Triggers
Start workflows from WordPress and plugin events, a webhook, a schedule or rows imported from a file.
Updated
A trigger is the first step of every workflow: the event that starts it. FlowWP has five kinds.
WordPress and plugin events
Most triggers listen to something happening on your site: a user is created, a user publishes a post, an order is paid, a WPForms form is submitted, a course is completed. Each integration page lists every trigger that integration adds, with the data it passes on.
- Some triggers have their own settings that narrow them down, such as a role, a form, a product or a minimum amount. A run starts only when the event matches them.
- Publishing is the move into “published”. Post triggers fire when a post becomes published, not every time a published post is saved, so fixing a typo does not run the workflow again.
- No duplicate runs. WordPress sometimes fires the same event twice. Each trigger carries a key made from the workflow, the step and the event, and a second copy of the same event is ignored instead of sending a second email.
- No cost when nothing is live. FlowWP only listens for the events active workflows use. With no active workflows, it adds no work to your pages.
A webhook is received
Runs when another system — Zapier, Make, a payment provider, a script — sends a request to the workflow’s own URL. See Webhooks and HTTP requests. Webhooks are unlimited on every plan.
On a schedule
Runs at times you choose, in the site’s timezone (Personal and above).
| Setting | Options |
|---|---|
| Run | Hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, on weekdays, every set interval, or once. |
| Every | For an interval: a number of minutes, hours or days — at most every 5 minutes. |
| At hour / At minute | The time of day, 0–23 and 0–59, in the site’s timezone. |
| On day | Weekly: the day of the week (1 is Monday). Monthly: the day of the month, 1–28. |
| At | For a single run: a date and time, such as 2026-10-01 09:00. |
| Starting on / Ending on | Optional dates outside which the schedule does not run. |
| Skip a run while the previous one is still going | For workflows that can take longer than their interval. |
Rows are imported from a file
Upload a CSV with a header row, a JSON list or an XML file, and the workflow runs once for each row, in the background (Personal and above). Each row’s values are tokens in the steps that follow.
Messages sent to an app
A few apps can start workflows too, such as a message sent to your Telegram bot or a change to a Mailchimp audience. Activating one of these triggers registers your site’s address with that service; its integration page says exactly what is sent.