Creating a flow from a template

The Templates gallery in App Connect Designer provides templates for typical integrations. Choose an appropriate template, connect to your applications, and customize the flow.

Before you begin

Account connection details aren't provided with a template flow, and you must set up your own accounts for each application in the flow. You can add these accounts on the Applications and APIs page before you import the flow, or from the flow (or API) editor of the imported flow. For more information, see Connecting to accounts.

About this task

After you create a flow from a template, you must complete connection and configuration settings for the nodes. You can also modify the flow in the flow editor or API editor. You can use sample data to test the flow as you're editing it and you can test it when it's running.

Procedure

To create a flow from a template, complete the following steps.

  1. Open the App Connect Designer Templates gallery Templates icon.
    The image shows the Templates gallery with an empty Search field and the first three listed templates.
  2. Search for an appropriate template.
    Use the search field to filter the templates by application name, object, or action. The list of templates is updated as you type.
    For example, type Salesforce to show all templates that contain a Salesforce event or action. Or type sync to show all templates that help to synchronize your data between applications.
  3. When you find an appropriate template, click the tile to find out more about it.
    To view instructions, click How to use this template. For more complex flows, click the link to open the instructions in a separate window to refer to while you edit the flow.
  4. Click Create flow.
    An event-driven flow opens in the flow editor, or an API flow opens in the Define tab of the API editor. The flow name is defined by the template.
    Tip: If you're on the flow runs plan and the flow name contains more than 32 characters, you might need to shorten the name before you deploy it. When you deploy a flow on the flow runs plan, the deployment takes the name of the flow, and a deployment name can contain a maximum of 32 characters.
    The flow is validated automatically and any application or toolbox nodes with validation errors are identified by an exclamation mark Validation warning icon. You see validation errors when you're not connected to an account, or if you need to complete configuration of a node. The following example shows an event-driven flow that is created from a template. Validation errors indicate that you're not connected to your MailChimp account. The editor also indicates that you need to provide the ID of an Eventbrite event.
    The screenshot shows three nodes in an event-driven flow. Two of the nodes have validation warning icons to indicate that configuration is incorrect or incomplete.
  5. Optional: You can add more actions to the flow or customize the existing trigger or actions.
  6. Resolve any validation errors in the flow.
    For more information, see Validating your flow.
    For an API flow, you need to validate the settings for each model and its operations.
    1. From the Define tab, click the Operations tab for a model.
    2. For each operation, click Edit flow. A warning icon Validation warning icon is shown on any nodes that need attention.
    3. After you update an operation, click Done.
    Tip: You can use auto-generated or custom sample data to test your mappings, actions, or the entire flow as you configure it. For more information, see Testing flows during development.

What to do next

  • You can test the behavior of your flow before you deploy it. Depending on your plan, you can either test with sample or real data. For more information, see Testing flows during development.
  • When you're ready to run your flow in a production environment, deploy it. For more information, see Deploying integrations.