Knack has recently introduced a major new feature called Flows which is a set of tools designed to help you integrate your Knack apps with other platforms and automate workflows within Knack.
Regular visitors here will be aware that I have been posting a lot of articles about using Make with Knack for just this purpose so how does Flows compare and which should you choose?
Compared to Make
Personnally, I find Make to be one of the most impressive pieces of software I have ever used. It is beautiful to look at and fun to work with as well as being VERY functional - a very unusual combination!
Knack Flows is not quite at that level yet, but it has the distinct advantage of being included with Knack and already understands your databases (no need to set up a connection). When interacting with your Knack data, Flows also process much faster than Make scenarios.
Let's have a look at a couple of examples...
Sending an Email When a new Record is Added
Sendng an email when a new record is added to a table is one of the most basic integrations you can have with this type of tool - using the integration to send the message via your own email server often reduces the risk of emails going to the recipient's junk folder. The first step is to create a new blank flow and set up a new record trigger:
Once this is set up then you can add an appropirate action - in this case to create a draft message in Office 365 email:
In this case, you will need to create a connection to your Office 365 account (use Add Linked App). You then can create your message and add in any fields from the records:
Finally, with Office 365 Mail, you need to actually send the message you have created - to do this you add another action step to the flow to send the message:
You can then make the Flow live by clicking the Start button.
Incoming Webhooks
Many web based platforms have the ability to send out webhhoks when something happens such as data updates or additions etc. Until now, if you wanted to send this data to Knack you would have needed to use Make, Zapier or similar - you can now do this natively in a Knack Flow...
Start by creating a new flow with an Incoming Webhook trigger - and then follow the instructions to 'catch' a sample webhook so that Flows can determine the data structure being sent:
Once you have done this you can then proceed to set up, say, a step to add a record to a Knack table:
In this example, I am just storing a message which has been sent into a new record.
Finally, if your sending app requires it you can send a response back with the result of the process.
Summary
During my relatively short time with Flows so far, I have been able to produce what I was attempting (in a forthcomming post I will go through a Flow which creates a number of Process Steps based on template processes). It's not as much fun to use as Make but it is intuitively embedded into Knack and this counts for a lot.
There are platforms which I regularly connect Knack to which are not available at the moment but I am sure this will improve rapidly - and I can still use Make for these integrations. This is an important point - by using Flows you are not precluding the use of Make as well - there could well be a place for both in your toolkit - but if the majority of your requirements can be met with Flows then you will reduce your reliance on a third party tools.
Finally, as a builder who mostly works on client's apps, I do have the issue that I can only see flows in my own account unless I log into Knack with my client's credentials. This is not an issue at all if you work only on your own apps of course.
Further Information
If you would like more information about Knack click here.
If you would like more information about Make click here.
If you would like Flows added to your existing Knack account prior to general release you are able to make a request via a support ticket.
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