External signal external-signal
Description description
The External signal activity triggers a workflow when some conditions are successfully met in another workflow or from a REST API call.
Context of use context-of-use
The External signal activity is used to organize and orchestrate different processes that are part of the same customer journey into different workflows. It allows to start one workflow from another, enabling to support more complex customer journeys, while being able to better monitor and react in case of issue.
The External signal activity is designed to be placed as the first activity of a workflow. It can be triggered from the End activity of another workflow or from a REST API call (for more on this, refer to the API documentation).
When triggered, external parameters can be defined and be available in the workflow events variables. The process to call a workflow with external parameters is detailed in this section.
Note that an External signal activity can be triggered from several different events. In that case, the External signal is triggered as soon as one of the source workflows or API call is executed. It does not require that all source workflows are finished.
Related topics
Configuration configuration
When configuring an external signal, it is important to first configure the External signal activity in the destination workflow. Once this configuration is done, the External signal activity of this workflow becomes available to configure the End activity of the source workflow.
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Drag and drop an External signal activity into your destination workflow.
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Select the activity, then open it using the
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Edit the label of the activity. This label is needed when configuring the source workflow that triggers the External signal.
If you want to call the workflow with parameters, use the Parameters area to declare them. For more on this, refer to this page.
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Confirm the configuration of your activity, add any other activity you need and save your workflow.
note note NOTE If you want to trigger the destination workflow from another workflow, proceed with the following steps. If you want to trigger the destination workflow from a REST API call, consult the API documentation to get more details. -
Open the source workflow and select an End activity. If there is no End activity available, add one after the last activity of a branch of the workflow.
Some activities do not have any outbound transition by default. From the Properties tab of these activities, you can add an outbound transition.
For example, in an Update data activity, go to the Transitions tab and check the Add an outbound transition without the population option. This option allows to add a transition that does not contain any data and do not consume any unnecessary space on your system. It is just used to connect the extra End activity that triggers the destination workflow.
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In the External signal tab of the End activity, select the destination workflow as well as the External signal activity to trigger within that workflow.
When you set an End activity to trigger another workflow, its icon is updated with an additional signal symbol.
If you want to call the workflow with parameters, use the Parameters and values area. For more on this, refer to this page.
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Save the source workflow.
Once the End activity of the source workflow or the REST API call is executed, the destination workflow is automatically triggered from the External signal activity.