Using Iterable actions in action flows

Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the action builder to the external system.

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Summary: ◀▼

You can connect action flows to Iterable using a server-side API key to automate user profile management, event tracking, comments, and email campaigns. Actions include creating, updating, and looking up users, sending triggered emails, and managing campaigns. Use a dedicated service account for integration and specify the correct data center to ensure proper authentication and smooth workflow automation across platforms.

By connecting the action builder to external systems, such as Iterable, admins can integrate Zendesk with external systems in automated workflows, improving collaboration and maintaining a seamless experience across multiple platforms.

Note: The steps associated with external systems in action flows are referred to collectively as external actions.

This article contains the following topics:

• Connecting Iterable to action builder
• Using Iterable actions in action flows

Connecting Iterable to action builder

Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the action builder to the external system.

When connecting to external systems for use in action flows, the following best practices are recommended:

• All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it's a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external system.
• All integrations request access to necessary scopes. However, it's important that you review and validate the scopes before authorizing the connection to the external system.
• When managing credentials for API key-based tools, such as OpenAI, it's best to store keys in a secure vault or credential manager.

To create an API key

The Iterable connection requires a server-side API key from your Iterable project. Read-only API keys will not work. Ensure you create a server-side API key with appropriate write permissions.

1. Log in to your Iterable account.
2. Navigate to Integrations > API Keys.
3. Create a new server-side API key.
4. Save the key or keep the window open so you can copy and paste it into Zendesk.

   You'll need it when connecting Iterable to action builder.

To connect action builder to Iterable

1. In Admin Center, click Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Actions > Action flows.
2. Create or edit an action flow.
3. Open the step sidebar.
4. Under External actions, click Iterable.
5. Click Connect.
6. Follow Iterable's prompts to authenticate and complete the connection:
   • Enter your Iterable server-side API key.
   • Specify your data center region (US or EU). If your Iterable account is hosted in the European Union data center, you must specify "EU" as the data center. If left empty, the connection defaults to the US data center (api.iterable.com). Using the wrong data center will cause authentication failures.
   Note: All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it is a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external system.

After you've connected to the system, you'll see an indicator that it's connected and details about the instance you're connected to, as well as the actions available for Iterable.

Using Iterable actions in action flows

The following Iterable actions are available:

• Create user
• Update user
• Lookup user
• Create event
• Add comment
• Send email to user
• Lookup campaign
• List campaigns

Creating a user

Use the Create user action to create a new user profile in Iterable. If the user already exists, their profile will be updated with the provided information (upsert behavior).

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Email Optional: User ID, Data fields, Prefer user ID, Create new fields, Merge nested objects
Output	Success status, message, email, and user ID.

Updating a user

Use the Update user action to update an existing user profile in Iterable. If the user does not exist, a new profile will be created with the provided information (upsert behavior).

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Email Optional: User ID, Data fields, Prefer user ID, Create new fields, Merge nested objects
Output	Success status, message, email, and user ID.

Looking up a user

Use the Lookup user action to retrieve a user profile by email address or user ID.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Identifier type, Identifier value
Output	User profile details including email, user ID, signup date, profile updated date, and custom data fields.

Creating an event

Use the Create event action to track a custom event for a user in Iterable. Events can be used for segmentation, campaign triggers, and analytics.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Email, Event name Optional: User ID, Data fields, Event ID, Campaign, Template, Create new fields
Output	Success status, message, event name, email, user ID, and event ID.

Adding a comment

Use the Add comment action to add a comment or note to a user profile. The comment is stored as a custom field in the user's data fields.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Email, Comment Optional: User ID, Field name
Output	Success status, message, email, user ID, and field name where comment was stored.

Sending an email to a user

Use the Send email to user action to send a triggered email to a user using an Iterable campaign. The campaign must be in a triggerable state.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Campaign, Recipient email Optional: Data fields, Send at
Output	Success status, message, campaign ID, recipient email, and scheduled send time.

Looking up a campaign

Use the Lookup campaign action to retrieve campaign details including name, status, type, and template information.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	Required: Campaign
Output	Campaign details including ID, name, state, type, template ID, list IDs, send time, created date, and updated date.

Listing campaigns

Use the List campaigns action to retrieve all campaigns in your Iterable project.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

	Variables
Inputs	None
Output	Array of campaign objects containing ID, name, state, and type, plus total count.