Let's set-up an integration with SendGrid
Permissions: Only Administrators can create Integrations, Workflows and App Actions
SendGrid Set-Up
First you'll need to create or access your SendGrid account. From the sidebar menu navigate to Settings > API Keys > Create API Key
From here, name your API Key and choose your permissions. Click 'Create & View' when ready, your key will auto-generate. Copy your key and save if needed - you cannot retrieve this key once you navigate away from this page. (You can restart the process if you need a new key.)
Now from the sidebar menu, navigate to Settings > Sender Authentication
There are two options to integrate with FreeAgent
- Domain Authentication: this option requires access to your DNS host, but will ultimately yield better results for large-scale needs. For example, when you authenticate the domain ‘freeagentsoftware.com’ every email address with ‘freeagentsoftware.com’ as the domain e.g. sender@freeagentsoftware.com will be automatically verified. Click on 'Get Started' and follow SendGrid’s guide for Domain Authentication.
- Single Sender Verification: you'll need to verify every email address you want to use as a sender. This option is easy to quickly verify a single sender but may be repetitive if you need to verify many email addresses.
Note: If you are just now creating your account and/or verifying sender(s) for the first time you will need confirm your actions via auto-generated emails from SendGrid.
FreeAgent Integration
Now let's hop over to FreeAgent to continue, let's follow these three steps to finish the integration.
- Install the SendGrid Integration Plugin on FreeAgent. This plugin includes an Integration and an App Action for the Contacts App. It is included as a downloadable file in this tutorial.
- Navigate to the Integrations Settings Page and Click on the newly added “SendGrid Integration” and click on Edit.
- Enter your SendGrid API Key and paste into the configuration section
Install the SendGrid Integration Plugin on FreeAgent. First download the plugin file and save it to your computer. Navigate to Admin Settings > Plugins. Click 'Import Plugin' and select the zip file.
Now click 'Import' and the text "Plugin Imported Successfully" will confirm your Plugin is ready. Click 'Install' and you will be notified when the plugin installation is complete, you can also keep track of this in Admin Settings > Jobs.
Now navigate to Admin Settings > Integrations and select the newly added 'SendGrid Integration' and click 'Edit.' Retrieve your SendGrid API Key and paste it into the 'Configuration' code section between the two (") marks and Save.
Now that you've authenticated your SendGrid Integration, let's configure a SendGrid Workflow to use in an App Action.
Workflow
For this example we'll set up a Contacts App Workflow. Navigate to Admin Settings > Apps Setup > Contacts > Workflows. Now click on 'Add Workflow'
Input the following into the fields
Now let's build a simple Workflow. In the diagrammer, we will Create StartEvent > Integration (Plugin Icon) > Create EndEvent.
Select edit on the Integration we just added to the Workflow and input the following:
Name: Send Email
Integration: SendGrid Integration
Integration Connector: Send Email
Now that you've configured everything correctly, save this Workflow. Copy the Workflow ID from the URL of the newly created workflow, which will be the sequence after "view/"
Finally we'll set up the App Action.
App Action
Navigate to Admin Settings > Apps Setup > Contacts > App Actions. Select the newly added 'Send Email SendGrid' app action to edit.
In the 'Bulk Action' custom code window you will now see an option to paste the Workflow ID you just copied in the previous step. In between the two (') marks paste this ID. Save when complete.
Now navigate to the Contacts App and you will see your App Action button available and ready to send bulk emails via SendGrid!
When you click your newly created 'Send Email With SendGrid' the FreeAgent email interface will appear and allow you to compose an email and/or select an email template as normal. You've just created and utilized a SendGrid Integration within FreeAgent!