Overview  

The webhook trigger starts a flow when it receives data from an external application or service through a unique webhook URL.

A webhook allows an application to send data to Zoho Flow as soon as an event occurs. When Zoho Flow receives the request at the webhook URL, it triggers the flow and makes the received data available to the subsequent steps in your workflow.

Use the webhook trigger when you want external applications, custom code, or services to initiate a flow by sending data to Zoho Flow.

Steps to configure the webhook trigger  

1. Navigate to the My Flows page, then click Create Flow.
   

2. Enter a name for your flow and an optional description, then click Create.
   

3. Select Webhook as the trigger and click Configure.
   
   
   
   

4. Choose the format of the incoming request.

   
   JSON — Receives data in JSON format.
   
   
   FORM DATA — Receives form-encoded data.
   
   
   PLAIN TEXT— Receives plain text.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Note: Select PLAIN TEXT if the incoming data is in XML format. You can process the XML further using a custom function.
   
   

5. Select the payload format that matches the format used by the source application. Once you select a payload format, Zoho Flow generates a unique webhook URL for the flow.
   

6. Click Copy. Use this URL while configuring the webhook in your application or service, then click Next.
   

7. Send a sample request from your application or service to the webhook URL. After Zoho Flow receives the request, the payload is displayed on the screen for verification. If you want to send another sample request, click Retest.
   

8. Expand Advanced settings to configure additional options.
    
   

   • Check the Extract headers and use them in the next steps box to extract the headers in the payload received, and provide them as variables under Webhook in the Insert variable section in the flow builder.
     
     
     
     

   • By default, Zoho Flow extracts the complete payload. If you only need a specific section of the payload, enter the required key. For example, if the payload contains contact.phones and you only need the phone information, enter contact.phones. Only that portion of the payload will be available in the subsequent steps.

   • Check the Trigger flow for each entry box if the incoming payload contains multiple entries and you want the flow to run separately for each entry. For example, if the payload contains three entries, the flow runs three times, once for each entry.
     

   • Check the Enable webhook acknowledgement box to send a response back after Zoho Flow receives the webhook request. You can configure the response body and headers returned to the source application. You can choose to send the acknowledgement for only the first webhook request or for all webhook requests every time a flow is switched on.
     

After configuring the required settings, click Done to open the flow builder.

Note: Once the webhook trigger is configured, you can use the extracted variables in subsequent actions and logic blocks to build your workflow.

Related articles  

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• Write custom Deluge functions to handle complex logic in your flows