Flow types in Connector Builder
There are three main types of flows that you can use as building blocks in Connector Builder:
Action flows
Use action flows to create action cards that allow users to perform an "action" against a service, to address their business use cases or automate common processes.
This is the only flow type in Connector Builder which users can use to build flows on the Okta Workflows platform.
Use action flows in Connector Builder to build action cards for your connector, such as Create User, Custom API Action, or Search Files.
System flows
System flows in Connector Builder form the foundation for a connector and that connector's action cards. These flows are similar in construction to action cards, but they're used only by the platform and stay hidden from users.
Authping
The authping system flow checks the connection for a connector. It's used to verify that a particular card is connected and communicating with the external third-party service.
Revoke
A revoke system flow allows you to revoke a connection's access token.
Revoking the token prevents the token from remaining active, even after the token is deleted from the Okta Workflows platform. This keeps anyone from viewing the permissions granted to Okta Workflows in an external app's third-party access listing.
By implementing a revoke flow, users can revoke an access token from the Connections page or from any card belonging to that connector.
See Build a revoke flow.
Webhook events
Webhooks are a way for different online services or applications to communicate with each other in near-real time. They allow an application to send data to another application when a specific event occurs. This mechanism is commonly used to automate processes and keep different systems in sync without the need for constant manual intervention.
See Build a webhook event flow.
A webhook event flow often generally includes a registration event and sometimes a deregistration event for subscriptions to the external service:
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Webhook registration
Webhook registration is the process of establishing a connection between systems to enable the exchange of real-time information. When you register a webhook, you're essentially telling one system where to send data when a specific event occurs in another system.
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Webhook deregistration
Webhook deregistration is the process of disabling a previously established webhook connection. For example, if you no longer need to receive certain event notifications, or if you're switching to a different endpoint, or decommissioning the webhook altogether.
Polling monitor events
A polling monitor is a mechanism to retrieve information from online services on a scheduled basis, in situations where support for a webhook event flow isn't available or desired.
As specific events occur on the remote service, they're tracked and recorded. Then, when a scheduled polling monitor flow executes, Okta queries the remote service and retrieves all the information recorded since the last time the remote service was called.
This mechanism is commonly used to automate processes and keep different systems in sync without requiring constant manual intervention.
Helper flows
In addition to action and system flows, helper flows are called by other flows within your connector project. They can be used for many purposes, like iterating through a data set or for performing shared tasks such as authorization.
See Helper flows.