What is the Altostrat Workflow Engine?
The Altostrat Workflow Engine automates your business processes by connecting triggers, actions, and conditions into powerful automation sequences. Whether you need to send notifications, sync data between systems, or process customer events, the Workflow Engine handles complex automation tasks reliably and efficiently. Key capabilities:- Automate repetitive business processes
- Connect multiple services and APIs
- Process data with conditional logic
- Monitor and debug automation runs
- Scale from simple notifications to complex integrations
What is a Workflow?
A workflow is an automated sequence of steps designed to accomplish a specific task. Think of it as a visual flowchart for your processes. You build workflows by connecting different building blocks, called nodes, to define a path of execution.
How Workflows Work: The Three Building Blocks
Every workflow automation consists of three core node types that work together to create intelligent, responsive processes:Triggers: What Starts Your Workflow
Triggers are the starting events that launch your workflow automation. Common trigger types include:- Scheduled triggers: Run workflows daily, weekly, or on custom schedules
- Webhook triggers: Respond to external API calls and integrations
- Manual triggers: Start workflows on-demand from the dashboard
- System events: React to platform events like user registrations or payments
Actions: What Your Workflow Does
Actions perform the actual work in your workflow automation:- API calls: Send HTTP requests to external services
- Data transformation: Map, filter, and format data between steps
- Notifications: Send emails, SMS, or push notifications
- Time delays: Pause workflow execution for specified periods
- Sub-workflows: Call other workflows for modular automation
Conditions: How Your Workflow Makes Decisions
Conditions add intelligence to your workflows by creating branching logic:- Data comparison: Check values, strings, numbers, and dates
- Boolean logic: Combine multiple conditions with AND/OR operators
- Array processing: Evaluate lists and collections
- Switch statements: Route workflows based on multiple criteria
- Custom logic: Build complex decision trees for any scenario
Workflow Execution: How Your Automations Run
Active workflows execute automatically when triggered, with complete monitoring and debugging capabilities:- Asynchronous Execution: When a workflow is triggered, it’s immediately queued for execution in the background. This ensures that the triggering system gets a fast response and the workflow can run reliably without being timed out.
- Run History: You can view the complete history of every run, see its final status (Completed or Failed), and inspect the data that flowed through it.
- Detailed Logs: Each step within a run is meticulously logged, showing the exact input it received and the output it produced. This is invaluable for debugging and understanding how your automations are performing.
- Resuming Failed Runs: If a workflow fails due to a temporary issue (like a third-party service being down), you can resume it from the last successful step, saving you from having to re-run the entire process.