Skip to main content

Key concepts

Key concepts and terminology to know to use Actioner.

Actioner is a no-code platform for building Slack-first apps. It is a flexible automation tool that lets you build complex business logic and human-in-the-loop (HITL) workflows to design your own Slack apps.

You can start with ready-made apps in app directory or build your own Slack apps, without code.

Actioner has a few main components. Let's take a closer look at each one.

Workflows​

Workflows in Actioner are customizable and automated processes that can execute one or multiple actions. They are created using a visual designer and can be triggered by various events in your systems or manually initiated within Slack. Workflows can also be scheduled to run at specific times or recurring intervals.

Any business process can be run as a workflow via Actioner. Unlike other systems that force you to switch contexts frequently, Actioner lets you do all your work through smart flows tailored for Slack.

Running workflows​

A workflow can be manually run in Slack, or it can be automatically initiated by an integration event or by processing a data received through a webhook trigger.

Running a workflow in Slack​

Running a workflow through Actioner shortcut​

In Slack, type /actioner and then find the workflow you want to run - either by typing its name or selecting it from dropdown. Continue with entering parameters on the opening form.

Running workflows in Slack

Running a workflow through a button in a Slack notification​

Actioner sends notifications to your Slack channels and sends notifications as direct messages. Slack notifications contain buttons that allow you to take decisive actions. By clicking a button on a Slack notification sent by Actioner, you can trigger a workflow manually right in Slack. If your workflow takes inputs, your workflow will open up in a form view. You can enter your values and submit the form to initiate your workflow.

After running a workflow manually in Slack, you can switch between output views and share the results with your team in your preferred Slack channel.

Triggering workflows automatically​

A workflow can be triggered with an event happening in your tool or when Actioner receives data from a webhook. These automated workflows let you automate and execute business processes according to a set of rules.

Apps​

An app is a collection of workflows, jobs and data tables that are bundled together. Apps work as containers to hold logically connected workflows and the data to run them, and enables all of its workflows to be run with continuity.

Apps can consist of tool-specific workflows or they can be setup with workflows that run in multiple tools. Actioner allows you to design sophisticated apps with an unlimited number of workflows that can call each other, exchange data, and even interact with workflows from different integrations.

App directory​

There are plenty of tools, tasks, and operations that are common across your organization and other companies. App directory helps you discover and use what Actioner team and Actioner community has built as ready-made workflows. You can use them as is or customize them through the workflow designer to fit your exact needs.

Actioner's app directory contains apps connected with Slack and the most popular tools and solutions for

You can install an app in seconds, add up multiple workflows to your stack and start running workflows immediately.

Managed apps​

Managed apps are the apps installed from Actioner app directory and that is published by Actioner team. When your app is a managed app, you can continue to keep the app you installed to your workspace up-to-date whenever its new version becomes available in Actioner app directory.

Integrations​

In Actioner, an integration refers to the process of connecting, collecting data from and sending data back to an external system, service or a platform. Integrations allow you to exchange data between different sources and consolidate them within Actioner.

An integration typically involves configuring Actioner to communicate with a specific system or service by setting up a connection. Once the authentication is set up, it enables you to gather data from that system or send data back to it.

Actioner offers a wide range of integrations, each tailored to a specific system or service. These integrations range from popular tools like Slack, Zendesk, HubSpot, Jira, Trello, and Google Sheets to specialized software and services across different categories such as CRM, project management, e-commerce, social media, and more.

By leveraging integrations, you can centralize and correlate data from multiple sources and bring visibility into your entire tool stack.

Connections​

For a workflow to communicate with a tool, it has to be authorized to interact with it. This authorization is referred as a connection.

Actions in Actioner send data to perform tasks or to retrieve data for workflow components. Connections simply enable your actions to send API requests to your systems.

A connection works as a template for authentication in your tool. You can setup how Actioner sends API requests to your system by adding a connection and entering authentication credentials.

Depending on the connection type, the credentials for authentication and authorization can be username/password or an API key or a shared OAuth2 access token.

Once you complete the authentication for a connection, you can reuse it in your workflows.

Shared connections​

Connections can be shared across the workflows in your Actioner workspace. If Shared option is enabled for a connection, all actions associated with that connection are sent with the saved authentication credentials.

Shared option in connections do not mean that your credentials are exposed to any user. Credentials are used to authenticate requests in a workflow when they are automatically run or manually run by a user in Slack. Let's say you have a workflow that creates deals in HubSpot and saved a HubSpot connection that uses a sales manager's credentials. When "Create deal" workflow is run by sales reps in Slack, all deals will be shown as created by the sales manager even though the sales reps are creating deals.

Shared connections for automatic workflows

To trigger a workflow automatically, actions added to that workflow are required to be run with a Shared connection.

Due to the nature of automated workflows, Actioner needs to know via which users' connection credentials to authenticate the actions in that workflow. Actioner relies on a connection with enabled Shared option to automatically authorize the actions in your workflows.

Slack connections​

To run workflows in Slack and to listen events happening in your Slack workspace, your Actioner workspace needs to be connected to your Slack workspace.

Different than other connections, a Slack connection can be added by an Actioner workspace admin and once added can be used by all apps in that Actioner workspace.

App config​

App config refers to a set of parameters and settings that define the behavior and options of your app. These configurations are stored in dedicated configuration files in JSON format, and allows app admins to modify the behavior without having to make changes in workflows.

You can use app config to store varios type of values. Some examples include:

  • Storing the value of your Slack channel IDs to send or update notifications.
  • Repetitive content such as the hint messages to be shown to your app's users.
  • Settings whether to send notification from DM or alerting through the channel.

Tables​

A table is an organized collection of information, or data that is set up for easy access, management and updating the information.

Workflows in your app can use tables to store, get, update or delete the necessary data. For example, when a time-off request is submitted in a HR app that works in Slack, you can store the data of the request in a table for future use.

Tables in Actioner are scoped to the app they are added to, meaning that they can be accessed, managed or updated inside the app they belong to. An app can contain multiple tables.

A data table defines the structure and validation rules of the data it holds. It is a template or definition for holding records. When a record in a table is created, it means that, that fields have values assigned. Records are instances of a table with specific field values.

Table fields​

Fields are the building blocks of a data table. There are various field types that you can use in defining your data table structure. Fields also have properties that help you set the rules for the data they hold.

Table records​

Records are instances of a data table with specific field values. A new record in a table is created by assigning values to table fields.

Jobs​

Jobs enable you to initiate your workflows at a specific time or on a recurring basis. Every job in Actioner triggers a workflow.

Example jobs​

  • Alert your customer support team to update their tickets 20 minutes before breaching SLA.
  • Notify your sales team to log their notes one hour after finishing their meetings with customers.
  • Remind your team to participate in daily standups every weekday.
  • Generate the volume reports on a weekly basis and automatically share it in your team's Slack channel.

Scheduled jobs​

  • Scheduled jobs are the tasks that are run only once at the date and time you specified. You can use them to remind important deadlines.

Recurring jobs​

  • Recurring jobs are the tasks that run on a recurring basis. You can use them to remind repetitive tasks that take place daily, weekly or monthly.

Documents​

A document in Actioner is a plain text that conveys knowledge, ideas, instructions, or any other type of content in a structured and organized format.

With documents, you can take your AI-powered workflows to the next level. You can use Q&A nodes for extracting responses from your app's documents and generate an answer to the provided comment. This can be particularly valuable for automating responses to inquiries and ensuring that the answers are derived from relevant documentation.