An OL Connect email flow in Node-RED

This topic explains which nodes and files are used in a typical OL Connect email flow in Node-RED.

Tip: Example email flows are provided by OL Connect Automate, once installed. The examples appear in the flows folder in the Import dialog in Node-RED which allows you to import an example flow into a new or existing flow; see Importing and Exporting Flows in the Node-RED documentation. Instructions are given in the Comment node.

Alternatively, an easy way to get the files that the typical OL Connect email flow needs, is to create a Sample Project (see Sample Project: Basic Email). You would use all files except the Workflow configuration file.

The structure of an OL Connect email flow

In its simplest form, an email flow may consist of a node that captures data, the email content node to generate email content and a node to send the messages via an Email Service Provider (ESP) like SendGrid.

The email content node creates a set of emails, using the Email context in a Connect template.

The data to merge the template with can be the output of (a combination of) nodes like:

• An OL Connect folder capture node.

• An OL Connect data get node which retrieves an existing record set from the Connect database.

• An OL Connect data mapping node which retrieves data from a data file.

• A standard node like the http in node, the inject node, or a create file node that creates a JSON file.

• Etc.

Which node or nodes fit best, depends on where the data come from.

Tip: If the template doesn't need any data, set msg.payload of the email content node to an empty JSON string: {}.

Tip: A number of nodes accept runtime parameters. These can be passed via the parameters property of the msg object which is passed between nodes. For example, a runtime parameter named brandId would be passed via msg.parameters.brandId. Use a function node or change node to set the property.

Files used in an OL Connect email flow

Before creating the email flow in the editor of Node-RED you will need to create:

• A template with an Email context. (See Creating a template.)

• If the email should contain variable data, you may need to create a data mapping configuration (see Creating a new data mapping configuration). If the input is going to be JSON data, you could add them to the design without a data mapping configuration, using a JSON file (see Adding JSON sample data).

Note that before templates and data mapping configurations can be used in a flow, they must be sent to the OL Connect server separately. This can be done from the Designer (see Sending files to Connect Server or to another server) or in a startup flow (see OL Connect Startup flow).