Increase process productivity with Google Drive, Slack, and SendGrid

With the latest time-saving Camunda Connectors in Camunda Platform 8, you can boost your process orchestration productivity by connecting to popular productivity and communication tools.

If you’ve been following the Camunda blog this year, you’ll know that we can’t stop talking about Connectors. They’re boosting developer productivity when orchestrating business processes across all types of endpoints, from APIs and RPA bots to enterprise applications and more. Connectors make it easier to add endpoints to your processes and configure them correctly, without a lot of technical overhead. Connectors are designed for reuse, so teams that design BPMN process models don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time they need a process to perform a common task like sending an email or creating a document.

Productivity and communication tools are critical for business processes, so we’re building Connectors for some of the most popular tools out there. Google Drive, Slack, and SendGrid are already ready and support Microsoft Teams will be coming later this year.

Let’s take a look at how to get started.

Manage content in Google Drive

Document creation and management is important for both back-office and customer-facing business processes. The Google Drive Connector allows you to create a folder or create a new file from a template as part of a BPMN process. It requires a one-time setup process so that Camunda Platform can authenticate with Google Drive and Google Docs. After that, you can add Google Drive tasks to your BPMN diagrams. The code that’s required to create folders and files is built into the Connector, so you only have to provide a few configuration details.

Get ready to use the Google Drive Connector

To set up the Google Drive Connector:

1. Decide what type of authentication you want to use: short-lived JSON Web Token (JWT) bearer token or refresh token.
2. Follow the instructions in the Google documentation to get a token.
3. Log in to Camunda Platform 8.
4. Store the token as a secret in Camunda Platform 8. Follow our guide for creating secrets and name your secret something easy to read, like GDRIVE_BEARER_TOKEN. You’ll reference this name when you use the Google Drive Connector in a BPMN diagram.
5. Go to the Google Cloud API Library page and enable the Google Docs API and the Google Drive API for every client you intend to use.

Use the Google Drive Connector in a BPMN diagram

After you’ve stored the authentication token in Camunda Platform 8, anyone in your organization can use the Google Drive Connector to create a file or folder from their BPMN diagrams. To do so:

1. In Camunda Platform 8, launch Web Modeler and create a new BPMN diagram or open an existing one.
2. Click an element in the diagram and click the Append Connector context menu item to add a Connector task. Type Google Drive in the search box to filter the list of Connectors, or just scroll down and select the Google Drive Connector.
3. In the task’s properties panel, set Google Drive Bearer Token to the name of the secret that you created earlier, in the format secrets.GDRIVE_BEARER_TOKEN.
4. Select whether you want to Create Folder or Create File from Template.
   1. If you’re creating a folder, provide a Folder Name and optionally set a Parent Folder ID and/or Additional Properties or Metadata. You can use the additional properties to pass parameters to Google Drive in JSON format.
   2. If you’re creating a file, provide a File Name and enter the Template ID of the document template you want to use. Enter the Template Variables that will be used to fill out the document. You can also optionally set a Parent Folder ID and/or Additional Properties or Metadata.

The Connector properties can be static values, or you can use a FEEL expression to reference process variables or dynamically create values.

There’s more you can do with the Google Drive Connector, such as using responses from the Google API to store the ID or URL of the newly created folder or file as a process variable. To learn how, visit the Google Drive Connector documentation.

Send a message using Slack

With so many people working remotely these days, internal communication is critical for smooth-running workflows. To support communication, we built a Slack Connector that allows you to send a message to a Slack channel or an individual user.

For more information, check out our blog post about the Slack Connector or visit the Slack Connector documentation.

Microsoft Teams (coming soon)

Microsoft Teams users can get in on the Connector action, too. Camunda Engineering is currently working on a Teams Connector, so keep an eye out for that release later this year.

Send an email with SendGrid

If your teams prefer to communicate via email rather than messaging platforms, or if you want to automate emails to end users or customers, the SendGrid Connector is a great choice. It requires a one-time setup process; after that, it’s as easy as adding SendGrid tasks to your BPMN process diagrams.

Get ready to use the SendGrid Connector

To set up the SendGrid Connector:

1. If you don’t have a SendGrid account, create one.
2. In SendGrid, create a sender identity. You can use this identity as the sender in SendGrid emails and email templates.
3. Create an API key. The Connector will use this key to authenticate with the SendGrid API.
4. Log in to Camunda Platform 8.
5. Store the API key as a secret in Camunda Platform 8. Follow our guide for creating secrets and name your secret something easy to read, like SEND_GRID_API_KEY. You’ll reference this name when you use the SendGrid Connector in a BPMN diagram.

Use the SendGrid Connector in a BPMN diagram

After you’ve created a SendGrid account and stored the API key in Camunda Platform 8, anyone in your organization can use the SendGrid Connector in their BPMN diagrams. To do so:

1. In Camunda Platform 8, launch Web Modeler and create a new BPMN diagram or open an existing one.
2. Click an element in the diagram and click the Append Connector context menu item to add a Connector task. Type SendGrid in the search box to filter the list of Connectors, or just scroll down and select the SendGrid Connector.
3. In the task’s properties panel, set SendGrid API Key to the name of the secret that you created earlier, in the format secrets.SEND_GRID_API_KEY.
4. Set the Sender Name and Email Address.
5. Set the Receiver Name and Email Address.
6. Under Compose Email, select Simple (no dynamic template) or Using dynamic template. For information about dynamic templates, refer to the SendGrid documentation.
   1. If you select a simple email, fill in the email’s Subject, Content Type, and Body.
   2. If you select a dynamic template, provide the Template ID and Template Data that are required to complete the SendGrid template.

As with other Connectors, properties can be static values or FEEL expressions. For more information, visit the SendGrid Connector documentation.

Learn more

To learn more about Connectors, check out the Camunda Nation Podcast. And if you’re not already using Camunda Platform 8, sign up for a free trial to start modeling processes with Connectors.