| title | date |
|---|---|
Recipe development lifecycle |
2017-05-31 15:00:00 UTC |
Organizations typically plan, develop, test and deploy new integrations via their recipe development lifecycle. This would involve moving recipes from a development environment to a testing environment, or from a testing environment to a production/deployment environment.
On Workato, teams can move sets of recipes and their related assets (e.g. connections, callable recipes, custom connectors) from one environment to another, via the use of packages. This allows teams to maintain their integration recipes across their different teams' environments.
A package refers to a grouping of assets, which refers to recipes and the related dependencies needed for recipes to work, e.g. connections, custom connectors, lookup tables and account properties. With the packages feature, users can move these assets easily across different Workato accounts.
Packages are useful when teams are collaborating across different Workato accounts, for example, if the development team wishes to move recipes over to the QA team's Workato account, or to the production Workato account. Consultants can also utilize this feature to move comprehensive integrations into their clients' accounts.
The packages feature is enabled only for certain Workato plans. Check the Pricing and plans page or reach out to Workato sales representatives at +1 (844) 469-6752 to find out more.
For Workato accounts with the packages feature enabled, users will be able to see the import/export option on their account menu.
Packages menu option
Upon clicking the Import/export option on the menu, you'll be brought into the packages page.
Packages page with import and export functions
When you export a folder of recipes as a zip file, you will find:
- recipes in that folder
- subfolders and recipes in those subfolders
- associated connections
- associated custom connectors
- associated callable recipes
- all account properties
- all lookup tables
To begin exporting your recipes, ensure that all the recipes you wish to export are grouped together in a Workato folder. All associated connections, custom connectors and callable recipes will also be bundled into the package automatically. All account properties and lookup tables in that Workato account are also bundled into the package. Once the package is created, the user can download the package in a zip file.
In the example below, 2 recipes can be found in the Customer Sync folder. In these recipes, the user utilizes assets such as callable recipes and lookup tables.
To export a folder as a package, click on the Export button. Select the folder to export.
Select a folder to export
Once a folder has been selected, the assets that will be exported to a package will be shown on screen for review. If it looks right, click Next.
Review the folder's assets to be exported
The folder will be exported once Next has been clicked. Workato will proceed to generate a zip file to be downloaded. This zip file will contain all the assets related to the recipe for it to work when imported into another account.
Folder has been successfully exported as a package and is ready for download
Upon clicking the Import/export option on the menu, you'll be brought into the packages page.
Packages page with import and export functions
To import a package, simply upload the zip file of the package containing the assets, and select a destination Workato folder to import these recipes into.
Select a destination folder to import your packages into
Once a zip file has been uploaded, you will be able to preview the assets which will be imported into your Workato folder. For each asset, details about whether the asset will be created, or whether it would overwrite an existing asset (with the same name), is included in italics.
When importing a package for the first time, or when importing a package into a new folder, all assets will be created as below.
Importing a new package or a package in an empty folder
When importing a package for the second (or more) time into the same folder, as long as the assets have the same names, the imported assets will overwrite existing assets in the target folder, as below.
Importing an existing/updated package into the same folder again
Once the package has been imported into your Workato account, the success screen shows up. You'll be able to find the recipes in the selected folder.
Success screen for package import
The following table details how an imported package's assets are moved into your Workato account.
| Dependency type | What Workato does when package is imported | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Recipes | Overwrites recipe if a recipe with the same name exists in the folder. Creates new recipe if no recipe with the same name exists in the folder | Selected folder |
| Custom connectors | Overwrites existing custom connector if connector with same name already exists in the Workato account. Creates new connector if no connector with the same name exists in the Workato account. | Developer |
| Connections | Creates a connection placeholder with no actual connection. This does nothing if a connection by the same name already exists. | Connections |
| Lookup tables | Creates a lookup table placeholder. Does nothing if a lookup table by the same name already exists. | Lookup table |
| Properties | Add properties to existing properties in the Workato account. Does nothing if a property with the same name already exists. | Properties |