HTTP request

Direction

Out, and the response comes back to the workflow

Sign-in

A saved Bearer, Header or Basic credential, or none

Time to set up

About fifteen minutes

What this does

The HTTP Request step calls a web address when a workflow run reaches it, and saves the answer for the steps after it. After a trigger such as Chat Widget Conversation Ended, it can send what the AI chatbot collected to any tool with a public API: a CRM, job software, a spreadsheet tool, or another tool's webhook URL. It can also fetch a record and hand it to a text, an email or a branch.

Before you start

• The other tool's API documentation open: the address to call, the method, the fields it expects and how it takes a key.
• A key or token from the other tool, if its API needs one.
• A workflow with a trigger: Your first workflow.

Match the tool's sign-in

The tool's API documentation says how to send its key. The step sends it one of three ways:

All three send the key in a request header.

Save the key as a credential

1. Add the step

   In the app, open Workflows, open the workflow, and add an HTTP Request step after the trigger.

2. Start a new credential

   In the step, under Authentication, choose Workflow credential, then click New credential.

3. Fill it in

   In New workflow credential, type a Name and pick the Authentication type. For a key sent in its own header, pick Header, type the header's name in Header name, such as X-API-Key, and paste the key in Header value. Click Create credential. The secret is hidden once saved. Any HTTP Request step in your workspace can pick it.

   

To change a key later, pick the credential, click Edit selected and paste the new value. Leave a secret field blank to keep the old one.

Build the request

1. Set the method and address

   In the step, under Request, pick the Method: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH or DELETE. Paste the Request URL.

   

2. Add query parameters and headers

   Add Query parameters and Headers as Key and Value pairs, if the tool's documentation asks for them.

3. Write the body

   Under Send, pick the Body format: JSON, Raw text, Form fields or No body. Put workflow variables in double curly braces.

4. Save

   Click Save workflow.

A JSON body that sends a website chat's lead:

{
  "name": "{{trigger.first_name}}",
  "email": "{{trigger.email}}",
  "phone": "{{trigger.phone}}",
  "notes": "{{trigger.action_items}}",
  "source": "Website chat"
}

In a JSON body, a variable in quotes becomes text. A variable without quotes becomes the value itself, such as a list or an object.

Calls and texts carry their own fields. The Variables reference lists them.

Use the response

The step saves the status code, the response headers and the first 15,000 characters of the body. Later steps read it by the step's name, for example {{node_outputs_by_name.http_request.response.body.status}}.

Test it

1. Publish the workflow

   In Workflows, switch Status to Published and click Save workflow.

2. Make the trigger happen

   For Chat Widget Conversation Ended, chat with the chatbot on your website, give a name and an email, and close the chat.

3. Check the run

   Switch from Editor to Executions and open the run. The HTTP Request step shows the request it sent, with secret headers masked, and the response with its status code.

   

4. Check the other tool

   Find the new record in the other tool.

What it does

• Calls any public http:// or https:// address, and refuses localhost, private and internal network addresses.
• Sends one request each time a run reaches it. To read a record back, add a step with a GET request.
• Adds an Idempotency-Key header to each request, so an API that supports it can skip a repeat when the step runs again.
• Masks headers whose names contain token, secret, password, key or authorization in Executions.
• Waits 30 seconds for an answer unless you change Timeout (seconds).
• Follows up to 10 redirects while Follow redirects is on. On a redirect to another site it drops the Authorization header, so Bearer and Basic credentials stay behind. To keep a Header credential, such as X-API-Key, at the address you set, turn off Follow redirects.

If something goes wrong

A response of 400 or higher fails the step. Executions shows the error with the start of what the API sent back. The run then waits and tries the step again: workflows made in the editor try up to three more times, a minute apart, before the run shows as failed. Enable node retry policy in the step's settings sets its own count and delay.