Inject external data into your flow

There are a couple of ways you can get data from external systems into Flow Designer, depending on how the system is able to communicate with xMatters.

  • HTTP trigger: If the external system is capable of sending a web request, you can use an HTTP trigger to initiate a flow when xMatters receives a POST request to the trigger's URL. The HTTP trigger parses the payload from the incoming HTTP request, then extracts information from the payload and maps it to outputs you create, making the data available to later steps in your flow. Learn more.
  • Email trigger: You can use an email trigger to inject information from any external system capable of sending an email message to xMatters. When xMatters receives a trigger initiation email from a valid sender, it initiates the corresponding flow and makes information from the email available as outputs. Learn more.

A note about xMatters events...

HTTP and email triggers in Flow Designer do not create an event in xMatters when they are initiated. In Flow Designer, you can create events at any point in your flow using an xMatters Create Event step.

The benefit of not immediately creating an event when the external system injects information into xMatters is that you can include information from other steps in your event, or only create under specific circumstances. For example, you could send an email to first open a ticket in a service desk and start a chat room, and then map the ticket number and chat room link to properties on your form so they're included in the event notification.

You can also connect additional steps to your flow after the xMatters event step to further extend your workflow, and pass information about the event into other systems further along in the flow. For example, perhaps you'd like to post the conference bridge number for the event into the chat room you created in a previous step.

The xMatters Create Event step is available from on the Tools tab in the Flow Designer palette. For more information, see xMatters Create Event.