Set Up Workflow Triggers
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- List the types of workflow triggers.
- Identify use cases for workflow triggers.
Workflow Triggers
There are two required components of a workflow: triggers and steps. In this unit, learn how to set up a trigger for a variety of business processes.
Workflows can be initiated by an event, a user-initiated action, or on a schedule. A workflow trigger initiates your workflow. The trigger you pick for your workflow determines how it starts. Depending on the business process you’re automating, you can configure your workflow to begin from an event within Slack or from a third-party service.
Once a workflow has been triggered, it starts a sequence of actions called steps. Learn more about steps in the next unit.
Types of Triggers
There are two types of triggers you can use to start a workflow: Slack events and Connector events. The trigger you choose depends on the business process you’re automating in Slack.
Trigger type |
Description |
Examples |
|---|---|---|
Slack event |
An event that happens within Slack.* The event can be user-invoked, like clicking a button or reacting with an emoji. Or it can start automatically at scheduled dates and times. |
|
Connector event |
An event that happens outside of Slack through a connected third-party service. The events available for workflow triggers are specific to each service. |
|
*You can also trigger a workflow using a webhook that syncs an external event to your Slack workflow.
Slack Events That Trigger Workflows
Let’s dive deeper into the types of Slack events you can use to trigger a workflow.
Connector Events That Trigger Workflows
Connectors for Workflow Builder allow you to start a workflow in Slack based on events or actions that happen in a third-party service. Each connector offers triggers unique to that service, like when a record is updated in Salesforce or an issue is created in GitHub.
By connecting Slack workflows to your third-party services, you can streamline routine tasks to happen in one place with faster efficiency and less context switching. For example, this PagerDuty connector event starts a workflow when a new incident is created. It triggers the creation of a new incident channel in Slack, adds channel members, and sends a message to the channel with the PagerDuty incident variables.
There are different connector events available in Workflow Builder for many popular services. Below are just a few examples of connector events that can trigger a workflow in Slack. Open Workflow Builder in Slack to see all of your options.
Connector |
Event |
Workflow |
|---|---|---|
Salesforce |
|
Sends a direct message to the record owner when a record is updated in Salesforce. |
Asana |
|
Sends a direct message to the assignee with a link to the assigned task. |
GitHub |
|
Archives the issue channel when an issue is closed. |
PagerDuty |
|
Creates a new incident channel when a P1 issue is created and adds channel members. |
If you’re a developer and you don’t see your third-party service in the list of connector events in Workflow Builder, you can create a workflow triggered by an event in an external service using a webhook.
Workflow triggers are required to initiate a workflow either using a Slack event (inside Slack) or a connector event (outside of Slack). Your trigger will initiate a series of steps that make up the workflow based on the business process you’re automating. In the next unit, you learn how to add one or multiple steps to your workflow.