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Parashift Flows

Learn how to configure and use Parashift Flows within your document processing workflows.

Parashift Flows lets you integrate Parashift with your existing systems and business processes more easily and flexibly. Use Flows to cover additional input channels (for example: monitoring an FTP server), transform document data into custom formats, and automatically forward results to downstream systems — for example posting a goods-receipt to an ERP system or saving and tagging a document in a DMS. These end-to-end automations work provided the target systems are accessible from Parashift.

How Flows work (high level)

A Flow is built from connectors, which are placed on a canvas and linked together via ports to form a processing pipeline. Each connector exposes one or more actions. Conceptually split actions into triggers and actions:

  • Trigger: an event that starts a Flow (e.g., a new file appears in a watched location).

  • Action: a processing step that consumes data or a file and produces output for the next connector (e.g., download the file, run recognition, convert the output, or send it to a downstream system).

Important: a trigger such as New File only provides metadata about the new item. You must add an action that retrieves the file (for example FTP - Download File) if the Flow needs access to the file content.

Accessing and managing Flows

Open Configuration > Flows to see the list of available Flows. From the list you can:

  • Create new Flows or edit existing ones.

  • Toggle the Live attribute to enable or disable a Flow. When Live, the Flow is active and will react to triggers.

Flow editor — UI overview

The Flow editor is split into four areas:

  • Left — Connector library: a list of available connectors (for example FTP, Microsoft OneDrive, HTTP, Converters, Controls).

  • Center — Canvas: drag connectors from the left into this area and arrange them to build the Flow.

  • Right — Action & configuration panel: select which action the connector should run (for example New File trigger or Download File action) and set action-specific parameters.

  • Bottom — Logs: runtime log entries for the Flow and each connector; a first place to look when troubleshooting.

To configure a connector, select it and choose an action from the right-hand panel. Some connectors need a Connect Account (credentials and connection parameters). For example, the FTP connector requires server, username, and password. Some actions also expose input variables (for example Path) that scope or control the action.

Connectors are linked by dragging from an output port of one connector to an input port of another. The port wiring defines the data path and the order of processing.

Actions, triggers and converters (release 22.09.2025)

Note: the lists below reflect the important connectors and actions included with the 22.09.2025 release.

Triggers

  • FTP - New File — triggers when a new file appears on the FTP server/directory.

  • Microsoft OneDrive - New File — triggers when a new file is added to OneDrive.

  • Microsoft SharePoint - New File — triggers when a new file is added to SharePoint.

  • Microsoft SharePoint - Updated File — triggers when a file in SharePoint is modified.

  • HTTP - Webhook — triggers when an HTTP request is received at a configured endpoint.

Actions (In & Out)

  • FTP - Download File (to cache)

  • FTP - Rename File (rename or move file)

  • FTP - Upload File (upload a file to the FTP server)

  • Microsoft OneDrive - Export File (to cache)

  • Microsoft OneDrive - Move File Or Folder

  • Microsoft OneDrive - Upload File (upload a file to OneDrive)

  • Microsoft SharePoint - Download File (to cache)

  • Microsoft SharePoint - Move File Or Folder

  • Microsoft SharePoint - Upload File (upload a file to SharePoint)

Actions (Communication)

  • EMail - Send Email

  • HTTP - POST / PUT / PATCH / GET / DELETE request

Actions (Document processing)

  • Parashift- Process Document

Actions (Converters)

  • XML - Json 2 XML

  • XML - XML 2 JSON

  • XML - XPath (extract data from a specific tag via an XPath expression)

  • CSV - Create CSV (creates a file from a string)

  • CSV - Add row

  • CSV - Add column

  • Converters - CSV 2 XLSX

  • Converters - XLSX 2 CSV

  • Converters - JSON 2 CSV

  • Converters - CSV 2 JSON

  • Converter (JSON) - JQ (transform JSON to a customer-specific JSON using a JQ expression — expressions can be tested on https://play.jqlang.org)

  • Converter (JSON) - JSON 2 Text

  • Converter (JSON) - Text 2 JSON

  • Converter (XSLT) - XML 2 XML (transform XML using XSLT — expressions can be tested on https://www.w3schools.com/xml/tryxslt.asp?xmlfile=cdcatalog&xsltfile=cdcatalog)

Note: some converter actions expect a file reference (e.g., fileId) as input, whereas others expect the file content (string/JSON). Always check the action’s input parameter types when wiring ports and setting variables.

Actions (Flow Control)

  • Controls - Each (loop)

  • Controls - Set Variable

  • Controls - Condition (if / else)

  • Controls - Switch (multiple outputs — like if / else if / else)

  • Filters - Equal (value equals x)

  • Filters - Contains (value contains x)

Best practices

  • Only grant minimal access: use dedicated service accounts for connectors (for example, an FTP user restricted to a single directory).

  • Scope watches: use input variables like Path to limit what a trigger watches and avoid excess invocations.

  • Test converters externally: validate complex JQ or XSLT expressions using their online playgrounds before adding them to the Flow.

  • Log early and often: check the logs of each connector and add variables during development to make troubleshooting easier.

  • Use idempotency: when posting to downstream systems, design the target API calls to be idempotent or include unique IDs to avoid duplicate bookings.

Troubleshooting

  • If a Flow does not start, check the Live flag in Configuration > Flows and confirm the trigger conditions are met.

  • Inspect the Flow logs at the bottom of the editor — each connector writes its result there and error messages are surfaced.

  • Verify credentials and network access for connectors (the target system must be reachable from Parashift).

  • If a trigger fires but subsequent connectors do not receive the file, check that a Download File / Export File action is present and correctly configured.

  • Confirm whether the action expects a fileId or the file content and wire or assign variables accordingly.