to perform an Action while setting up an integration. This Action gets completed within the integration setup screen before the user activates the integration.
Let's say that you are creating an integration with the use-case, "when a subscriber is added to MailChimp; a new contact is created in your Sendinblue list." While creating the integration, the user needs to select a contact list in their Sendinblue account where the contact will be created. In many cases, the user may not have a List set up yet. So, instead of making the user quit their Flow to create the list, you can have them create the list right within the integration setup flow with a manual integration.
Step 1: The Create List Action is added as manual integration in the original Flow.
If the user wants to create a new list, they'll select the option shown above, and the following menu will appear.
Step 2: The user will enter the list's name and select a folder in Sendinblue where the list will be created.
As soon as the user clicks the Save button, the manual integration will be saved, and the "Create List" Action will be performed in their Sendinblue account, i.e., a new list will be created right away. The user will then be able to see the new list in the drop-down Select a list drop-down as well. After this, the user can continue with their integration creation process.
Adding Manual Flows Inside a Flow
Let's see the above example from the Flow's side. For the create list Action, a manual Flow will need to be created first. You can create a manual Flow just like any other Flow on Integry.
Step 1: Create a Manual Flow. For list creation, the Flow should consist of only the following two steps.
The user input for creating the list is received as an incoming webhook to Integry. This webhook acts as the Trigger in this Manual Flow. The Create List Action for Sendinblue is then performed as a result of the Trigger.
Step 2: Adding the Manual Flow to the original Flow.
A manual Flow like the above is added to the relevant steps of another Flow to be shown to the user. For our current example, the list step is a field that takes input from the user. This field is added inside the Adapter step that is visible to the user.
Inside the original Flow for Mailchimp's sync with Sendinblue, the adapter step will have various fields visible to the user. The list selection fields should look like this.
Select a list is a section, and Create a list is a tab within that section. The manual Flow should be added below the Create a list tab. This can be added from the UI/UX options on the right side of any step you click. Use the Add Flow button as shown below.
Once you click Add Flow, another drop-down field will be added below the create list tab, as shown below.
The drop-down list will display all the manual Flows saved in your Integry account. From this list, you can select the one you created above for Sendinblue.
This will add the manual Flow to your original Flow, which appears at the exact location where you want the user to find it. This will render the Create a list option for the user on the integration setup screen discussed above in the article.