How to Connect a Bot Flow to External Systems in ChatSyncs

Two related ways to connect a bot flow to the outside world:

• HTTP API — the bot calls out to your own system mid-conversation and uses whatever it returns, e.g. an order status.
• Outbound Actions — ChatSyncs pushes data out automatically the moment something happens in a conversation, e.g. a form submission.

Example (HTTP API): A customer types their Order ID. The bot calls your Order API, gets back {"status": "Shipped", "tracking_id": "BD987654321"}, and replies "Your order has been Shipped. Tracking ID: BD987654321" — instantly, no human involved.

Where HTTP API is used:

• Directly inside a Keyword Replies flow, to look something up mid-conversation.
• Inside a WhatsApp Flow's Select HTTP API field, to send a submitted form to your system — see WhatsApp Flows.

Outbound Actions: send data out automatically#

An Outbound Action sends data out of ChatSyncs the moment something happens — a subscriber submits a form, clicks a button, or shares their location.

• Instead of that data staying locked inside ChatSyncs, it's forwarded automatically.
• Send it to Google Sheets, a CRM, your own server, Zapier, Make.com, Airtable, or any other place that can receive it.

Example: send Input Flow submissions to Google Sheets#

Say you built a Customer Registration Form using an Input Flow or WhatsApp Flow with fields for Full Name, Phone Number, Business Type, Service Interested, and Demo Date. When a subscriber submits it, an Outbound Action can push that submission straight into a Google Sheet — no manual copying, no server of your own required. The rest of this section walks through that exact setup, since it's the most common use case.

User submits WhatsApp Flow or Input Flow
            ↓
ChatSyncs Triggered
            ↓
Outbound Action
            ↓
Google Apps Script
            ↓
Google Sheet
            ↓
Columns Created Automatically
            ↓
Data Stored Automatically

Set up Google Sheets as the destination#

1. 1

   Create a Google Sheet

   Create a new, empty Google Sheet. You don't need to add any columns — they're created automatically later.

2. 2

   Open Apps Script

   

   Inside the sheet, go to Extensions → Apps Script.

3. 3

   Paste the script

   

   Delete any existing code and paste a doPost(e) function that reads the incoming webhook payload and appends it as a row — creating header columns automatically the first time each field name is seen:

   javascriptCopy

   function doPost(e) {
     var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getActiveSheet();
     var data = JSON.parse(e.postData.contents);
     var headers = Object.keys(data);
   
     if (sheet.getLastRow() == 0) {
       sheet.appendRow(headers);
     }
   
     var values = headers.map(function(key) {
       return data[key];
     });
     sheet.appendRow(values);
   
     return ContentService
       .createTextOutput("Success")
       .setMimeType(ContentService.MimeType.TEXT);
   }

4. 4

   Deploy as a Web App

   Click Deploy → New deployment, set Select type to Web app, Execute as to Me (your Google account), and Who has access to Anyone (or Anyone with the link) — not Only myself, or ChatSyncs won't be able to reach it. Click Deploy and authorize the requested Google permissions.

5. 5

   Copy the Web App URL

   

   Google gives you a URL like https://script.google.com/macros/s/XXXXXXXXXXXX/exec. Copy it — this is your webhook URL.

Create the Outbound Action in ChatSyncs#

Go to Chatbot Manager → Automation → Outbound Actions → Create, then fill in one form covering the webhook, its triggers, and the data it sends:

• Webhook Name — e.g. Customer Registration Data.
• Out-bound Webhook URL — paste the Web App URL you copied above.

Select the trigger(s) — Unlike separate configurations per event, Postback, User Input Flow, and Location are all toggles on this same form — turn on whichever one(s) should trigger this webhook. Whenever an enabled action happens, ChatSyncs sends the data to that particular webhook URL:

• Postback — fires when a subscriber clicks a postback button. Pick which postback(s) in Select Postbacks.
• User Input Flow — fires when a subscriber submits an Input Flow. Pick which flow(s) in Select Input Flows (e.g. Appointment Booking, Customer Registration Form).
• Location — fires when a subscriber shares their live location.

You can enable more than one trigger on the same Outbound Action — each fires independently and sends to the same configured webhook URL.

Select fields to send — Enable whichever fields you need: Subscriber ID, Subscriber Name, Phone Number, Date of Birth, Location, Labels, Postback ID, Input Flow Data.

Click Save — the webhook is now active.

How automatic columns work#

Whenever a webhook payload arrives, the Apps Script reads its JSON keys and adds any column that doesn't already exist — you never edit the sheet by hand. For example, a payload from a Postback trigger like:

{
  "first_name": "Rahul",
  "chat_id": "919959623255",
  "postbackid": "73vwwaEqCBJt...",
  "reply_message_id": "wamid.HBgMOTE5..."
}

produces the sheet shown above, with first_name, chat_id, postbackid, and reply_message_id as columns, populated automatically — no manual setup per field.

If you add a new field later (e.g. budget), the next submission that includes it automatically gets its own column — no need to edit the sheet first.

Real business examples#

This is the simplest and most common way to connect a ChatSyncs WhatsApp Flow or Input Flow directly to Google Sheets without running your own server — the same approach works for any endpoint that accepts an HTTP POST, including a CRM, Zapier, Make.com, or Airtable.

Manage Outbound Actions#

Saved webhooks appear in the Outbound Actions list with three actions:

• View Report — see webhook logs and activity, and check whether data was sent successfully.
• Edit — update the webhook URL, triggers, or selected data fields at any time.
• Delete — permanently remove the webhook; ChatSyncs stops sending it data immediately.

Frequently asked#