Build a flow
What are blocks
Flows consist of a set of functional blocks that you connect together, enabling you to create step-by-step actions for execution. Each block performs a specific function. By combining different blocks, you can develop a customized application to address your media use case effectively.
Blocks are grouped into different categories such as Triggers, Flow Logic, and Developer Tools, to make them more accessible. For more in-depth information on each block, please refer to the Block reference.
The canvas
The canvas is your visual development environment. It allows you to view, edit, test, debug, and deploy your application.
The canvas has 4 available sidebars: Flow Description, Execution, Add Blocks, and Execution Logs.
All sidebars are accessible via the 4 buttons in the Navigation Bar on the left.
Adding blocks
From the Navigation bar on the left, open the Add Blocks sidebar.
From the Add Blocks sidebar, select the block you want to use and drag it to the canvas.
Connecting blocks
Drag the blue and red dots to connect blocks.
Use the blue dots to connect the next block in the happy path.
Use the red dots to connect the next block in the error path.
In the example below, if the Manual Moderation block executes successfully, the Rename Media block will be executed next. If the Manual Moderation block experiences any issues, the Send Email Using SendGrid block will be executed next to send the error to a specific recipient.
A block can be connected to multiple blocks. In the example below, once the Manual Moderation block executes successfully, both the Rename Media and Send Email Using SendGrid blocks are executed in parallel.
Configuring a block
Click a block name to open its configuration sidebar. On this page, you can configure all the input fields for this block instance.
Tip To make your flows easier to understand, you can change the display name of a block to provide clarity as to what it is being used for.
Using Dynamic Parameters
A block's input field can be set using a hard-coded value or an output value of a previous block in the flow.
In the example below, the New Public ID field is hard coded while the Current Public ID is dynamically calculated from the output of the Cloudinary Upload trigger block.
To use the Dynamic Parameters:
Click the
<>button in the upper right corner to view the list of available dynamic parameters.Select the parameter you want to use. Once you click the parameter name, it will be copied to your clipboard.
Paste the copied string to the input field where you want to use this parameter.
Execution sidebar
Flows can be triggered programmatically based on their trigger block.
Additionally, you can manually trigger these flows directly from within the canvas.
This is extremely helpful while building or debugging a flow.
To manually trigger the flow:
From the Navigation bar on the left, open the Executor sidebar.
At the bottom, select the Action profile you want to trigger.
Configure the action as needed.
Click the Execute button.
Execution logs
Once a flow is executed, you can view the logs of the execution in the Execution sidebar.
From the Navigation bar on the left, open the Execution Logs sidebar.
All executions will appear in the sidebar, including their execution time and status.
Click an execution to see the blocks that were executed.
Click any block to see the output of the block in that execution.
Tip A red dot will appear next to the Execution Logs button on the Navigation bar to indicate that a flow was executed while the sidebar was closed. Click the button to open the sidebar and see the new execution.
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