Triggers

Triggers enable you to run automations in four different ways, each described in the table below. You can assign as many triggers as you like to an automation and have more than one of each type. You can find more details about each trigger type in the sections that follow.

Workflows initiated by triggers will mention Operations Manager in the Job Manager job description.

Figure 1: Operations Manager in Job Manager

Creating and Editing Triggers

To create a trigger:

1. Click the + Trigger button on the automation details page.
2. Use the dropdown to select the trigger type you want to create.
3. You can edit a trigger using the action icon from the trigger table row.

Manual Triggers

Manual triggers run an automation using the play button.

Figure 2: Create Trigger Modal

Running Automations from Manual Triggers

To run an automation:

1. Click the play button in the top left of the Automation Details page. The Run Automation modal opens.
2. Select an enabled manual trigger to run the automation. You can also edit its optional JSON Form data.
3. Click Run.

By having multiple manual triggers, you can more easily run an automation with different JSON Form data.

Figure 3: Manual Run Trigger Modal

API Endpoint Triggers

API Endpoint triggers are endpoints that will run the automation with POST request data. Each API trigger requires a unique route name.

URLs for endpoint triggers use this format:

/operations-manager/triggers/endpoint/:routeName

The routeName is unique. This endpoint responds with information about the workflow that was started.

Figure 4: Create API Endpoint Trigger

Schedule Triggers

Schedule triggers run the automation at some point in the future at an optional repeating frequency.

⚠ Note: The time and date selected in the modal and shown in the trigger table after saving is based on the user's current time and date.

Figure 5: Create Schedule Trigger

Event Triggers

Event triggers run the automation they are assigned to whenever the event they are configured to listen for occurs. When an event occurs in Itential Automation Platform (IAP):

• The event system of IAP will publish an event object, which is a representation of that event as a JSON object.
• The payload key of the event object will be validated against the payload schema filter defined in the event trigger.
• If the payload passes validation, the event object will be sent to an optional JST defined in the event trigger.
• After the JST is applied (if relevant), the payload will be made available to the workflow and the automation will run.

⚠ Note: If you wish to use keys and values from the event object in a workflow, you must reference them as job variables within the workflow itself.

For more information:

• Refer to the Variables section of the Tasks documentation in the IAP Automation Studio User Guide.
• Refer to the Event System documentation in the IAP Developer Guide to learn more about event objects.

Figure 6: Edit Event Trigger

Payload Schema Filter

The payload schema filter is a JSON schema against which the payload key of an event object is validated. If the payload is validated, the event trigger will continue its preparations to run the automation. If the payload is not validated, the automation will not run.

The payload schema filter uses the following syntax:

{
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {},
    "additionalProperties": true
}

⚠ Note: For more information on how to construct JSON schemas, refer to the Understanding JSON Schema documentation.

Triggers UI

The triggers table is where to view an automation's triggers. You can view trigger names, types, and if they are enabled. If the trigger is a scheduled trigger, then the table also shows the date and time of the next scheduled run in your local time.

To edit or delete a trigger, hover to the far right of the trigger's row to view the trigger actions. If the trigger is a manual trigger, the option to run the trigger will be available. This will show the manual run modal, and behaves the same as the play button on the left of the Automation Details page and in the Automation Collections view.