Applies to
Start your Bridge workflows with triggers
Triggers tell Bridge workflows when to run and there are several types of triggers to choose from.
Who can use this?
Plans:
- Bridge by Smartsheet
Which trigger you should use for a workflow depends on how you need your process workflow to start.
Integration type | Usage |
---|---|
Integration | Start your workflow as a response to something, e.g., when a column value changes on a row. |
Schedule | Start your workflow on a specific date/time or cadence, e.g. daily, weekly, monthly. |
Parent workflow | Use another Bridge workflow as trigger. |
Play | Manual trigger workflows. |
Webhook trigger | Have your Bridge workflow respond to a change in a system that doesn’t have an integration. |
You can set up more than one trigger for processes that may need to start in more than one way. Some triggers can also bring in important information that helps your workflow start.
Integration triggers
Bridge workflows can start in response to a system change, such as when a row is added to a sheet. These are called integration triggers. Here are some of the integrations you can use to trigger a workflow:
Currently, only Smartsheet triggers are visible for setting up from within the workflow designer's Triggers panel. All other integration triggers must be set up on the Integrations page of your Bridge workspace.
Each integration that supports triggers has multiple kinds of triggers to choose from. To use an integration’s triggers, you need to set up the integration using the below steps:
- Navigate to the Integrations page in Bridge.
- Search for the integration you need for your workflow.
- Select the integration.
- Follow the prompts to authenticate and set up the integration.
Once the integration is set up, use the articles linked above to review the specific trigger events available for each integration.
Parent workflows
You can set up workflows to trigger other workflows. We call these parent and child workflows. A workflow can have one or more parents and one or more children.
Learn more about parent and child workflows.
Schedule triggers
You can set up Bridge workflows to run once at a specific date/time or on a recurring basis, such as hourly, daily, etc. When using a schedule trigger, your workflow needs to be set up to get all the information required to run your process.
Follow these steps to set a schedule for your workflow:
- Go to the workflow you want to schedule.
- Select the Trigger element.
- Expand the Schedule option and select Add new schedule.
- Define your schedule details.
- Select Save.
You can’t set schedules to run more than every 15 minutes. The schedules created are all displayed in the UTC timezone.
Learn more about scheduling workflows.
Manual triggers
You can manually trigger a workflow while viewing it inside Bridge. This trigger is most commonly used when building your workflow to test the latest changes you’ve made. You can also use this trigger when you have a process that doesn’t need to run in response to something or at a specific time but is useful to run occasionally.
To manually trigger a workflow to run:
- In Bridge, locate the workflow you want to run.
- Open the workflow in the designer by selecting the workflow's name.
- Open the Run Log .
- Select Play .
Webhook triggers
If you want to trigger workflows with other systems that are not integrated with Bridge, you can define these triggers using the Inbound Webhook Utility:
- Go to the Integrations page.
- Find the Inbound Webhook icon.
- Follow the prompts and fill in the required information.
This is only a viable option if the system offers relevant webhooks (e.g., the events you want to respond to) and doesn't require validation of webhook endpoints.