Create a workflow by using the Google Cloud console

This quickstart shows you how to create, deploy, and execute your first workflow using the Google Cloud console. The sample workflow sends a request to a public API and then returns the API's response.

To follow step-by-step guidance for this task directly in the Google Cloud console, click Guide me:

Guide me

Before you begin

Security constraints defined by your organization might prevent you from completing the following steps. For troubleshooting information, see Develop applications in a constrained Google Cloud environment.

Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

Roles required to select or create a project

Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

Go to project selector

Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

Roles required to select or create a project

Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

Go to project selector

Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

Enable the Workflows API.

Enable the Workflows API
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Service Accounts page.

Go to Service Accounts
Select a project and then click Create service account.
In the Service account name field, enter a name, such as sa-name.
Click Create and continue.
To send logs to Cloud Logging, click the Select a role field and select Logging > Logs Writer.

To learn more about service account roles and permissions, see Grant a workflow permission to access Google Cloud resources.
Click Done.

Create and deploy a workflow

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Workflows page:

Go to Workflows
On the Workflows page, click Create.
Enter a name for the new workflow, such as myFirstWorkflow.
Choose us-central1 for the region.
For service account, select the service account you created earlier.
Select Next.

In the workflow editor, copy and paste the following workflow:

YAML

main:
  params: [input]
  steps:
    - checkSearchTermInInput:
        switch:
          - condition: '${"searchTerm" in input}'
            assign:
              - searchTerm: '${input.searchTerm}'
            next: readWikipedia
    - getLocation:
        call: sys.get_env
        args:
          name: GOOGLE_CLOUD_LOCATION
        result: location
    - setFromCallResult:
        assign:
          - searchTerm: '${text.split(location, "-")[0]}'
    - readWikipedia:
        call: http.get
        args:
          url: 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php'
          query:
            action: opensearch
            search: '${searchTerm}'
        result: wikiResult
    - returnOutput:
        return: '${wikiResult.body[1]}'

JSON

{
  "main": {
    "params": [
      "input"
    ],
    "steps": [
      {
        "checkSearchTermInInput": {
          "switch": [
            {
              "condition": "${\"searchTerm\" in input}",
              "assign": [
                {
                  "searchTerm": "${input.searchTerm}"
                }
              ],
              "next": "readWikipedia"
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      {
        "getLocation": {
          "call": "sys.get_env",
          "args": {
            "name": "GOOGLE_CLOUD_LOCATION"
          },
          "result": "location"
        }
      },
      {
        "setFromCallResult": {
          "assign": [
            {
              "searchTerm": "${text.split(location, \"-\")[0]}"
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      {
        "readWikipedia": {
          "call": "http.get",
          "args": {
            "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php",
            "query": {
              "action": "opensearch",
              "search": "${searchTerm}"
            }
          },
          "result": "wikiResult"
        }
      },
      {
        "returnOutput": {
          "return": "${wikiResult.body[1]}"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Unless you input your own search term, this workflow uses your Google Cloud location to construct a search term, which it passes to the Wikipedia API. A list of related Wikipedia articles is returned.

Select Deploy.

Execute the workflow

Once your workflow has been successfully deployed, you can execute it for the first time. After deploying the workflow, you'll be taken to its Workflow details page.

On the Workflow details page, click Execute.
On the Execute workflow page, click Execute.
In the Output pane, your workflow's results are displayed.

You've deployed and executed your first workflow!

Clean up

To avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud account for the resources used on this page, follow these steps.

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Workflows page:

Go to Workflows
From the list of workflows, click a workflow to go to its Workflow details page.
Click Delete.
Type the name of the workflow and then click Confirm.

Create a workflow by using the Google Cloud console

Before you begin

Create and deploy a workflow

YAML

JSON

Execute the workflow

Clean up

What's next