Build an Automation

Time: Under 10 minutes | What you'll build: An automation that prints Hello World to the terminal when it runs.

An automation runs your integration logic without an external request, on demand or on a schedule. Automations are ideal for data synchronization, report generation, and routine maintenance jobs. This quick start shows the full cycle: add an automation artifact, build the logic in the visual designer, run it, and review the scheduling options for production.

Prerequisites

A working WSO2 Integrator environment. Choose the path that fits how you want to work:

Cloud setup — launch WSO2 Integrator in a browser-based cloud editor.
Local setup — install and launch the WSO2 Integrator IDE on your machine.

Visual Designer
Ballerina Code

Step 1: Create the integration

Note

In the cloud editor, you're already inside a project. Skip to Step 2.

Open WSO2 Integrator.
Select the Create New Integration card.
Set Integration Name to HelloWorldAutomation.
Set Project Name to automation-quickstart.
Create Integration.

Create new integration form with Integration Name set to HelloWorldAutomation and Project Name set to automation-quickstart

Step 2: Add an automation artifact

Select your integration from the project overview canvas.
Select + Add Artifact in the design canvas.
Select Automation under Automation.
Select Create.

Create New Automation form opened after selecting Automation under Automation

Step 3: Add logic

Select + after the Start node to open the node panel.
Select Call Function.
Select Print under io from the function list.
Select Initialize Array for the Values parameter.
Set Values to "Hello World" and select Save.

io:print configuration panel with the Values parameter set to Hello World, ready to be saved

Step 4: Run and test

Select Run.
Confirm the terminal output contains Hello World.

Running the automation and seeing the Hello World output in the terminal

The following complete, runnable Ballerina program produces the same automation shown in the visual designer steps.

import ballerina/io;
import ballerina/log;

public function main() returns error? {
    do {
        io:print("Hello World");
    } on fail error e {
        log:printError("Error occurred", 'error = e);
        return e;
    }
}

Save this as automation.bal, then click the Run button in the top toolbar. The terminal output contains Hello World.

Step 5: Deploy to WSO2 Cloud

Deploy your integration to WSO2 Cloud - Integration Platform in any of the following ways:

If you're using the cloud editor, see Save and deploy.
If you're using the WSO2 Integrator IDE, see Deploy from the IDE.
If you'd rather skip the build and try a ready-made sample, one-click deploy it:

Scheduling automations

Periodic invocation is configured in an external system once the automation is deployed. Available options include:

Cron job: schedule the automation from a cron entry on a Unix or Linux host.
Kubernetes: define a CronJob resource to run the automation on a recurring schedule.
VM: use a host scheduler such as Windows Task Scheduler or systemd timers.
WSO2 Integration Platform: configure the schedule in the WSO2 Integration Platform when the integration is pushed to the cloud.

What's next

Build an Integration as API — Build an HTTP service
Build an AI agent — Build an intelligent agent
Build an event-driven integration — React to messages from brokers
Build a file-driven integration — Process files from FTP or local directories
Automation — Configure scheduling, manual execution, and integration logic

Step 1: Create the integration​

Step 2: Add an automation artifact​

Step 3: Add logic​

Step 4: Run and test​

Step 5: Deploy to WSO2 Cloud​

Scheduling automations​

What's next​