Slack Workflow Builder

This integration is only compatible with the legacy version of Slack Workflow Builder (SWB). Starting in August 2023, Slack will begin migrating existing SWB workflows to their new version.

Wrangle has its own no-code Workflow Designer that you can use to build workflows in Slack. We also integrate natively with Slack's Workflow Builder for more advanced use cases like launching a workflow on a recurring basis or via webhook.

Slack Workflow Builder versus Wrangle's Workflow Designer

There are a number of differences between designing a workflow using Wrangle's Designer or Slack's Workflow Builder. Both offer a no-code designer that you can use to automate business processes in Slack. But there are some important distinctions between how Wrangle works on its own vs. how Wrangle works in tandem with SWB.

• SWB workflows start with their own intake forms and require that you insert variables to bring form data into future steps in the workflow.

• SWB forms don't support date and number question types, but Wrangle's forms do.

• SWB workflows can be launched via webhook, intake form, or on a recurring basis, whereas standalone Wrangle workflows are launched on-demand by typing "/wrangle" in Slack. With Wrangle's SWB step, you can use SWB to launch a Wrangle workflow via a webhook or on a recurring schedule.

Launch a Wrangle workflow using the "Shortcut," "Scheduled date & time," or "Webhook" options.

Add a Wrangle Workflow to your Slack Workflow

Wrangle integrates with Slack Workflow Builder by adding a "Start a Wrangle Workflow" step you can use in your workflow design.

You can launch a Wrangle workflow in one of three ways:

• Launch on a recurring schedule
• Launch via a webhook request
• Launch via a Slack form

In Slack Workflow Builder, you'll also see Wrangle step types called "Start an Approval" and "Start Tasks." These are legacy step types and are not recommended for new workflows because they are not as capable as using a full Wrangle workflow, and we will be removing them soon.

If your Wrangle workflow has an "Upload files" question in the intake form, you will not be able to use that workflow with Slack Workflow Builder.

Launch a recurring workflow

If you have a workflow that needs to run on a recurring basis, like annual performance reviews, quarterly security audits, daily opening and closing procedures, etc., you can use SWB's "Scheduled date & time" option to run your Wrangle workflow on that timeline. Here's how a recurring SWB workflow using Wrangle might look:

Slack Workflow Builder - "Scheduled date & time" step and "Start a Wrangle Workflow" step

Choose your schedule and frequency, then in the Wrangle step, insert "Time when workflow started" as a variable into your form question.

We recommend only having one question in your intake form for recurring SWB workflows and calling it "Date," "Timestamp," or similar. SWB will not be able to programmatically fill out any other intake form questions. Any other form questions will either need to be skipped or filled out with a hardcoded value that never changes.

"Date" is our only Wrangle form question, and we can populate it with SWB's timestamp each time the workflow launches.

Now whenever our recurring workflow launches, the timestamp will be included in its name so we distinguish between each instance.

Launch via webhook

If you'd like to launch a Wrangle workflow programmatically, like launching a sales quote approval after a deal changes stages in your CRM, you can use SWB's webhook functionality to trigger it.

Webhooks are an advanced feature. Check out Slack's help documentation for more information.

Here's how your workflow might look in SWB:

Slack Workflow Builder - "Webhook" step and "Start a Wrangle Workflow" step

In the webhook configuration step, you can use data that comes in with your web request as variables to populate your Wrangle intake form.

Create your variables.

Add your variables to your Wrangle form in the "Start a Wrangle Workflow" step

Launch via Slack shortcut

All standalone Wrangle workflows start with an intake form, but if you are launching your Wrangle workflow from an SWB shortcut, you will also need to include a Slack form step before your "Start a Wrangle Workflow" step.

Let's say we have a blog post publishing workflow in Wrangle with the following intake form:

Wrangle intake form questions

In Slack Workflow Builder, we'll need to replicate those same questions using the "Open a form" step:

Slack Workflow Builder - "Open a form" step and "Start a Wrangle Workflow" step

Then, you can use variables in Slack Workflow Builder to connect the Slack form inputs to your Wrangle intake form:

Insert variables to populate your Wrangle intake form with the values from the Slack form.

In practice, this means that your requesters would fill out the Slack form, and in turn Slack would send those values to Wrangle as if your requesters had filled out a Wrangle intake form. From there, your workflow will kick off just like any other Wrangle workflow, letting your assignees see the intake form data for context.