How to Create an HTTP Task in a Process

The HTTP Task in akaBot Center enables a process to call external REST API endpoints directly from the process engine, without requiring a bot agent to handle the integration. This is useful for lightweight integrations such as sending a webhook notification, fetching reference data from an external system, submitting a form to a third-party service, or triggering an action in another platform. HTTP Tasks support all standard HTTP methods and can handle both JSON and form-encoded request bodies.

The HTTP Task executes synchronously within the process flow: the process pauses at the HTTP Task, sends the configured request, waits for the response, and then continues. Response data — including status code, response headers, and body — can be captured into process variables and used by subsequent tasks. If the HTTP call fails (network error, non-2xx status code), the task can be configured to retry or route to an error path.

For secure APIs, the HTTP Task supports several authentication mechanisms including API key injection (via header or query parameter), Bearer token, and Basic authentication. Sensitive credentials such as tokens and passwords should be stored as secure process constants rather than hard-coded in the task configuration to prevent exposure in logs or the process designer UI.

HTTP Task Configuration Panel

Property	Description	Required
Task Name	Display name for this task	Yes
URL	The full endpoint URL (supports variable interpolation)	Yes
HTTP Method	GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE	Yes
Headers	Key-value pairs for request headers	No
Query Parameters	Key-value pairs appended to the URL	No
Authentication Type	None, API Key, Bearer Token, Basic Auth	No
Request Body Type	None, JSON, Form Data, Raw	No
Request Body	The body content or template	No
Response Status Variable	Variable to store the HTTP response status code	No
Response Body Variable	Variable to store the parsed response body	No
Timeout (seconds)	Maximum wait time for a response	Yes
Retry Count	Number of retries on failure	No
On Failure	Error path or terminate	Yes

Steps to Add an HTTP Task

1. Open the process in the Process Designer.
2. Drag the HTTP Task element from the Task Palette onto the canvas.
3. Connect it within the process flow.
4. Click the HTTP Task node to open its Properties panel.
5. Enter a Task Name.
6. In the URL field, enter the endpoint. Use ${variableName} syntax to embed process variables (e.g., https://api.example.com/invoices/${invoiceId}).
7. Select the HTTP Method.
8. Add any required Headers (e.g., Content-Type: application/json).
9. If the API requires authentication, select the Authentication Type and provide the credentials or token variable reference.
10. For POST/PUT/PATCH methods, select the Request Body Type and enter the request body template.
11. Map the Response Status Variable and Response Body Variable to process variable names.
12. Set an appropriate Timeout value.
13. Configure Retry Count and the On Failure routing.
14. Click Save.

Example: Calling a Webhook

URL: https://hooks.example.com/services/notify
Method: POST
Headers:
  Content-Type: application/json
Body:
{
  "processId": "${instanceId}",
  "status": "${approvalStatus}",
  "message": "Process step completed"
}