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Introduction

The most basic Workflow to send a notification in response to an event looks like:

import { workflow } from '@novu/framework';

const myWorkflow = workflow('new-signup', async ({ step, payload }) => {
	// Send a welcome email
  await step.email('send-email', async () => {
    return {
      subject: `Welcome to Acme, ${payload.name}`,
      body: 'We look forward to helping you achieve mission.',
    }
  });
  // JSON Schema for validation and type-safety. Zod, and others coming soon.
}, { payloadSchema: { properties: { name: { type: 'string' }}}} );

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Just-in-time data fetching

You can add any custom logic into your steps that you need. Maybe you’d like to fetch some information about your new sign-up from somewhere else during the Workflow execution. You can achieve it with the following changes:

const myWorkflow = workflow('new-signup', async ({ step, payload }) => {
	// Send a welcome email
  await step.email('send-email', async () => {
	  // Fetch the user from your database
	  const user = await db.getUser(payload.userId);
        return {
          subject: `Welcome to Acme ${user.productTier} tier, ${user.name}.`,
          // 'Welcome to Acme Business tier, John Doe.'
          body: 'We look forward to helping you achieve mission.',
        }
      });
      // Changing the schema from `name` -> `userId`, for type-safety.
    }, { payloadSchema: { properties: { userId: { type: 'string' }}}} );

We call this just-in-time notification data fetching. It allows you pull in data from the relevant sources during the Workflow execution, removing the need to store all of your subscriber data in Novu.

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Multi-step workflow

Now, what if you wanted to send another update to the same new user in 1 week? But, you don’t want to send the follow-up if the User opted out. We can add more steps to the Workflow to achieve this.

const myWorkflow = workflow(
  'new-signup',
  async ({ step, payload }) => {
    await step.email('send-email', async () => {
      const user = await db.getUser(payload.userId);
      return {
        subject: `Welcome to Acme ${user.productTier} tier, ${user.name}.`,
        body: 'We look forward to helping you achieve mission.',
      };
    });

    // Wait for 1 week before continuing. After 1 week, Novu will continue
    // executing the Workflow from here.
    await step.delay('onboarding-follow-up', async () => ({
      amount: 1,
      type: 'regular',
      unit: 'weeks',
    }));

    // 1 week passed, let's follow up with an in-app notification.
    await step.inApp(
      'onboarding-follow-up',
      async (inputs) => {
        const user = await db.getUser(payload.userId);
        // The `feedbackUrl` can be updated in Novu Web without changing code.
        // This helps you to create re-usable Workflow snippets.
        return {
          body: `Hey ${user.name}! How do you like the product?

      Let us know <a href="${inputs.feedbackUrl}">here</a>
      if you have any questions.`,
        };
      },
      {
        // Don't follow up if the Subscriber opted out.
        skip: () => !payload.shouldFollowUp,
        // Add validation to ensure `feedbackUrl` provided in Web is a `uri`
        inputSchema: {
          type: 'object',
          properties: { feedbackUrl: { type: 'string', format: 'uri', default: 'https://acme.com/feedback' } },
          required: ['feedbackUrl'],
          additionalProperties: false,
        } as const,
      },
    );
  },
  {
    payloadSchema: {
      type: 'object',
      properties: {
        userId: { type: 'string' },
        shouldFollowUp: { type: 'boolean', default: true },
      },
      required: ['userId', 'shouldFollowUp'],
      additionalProperties: false,
    } as const,
  },
);

With this simple Workflow, we:

  • Sent a new signup email
  • Waited 1 week
  • Sent an in-app follow-up notification

You should now have a grasp of the flexibility that Novu Framework offers.

Continue your reading in Steps to find out the other channels and actions you can use with Novu Framework.

​
Workflow Interface

workflow(
	// the Workflow name. Must be unique across your Bridge server.
	'new-signup',
	// Workflow resolver, the entry-point for your Workflow steps
	async ({
		// Helper function to declare your Workflow Steps.
		step,
		// Workflow Trigger payload
		payload,
	}) => {
	// ...your Workflow Steps

}, {
	// JSON Schema for validation and type-safety. Zod, and others coming soon.
	// https://json-schema.org/draft-07/json-schema-release-notes

	// The schema for the Workflow payload passed dynamically via Novu Trigger API
	// Defaults to an empty schema.
	payloadSchema: { properties: { name: { type: 'string' }}},
	// The schema for the Workflow inputs passed statically via Novu Web
	// Defaults to an empty schema.
	inputSchema: { properties: { brandColor: { type: 'string' }}},
});

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Bridge EndpointStep Inputs