Getting Started
Terminology
Workflow
A workflow is like a recipe for finishing a task. It tells you the ingredients, steps to take, and the order to do them, like making a sandwich: get bread, add fillings, and put bread on top.Making a sandwich is a relatively easy task as it can be done by a single person, with very few tools. Workflows in businesses however, can be complex, boring, error prone and time consuming. They usually involve many tasks requiring different areas of expertise and different apps to achieve them.Automated Workflow
Automated workflows are a string of tasks that were once done by humans, but are now done by software, for humans. An example could be reading data from a PDF document, cross-checking it with a spreadsheet and outputting it into a CRM if it matches up.By dragging and dropping steps onto our canvas and linking them together, you can automate almost any kind of workflow. It’s as easy as plotting a flow chart.Canvas
The canvas is the area in which a user creates a workflow.This image demonstrates a workflow on our canvas:
Apps
Apps are considered any third-party app or service that can be authorized and connected to the doFlo platform to use in your workflows. doFlo has over 2,500 apps that are integrated and can be used.Step
Steps are joined together to create a workflow. Each step in a workflow is usually a task being executed by doFlo in an app that you’re logged into.Steps are generally described as either a trigger or task, but can even be a workflow. Yes, you can have workflows within workflows. But for now, let’s keep it simple.Trigger
A trigger is a type of step that kick-starts a workflow when a specified condition is met. They are usually at the very start of a workflow and are followed by tasks. You can also test the workflow with the play button in the bottom bar.You may have multiple triggers for a single workflow.Task
A task is an instruction carried out by doFlo within an app that the user has authenticated. Our example workflow from earlier has a timed trigger, four distinct tasks across four distinct apps:Terminal (Input / Output)
The input terminal is labelled 'start' on the left of a task step, and the output terminals are on the right of a trigger or task step, labelled 'success', 'error' or, in the case of a condition step 'fail'.