Notiflows

Notiflows

Notiflows are the fundamental orchestration units that define how your application communicates with users. Think of a notiflow as a blueprint that outlines the complete journey of a notification from creation to delivery across one or more communication channels.

What is a Notiflow?

A notiflow is a structured sequence of steps that processes user input and generates notifications. Each notiflow is designed to handle a specific type of communication scenario, such as welcoming new users, alerting about important updates, or sending transactional confirmations.

When you trigger a notiflow, it processes the provided data, applies any configured logic, and creates notifications that can be delivered through multiple channels simultaneously or sequentially.

Core Components

Every notiflow consists of several key elements:

Entry Point The notiflow begins when your application sends a trigger request. This request includes information about the event, the target user, and any relevant data needed to personalize the notification.

Processing Steps These steps define the logic and flow of your notification:

• Channel Steps: Send notifications through specific delivery methods (email, SMS, push, etc.)
• Wait Steps: Delay execution for a specified duration before continuing
• Batch Steps: Group multiple trigger events into a single notification
• Throttle Steps: Limit how frequently notifications are sent to prevent overwhelming recipients

Output The notiflow produces one or more notifications, each of which can be delivered through configured channels.

Designing Effective Notiflows

Single Purpose Principle Each notiflow should handle one specific type of communication. This approach makes your notification system easier to maintain, test, and modify. For example, create separate notiflows for "password reset" and "welcome email" rather than combining them.

User-Centric Design Consider how users want to receive information. Group related notifications together when appropriate, and respect user preferences for channel selection and frequency.

Modularity Break complex notification scenarios into smaller, reusable notiflows. You can chain notiflows together or trigger them independently based on different conditions.

Notiflow Lifecycle

A notiflow can exist in different states:

• Active: Ready to process triggers and generate notifications
• Inactive: Disabled and cannot be triggered

Best Practices

• Naming Conventions: Use clear, descriptive names that indicate the notiflow's purpose (e.g., order-confirmation, weekly-digest)
• Version Control: Track changes to your notiflows to maintain a history of modifications
• Testing: Test notiflows thoroughly in development environments before deploying to production
• Documentation: Document the expected input data and behavior of each notiflow for your team

By thoughtfully designing your notiflows, you create a robust, scalable notification system that delivers the right message to the right user at the right time through their preferred channels.