Guide Ways requests arrive

External Data Endpoints

Teach a webhook flow what the incoming data means — map the payload's keys onto the flow's fields once, and every waiting and future payload becomes a properly filled-in request, attributed to the right requester.

Updated

Admin
Open ApproveThis

External Data Endpoints let a flow receive payloads from external systems — webhooks, Zapier, or the API — and turn them into requests. Field mapping is where you tell ApproveThis which key in the incoming payload belongs in which form field, including who the requester is. This guide is for Administrators, and assumes your flow already has an external data endpoint that has received at least one payload. Available on all tiers.

Who this is for: admin.

Map the payload keys to the flow's fields

When payloads arrive with keys the flow doesn't recognize yet, they sit unmapped instead of becoming usable requests. Mapping each payload key to a form field once teaches the flow what the incoming data means, so future payloads land in the right fields automatically.

  1. Sign in as an Administrator.

  2. Click Map them to open the field-mapping screen for the endpoint's unmapped payload keys.

    Step 2
    Step 2

  3. Using the Map order selector, choose the form field that should receive the payload's order key — in the example flow that field is Order.

    Step 3
    Step 3

  4. Using the Map amount selector, choose the form field that should receive the payload's amount key — in the example flow that field is Amount.

    Step 4
    Step 4

  5. Using the Map customer selector, choose the form field that should receive the payload's customer key — in the example flow that field is Customer.

    Step 5
    Step 5

  6. Using the Map requester_email selector, choose the field that identifies who the request comes from — in the example flow that field is Requester email, which attributes each generated request to the right requester.

    Step 6
    Step 6

  7. Click Save Mapping to store the mapping for this endpoint.

    Step 7
    Step 7

A confirmation reads Field mapping saved successfully!

Process the waiting payloads into requests

Payloads that arrived before the mapping existed are still waiting and haven't become requests. Processing them applies the mapping you just saved so those queued payloads turn into properly filled-in requests attributed to the right requester.

  1. Click Map them to return to the field-mapping screen for the endpoint.

    Step 1
    Step 1

  2. Click the process button for the waiting payloads — in the example there are three, so the button reads Process 3 Unmapped.

    Step 2
    Step 2

A confirmation reads Processed 3 unmapped records.