Servers, applications, plugins, installations, configurations, and packages can often lead to excessive effort—either to meet an immediate or simple need, or to bring a product to life.
While frameworks typically emerge with the intention of simplifying the prototyping process, they also require a learning curve before being used; some are relatively easy to learn, while others can become extremely tedious. I believe this brief learning phase is something that anyone with an interest in web technologies has experienced.
Although automation solutions such as IFTTT, Zapier, Automate.io, and Workflow.is are available for end users, they still offer very limited capabilities due to the constraints of their architectures. On the developer side, these limitations force us to rely heavily on server and installation processes—exactly as mentioned in the introduction of this article. So, is there a solution?
Pipedream
Pipedream is an integration/automation platform. It enables us to establish integrations between applications and APIs without requiring server or infrastructure constraints1 2. If we list out what Pipedream can do, it includes:
- Create workflows and trigger them from various application/service sources (AWS, GitHub, Google Calendar, HTTP, RSS, Twitter, etc.), HTTP requests, webhooks, Cron jobs, emails, and via the Pipedream SDK.
- Interact with workflows using code.
- Set up and manage workflows without the need for a server or cloud resources.
Let’s illustrate this with an example: using a cron job trigger from Pipedream, you can ingest an XML file, manipulate its content via Node.js modules, and easily send the result as a response to another service—without any installation required. Of course, the possibilities are essentially limitless. You can explore ready-to-use workflows in the Explore3 section, and join the Slack4 community for discussions.
Additionally, you may also consider similar platforms such as Huginn5, Syndesis6, and Zenaton7.
Pipedream Usage
With Apps, you can connect your Pipedream account to numerous applications/services such as GitHub, Slack, Google Sheets, and Reddit. Once connected, you can use data from these applications/services within your workflows.
With Sources, you can pull activities from applications as event sources. For example, you can trigger a workflow upon detecting a specific word in a tweet posted every 15 minutes by a user, and then build a workflow on top of that trigger.
Actions allow you to access actions within a workflow and include them in different workflows.
The SQL section allows you to manage the JSON content you send to it. Pipedream automatically generates a JSON schema. As a result, you can generate SQL queries without having to create a table first.
For more detailed information about Pipedream, please refer to the Docs8 sections. Over time, I will also list the various workflows I’ve created here.
Workflow Examples
- This tweet has 71k+ impressions, 200+ likes & 40+ retweets
- Real-Time Sentiment Analysis
- XML Validator
- “Google Alerts” for Hacker News
*[SQL]: Structured Query Language
*[API]: Application Programming Interface
*[XML]: Software Development Kit
*[SDK]: eXtensible Markup Language
*[JSON]: JavaScript Object Notation
*[HTTP]: Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol