Pass state

A Pass state passes the state's input to its output. You can also add arbitrary data to the output.

You typically use a Pass state as a placeholder for a state you haven't written yet. You can also use a Pass state to add mock data to a ZIS flow. This is often useful for testing or troubleshooting. For examples, see Mocking a built-in action and Mocking a custom action.

In production, you can use a Pass state to append data to a reference path. This can reduce the complexity of your flow and help you avoid passing large JSON objects to Transform actions. For an example, see Adding data to a reference path.

"Mock.GetTicket": {
  "Type": "Pass",
  "Result": {
    "id": 35436,
    "subject": "Help, my printer is on fire!"
  },
  "ResultPath": "$.ticket",
  "Next": "MyNextStep"
}

Supported properties

In addition to common state properties, a Pass state supports the Result property.

Name	Type	Mandatory	Description
Result	object	false	Output for the state

Mocking a built-in action

The following Pass state mocks the output of a LoadConfig action. You can use the state to test a ZIS flow before building a Zendesk app that lets admins specify the config settings.

"Mock.LoadConfigData": {
  "Type": "Pass",
  "Result": {
    "channel": "#zendesk-tickets",
    "priority": "urgent"
  },
  "ResultPath": "$.settings",
  "Next": "MyNextStep"
}

Mocking a custom action

The following Pass state mocks the output of a ZIS custom action. You can use the state to test a ZIS flow without defining the action or making an API request.

"Mock.InitiateRefund": {
  "Type": "Pass",
  "Result": {
    "transaction_id": 54321,
    "transaction_value": "99.01",
    "transaction_state": "pending_approval"
  },
  "ResultPath": "$.refund_details",
  "Next": "MyNextStep"
}

Adding data to a reference path

The following ZIS bundle's job spec listens for the Comment Created event. When the event occurs, the bundle's ZIS flow retrieves a HTML-formatted version of the event's comment body. It then posts the HTML body to an external URL.

The bundle's flow includes a Pass state. The state appends the event's comment id to a List Comments response object in the $.fetched_comments path.

This setup lets the flow's Transform action access both the event's comment id and the comments object without processing the entire $ object. By processing a smaller JSON object, the Transform action runs more efficiently.

{
  "zis_template_version": "2019-10-14",
  "name": "Send webhook when ticket comment is added",
  "description": "Send webhook when ticket comment is added",
  "resources": {
    "fetch_ticket_comments": {
      "type": "ZIS::Action::Http",
      "properties": {
        "name": "fetch_ticket_comments",
        "definition": {
          "method": "GET",
          "path": "/api/v2/tickets/{{$.ticket_id}}/comments.json",
          "connectionName": "zendesk"
        }
      }
    },
    "post_webhook": {
      "type": "ZIS::Action::Http",
      "properties": {
        "name": "post_webhook",
        "definition": {
          "method": "POST",
          "url": "EXTERNAL_TARGET_URL",
          "requestBody": {
            "text.$": "$.message"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "Flow": {
      "type": "ZIS::Flow",
      "properties": {
        "name": "PostWebhookFlow",
        "definition": {
          "StartAt": "fetch_comments",
          "States": {
            "fetch_comments": {
              "Type": "Action",
              "ActionName": "zis:INTEGRATION:action:fetch_ticket_comments",
              "Parameters": {
                "ticket_id.$": "$.input.ticket_event.ticket.id"
              },
              "ResultPath": "$.fetched_comments",
              "Next": "pass.store_this_comment_id"
            },
            "pass.store_this_comment_id": {
              "Type": "Pass",
              "Result": {
                "this_id.$": "$.input.ticket_event.comment.id"
              },
              "ResultPath": "$.fetched_comments",
              "Next": "transform.fetch_this_comment"
            },
            "transform.fetch_this_comment": {
              "Type": "Action",
              "ActionName": "zis:common:transform:Jq",
              "Parameters": {
                "data.$": "$.fetched_comments",
                "expr": ".this_id as $my_id | .comments[] | select(.id == $my_id).html_body"
              },
              "ResultPath": "$.fetched_comments.this_comment",
              "Next": "post_webhook"
            },
            "post_webhook": {
              "Type": "Action",
              "ActionName": "zis:INTEGRATION:action:post_webhook",
              "Parameters": {
                "message.$": "$.fetched_comments.this_comment"
              },
              "ResultPath": "$.posted_webhook",
              "End": true
            }
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "JobSpec": {
      "type": "ZIS::JobSpec",
      "properties": {
        "name": "TicketCommentAddedJobSpec",
        "event_source": "support",
        "event_type": "ticket.CommentAdded",
        "flow_name": "zis:INTEGRATION:flow:PostWebhookFlow"
      }
    }
  }
}

Before using the bundle, replace the "EXTERNAL_TARGET_URL" placeholder with an external target URL, such as an endpoint URL you obtained from RequestBin. Replace "INTEGRATION" with your ZIS integration key.