What's the Difference Between Using Webhook to Trigger or Export Before or After a Flow and Using a Flow and Using Webhooks Inside Apps

Webhooks are a powerful tool in the realm of automation, enabling the seamless transfer of data between different applications and workflows. In this blog post, we'll delve into the differences between using webhooks to trigger or export data before or after a flow, and using webhooks inside apps. Let's break it down step by step.

Webhooks serve as a vital mechanism to bring in data to a recording or push out data from a recording. They act as connectors that facilitate the transfer of information between different systems. When utilizing webhooks inside a recorder, you have the ability to trigger flows and export data seamlessly.

In addition to webhooks, apps play a significant role in the automation process. Apps, similar to services like Zapier or IFTTT, provide a platform for creating automated workflows. By integrating webhooks within apps, users can streamline their processes and enhance the functionality of their recordings.

When using webhooks to trigger or export data before or after a flow, it's essential to understand the workflow involved. By setting up a webhook trigger, users can generate a unique URL that acts as a point of access for sending and receiving data. This process enables the smooth initiation and execution of automated tasks.

On the flip side, exporting data with webhooks involves sending information from one system to another. By utilizing webhooks to push data out of a recording, users can efficiently transfer scraped data to different platforms or applications. This seamless integration enhances the automation process and streamlines data transfer.

The integration of webhooks within apps provides users with a versatile tool for enhancing their automation capabilities. By incorporating webhooks into app workflows, users can trigger specific actions and streamline data transfer processes. This integration opens up a world of possibilities for creating dynamic and efficient automation workflows.

In conclusion, understanding the intricacies of webhooks and their integration within automation workflows is key to optimizing efficiency and productivity. By leveraging webhooks to trigger and export data before or after a flow, and integrating them within apps, users can unlock the full potential of automation tools. Stay tuned for more insights and tutorials on harnessing the power of webhooks in your automated workflows.

Stay connected for more tips and tricks on mastering the art of automation through the utilization of webhooks. Start integrating webhooks in your workflows today to supercharge your automation processes and elevate your productivity to new heights. Happy automating!

Okay. Hey everyone. Jeremy Redman here. Kyle. How's it going? Okay. So we get all, we get asked so often, um, about webhooks because webhooks are so powerful to both bring in data to a recording, right? To push out data from a recording. So that's that's webhooks inside of our recorder. Okay, but then we have apps Right, which is our version of make or Zapier, right?

which is another way to record completely separate and then we have a webhook and or the HTTP request same thing Kyle, correct? Okay, so We're going to go through a little bit of the differences because we got asked the question, what's the difference between using webhook to trigger or export before or after a flow, meaning a recording and using webhooks inside apps.

So Kyle demonstrate what I'm talking about here. If you go into an automation, bringing data in through a webhook, right. To trigger a flow, exporting data. So do a recording where you bring data in and bring data out. Not in apps. Okay. So if we, I'll just do a Google automation. Talk a little bit louder or something.

I mean, do you want me to build one or just set up a webhook in an existing one? Uh, for apps, you can build it, but this, you can just show, show an existing one. So if we wanted to use a webhook for this automation. Oh, look at this flow. Yeah. So you have, you have webhooks in, and you have webhooks out is the easiest way to think about it.

So you have recorded a flow. Okay, so let me set this up. Kyle's not very lovely at this. So you have you have run and you have run a flow Right, you have recorded web actions here. Okay, so if you scroll kyle, cool You have all these actions that you captured Okay, and you're done making the recording and we want to trigger this flow with a webhook url and bring data to To some of those steps, perhaps, Kyle, correct.

Okay. I've setting the stage now. Go. How do you, what do you, how do you describe that? So we would be wanting to use a webhook trigger because we're starting this flow with that webhook. Again, if we are trying to send this elsewhere, that's where we're sending it, which is an action. This isn't something we're trying to use to start our flow.

Hence. Okay. The word trigger. So if we set up a trigger that is webhook, it's going to give us a unique url that we can send data to. This is So what does that look like, Kyle, if you're actually setting it up new? Because this exists, right? Um, they would, no, they'd see, they'd see the same Well, do me the change.

Where it shows the three. So here you have webhook, you have schedule list and webhook. You don't, you're not going to schedule this as the trigger. You're not going to list this. You don't have to use a list or a looping through. Um, and you're not going to use one of the apps. The most powerful one here, would you say Kyle is webhook.

Yeah. Okay. So one, we'll teach you all about what we should teach people all about, like do a thing all about webhooks. Um, but we have a couple of these broken down. They're not as technical as they look. Yeah. Yeah. That's very true. That's very true. They're much more intimidating than they are. Yeah. I agree with that completely.

Yeah. Yeah. So like once you learn the four or five things you need to learn with it. And what they mean, because that's really all you need to learn. You can, these are very, very powerful because you can go to any app. Like we, we made a video for searching, Googling app name, webhook, bringing in their webhook documentation or a fancy word to just tell you directions.

And then webhook. Okay. So here's how you trigger it. You go in here, you see this screen and then you click webhook. And then this, the way that I describe this to people who don't have a great understanding of webhooks is that like a mailing address for your automation. So anybody can send mail or data to this automation, this URL here, that data is what's used in your automation.

You'll notice as you set up more that stuff about this URL at the end here changes and that's why each automation can have its own webhook trigger. That's something that a lot of people confuse as they look at this and they read the first 30 characters of this and they think it's always the same. Um, so I just want to make that clear that these are always unique URLs that trigger a specific automation.

So every time you, every time we, you have a, so they're different for each user and each user's difference automate different automation. Correct. If I had, if this is my Navica automation, if I was using a webhook trigger in any other automation, this is going to be different. I just want to make sure that's clear.

Cause people. Yeah lose how to use webhooks because of that But anyways, this is what I mean I can go through setting up a webhook if I can set it up fast and postman so you can see what's sending uh Don't do because we've we did a little bit. We will work on setting them up I just want to explain the difference in this.

Okay. Well, so like trigger this is if we want data for our automation So if I was to send let's call it mail here or any data The, the labels that I use when I set that up, which is, is all in the videos on setting up your webhooks, those become my variables. So if I go back to my automation and I try to use a variable in one of my steps here, you'll see that all of your webhook data is now available to be used instead of, Oh yeah.

So all the data. So say you used webhook from a form builder, right? That's the easiest one. Like use webhooks in type form or tally form. Each one of those fields would show up here, right? Okay. Oh, yeah, that is really cool. So yeah, that's great. These are all scraping steps. So that's great. Also, yeah, okay.

Okay, got you. But so that's, yeah, yeah. So you go to the typing steps. If you trigger with a webhook, you can bring that data into your recording. Right. And then you only on the typing steps, right, Kyle? No, um, it's gonna be, it's gonna be in a lot of steps. It's gonna be. Oh, it can be on URL steps. I mean, it's gonna be, it can be used in your find by text.

If you want to find something by text for a variable. Yeah, okay. Um, it's a typing URLs, very, very powerful, could be in parts, be in filter. Um, there's a, there's more complex, it's most common in go to page and type. Okay. Okay. So that's bringing in from webhook. What now in staying in recordings, uh, pushing.

To a webhook. Yeah. So let's say that this automation would, I guess what this automation does is it goes to chat GPT and it generates a post and that's, that's what this automation does. It tells chat GPT. If I scroll to the bottom here. It says, Hey, please, um, please generate a post and here's all the information.

And then we scrape chat, GPTs response. That's what this automation does. Okay. In a, just a quick overview of it. Let's say that once we have this scraped, we want to send this data somewhere else. Maybe we want to send it to a different web hook, which is a different automation. Maybe we want to send this to.

Um, an apps webhook. There's different reasons and an exact example that a lot of people resonate with is, let's say that I have chat GPT generate a social media post for me. I might want to post that to five different platforms, right? I don't want and not to call right out for this. I don't want 200 steps in my automation here.

I'm going to trigger five different automations to run With the scrape data from chat, GBT. So instead of 200 steps, I have one step that is sending data to a web hook, which is starting my Twitter flow. Then I have another step that's sending it to my Facebook flow. Then another one that sends it to my Instagram flow.

And that's kind of how that web hook communication works in a really powerful way for the browser recordings. Okay. So you've captured data. Okay. Now on the left hand side, under your automation, you have all of the controls. So one of them is send to webhook. How does that look? So if we click send to webhook, there's a couple of different options that we have here.

Um, the first is entering a URL. If we look at our trigger, hold on. So similar to how we brought data in now, we are the form builder in that last example, sending data. Correct. So you're ending up in a really weird, repetitive cycle of what you did on some other website. Let's call it that form builder that you're using to trigger your automation is you gave it a URL to trigger your flow with now you're giving task magic URL to tell another flow to start.

This is just right. We're just forwarding mail to other people now, and we have new mail because we scrape new data. So I want to send it to another webhook, and this webhook might be Zapier, it might be Make, it might be Tableau. You will get that URL, like you got that, the URL that we're getting data to from us, you will go to the platform you're sending it to and grab their URL.

Correct. Right, and then you'll paste that here. I'm going to quickly pull this up so that you can see it. Let's say that we are going, and this is going to be because everybody does the same thing with APIs. Um, if we were to be setting up a trigger here that is a webhook, they're going to be providing us on Pavli with a URL to enter.

Um, why do they have more options here? Right? So it's the same thing on different sites, right? And it's the same thing I was telling people about earlier is something about this URL changes and which is why it's different for every flow. So if we wanted to send data to this webhook URL, which is triggering a different automation somewhere else that we want, I can copy it.

Then back in Task Magic, I can paste that URL here to set up my webhook. Well, and then add headers seems a little heady. Add headers is uncommon, but it happens. Set up payload sounds like I'm non technical. I honestly don't even know what that is. Yeah, that's just us. I don't know if I can say where we go.

I need to do those things. You do not need to do this, which is why I made it gray. You need to do this. So payload is, um, the data that we want to send to the other automation. So very important. So headers is much less common. Okay, so let's not cover that then. So quickly go over the payload. Using will tell you what to add here if you need it.

It's, it's much less common. Um, for payload, this is where we're specifying what data to send there. So if I click plus here, I can add. What are called key value pairs, which is essentially creating a variable and then giving that variable something to do, right? And that sounds confusing at first, but it's the same thing we did when we started the automation.

If we have, and again, we go over this in the other trigger videos, but the same way we might get a variable in our automation of first name, last name, et cetera, right? Are you following me? We can create those variables for whatever else we're triggering.

You should probably start this thing with the first field there. Okay. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, that makes sense. And then I add another one. Okay. But that's good for this. Okay. So do you have anything to, cause we're not going to set this up. We'll have a different video to sell. Okay. Well then, yeah, that's, this is how I won't go.

This is exporting data too, right? High, high level view. We'll have another video to do specifically going over that, but. Okay, so payload, just make sure to hit the plus button to see your first field and then so on and so on. So, okay, is there anything to discuss high level here? Nope. Okay, so that is importing data via webhook to use in your automation and exporting data that you scraped from an automation.

Boom. Correct, Kyle? Now, you can use Data in and out from webhooks in our apps. So can you show what in apps using a webhook in apps in a recording on them? Okay. Go to the apps builder first.

So just quickly high level this you inside the apps builder, you can trigger with a webhook, right? Or an HTTP request. Well, there we go. Okay. And again, it's the same thing. You have the URL. Right? Correct. Copy. Boom. And then you do the same thing. So you grab data. It will, it will listen. It will grab the data from your form builder or wherever.

Okay. So now, and then can you just hit action to a webhook? Uh, what do you mean action? Like send some data to it really quick? No. Can you do just set up the action? Like this is a webhook trigger. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. So that's what's called HTTP. Oh, okay. Can we change that to send? We'll change that to it.

Yeah. Write that down right now. So like, because that's what Zapier uses. I agree with that language, like, cause that's the exact same thing. Is it not? Um, okay. If it's not let again, I'm non technical, so I'm, I'm learning this right now. So I mean, we should just call it webhook and then the developers will, will groan and click it because they know, click on it, click on it then.

Okay, click on action. Okay. Okay, great. So this is kind of the same setup, the URL. So there you go. Yeah, right. Yeah. Okay. So it is kind of the same. Yep. Yeah. So if you hit it's post mostly, right. Um, then you paste the URL that you grab from wherever, right. Great. Okay. So you see the key values there that we were talking about and how it's similar to our recorder.

Now, this is webhooks in and out in apps. Okay. Exit out of this. Now, here's where it gets fun. In a recorder, you can use a webhook in apps, right? Correct. So we can add an apps action. So he hit the green plus button in any step. Right in between any step or during recording, you can hit and add an app, right?

Because you can do that during recording. And then we would be adding the HTTP step, which is going through the same type of setup that we saw. Because it's, it's the action. So you're not triggering it. If you want to trigger this flow with a webhook, it's like we showed you at the top of the video. At the top where you set up your trigger here is h it's either called h t t p Or you'll see it now called send to webhook.

Okay, so it's one or the other kind of same kind of same thing Um, it will be here, but you can do that as well and add that inside of here So is there anything else high level kyle with that? No, that's it. Okay. Awesome That is an overview of webhooks in and out of recordings and webhooks inside apps And how you can add a webhook from the apps in the middle.

Or at the end, right, Kyle? Um, yeah. If I wanted to make the last step of my recording, right, if you scrolled all the way down, and I wanted to make the last step, push this all to a webhook, I could do that in apps, right? Yeah, there's a lot of, so like I said, a lot of people are using HTTP to start another automation.

Oh my god, this is using that. Um, I think this one was, yeah, I, I don't, I didn't finish setting this guy's thing up, but it does. Yeah. Okay. Because this is the last step where you're just, you're just adding HTTP request or webhook send to webhook. Same thing. It will say, send to webhook. Yeah, okay. So great.

So we'll say send to webhook and then boom, you'll have all the same stuff, but it's the stuff from apps and you can use that as your last step. Boom, which is essentially the same thing as the option on the left. Correct. Kyle, send a webhook. Underneath the automation name. This is, this is a better option for scraping lists.

This is a better option for every single other thing. What do you mean? Every single other thing, like if you're trying to, like I said, and we'll go over this in the other videos about why you want to use single things in app steps instead of list, if we scrape a list, that isn't the best thing to be sending to an app, we want to loop over that list.

We'll cover those in the looping videos that we do. Um, There's situations, which is probably a better video of, I have scraped data, which webhook do I want to use? Okay, so generally speaking, if you're going to end your flow on an HTTP request or webhook, generally, in most cases, you will use the option on the left underneath the app name.

Correct. Yeah. Okay, great. So we'll just know that. And then the possibility is there, if you're more intermediate to advanced, you can figure that other side out. Cool. Awesome. Thanks Kyle. Anything else? Nope. That's it. Let us know if you have any questions below and we can go from there.