> Portal Navigation: > > - Append `.md` to any URL under `https://dev.wix.com/docs/` to get its markdown version. > - Pages are either content pages (article or reference text) or menu pages (a list of links to child pages). > - To get a menu page, truncate any URL to a parent path and append `.md` (e.g. `https://dev.wix.com/docs/sdk.md`, `https://dev.wix.com/docs/sdk/core-modules.md`). > - Top-level index of all portals: https://dev.wix.com/docs/llms.txt > - Full concatenated docs: https://dev.wix.com/docs/llms-full.txt ## Resource: Introduction ## Article: Introduction ## Article Link: https://dev.wix.com/docs/api-reference/business-management/automations/introduction.md ## Article Content: # About Wix Automations Wix Automations is a powerful tool that allows site owners and collaborators to automate business processes. As an app developer, you can provide users with both automations and the building blocks they need to create them. ## Why are automations necessary? As a site’s traffic increases, it becomes harder for the user to manage certain site actions on their own. For example, a user with an online store doesn’t have time to send invoices manually if they receive dozens of customer orders per day. Likewise, it’s too time-consuming for the owner of a fitness site to manually manage hundreds of new sign-ups daily. Wix Automations remove the burden of handling these processes from site owners, by automating them. This leaves site owners free to focus on growing their business, instead of dealing with the details of various business operations. ## How do automations work? Every automation has a [trigger](https://dev.wix.com/docs/build-apps/develop-your-app/extensions/backend-extensions/automations/triggers/about-triggers.md), and at least one [action](https://dev.wix.com/docs/build-apps/develop-your-app/extensions/backend-extensions/automations/actions/about-actions.md). The trigger is an event that gets reported to Wix by an app. Below are some examples of events that can trigger an automation: * A customer submits a form. * A customer completes a purchase. * A site visitor navigates to a page. * A customer books a session. When the app reports the event, it initiates the automation, which then carries out the actions. Each action is a single business operation that can receive data from the trigger. The following are examples of actions: * Send a confirmation email. * Generate an invoice. * Send a chat message. * Send booking data to a 3rd-party service. Triggers and actions are the essential building blocks of automations. However, automations can also contain [delays](https://dev.wix.com/docs/rest/business-management/automations/terminology.md#delay) and [conditions](https://dev.wix.com/docs/rest/business-management/automations/terminology.md#condition): * A delay pauses the automation before the next step. Delays can be added anywhere in the automation flow. * Conditions let users define conditional logic that controls the flow of the automation. Delays and conditions allow users to build more complex automations than what is possible with just triggers and actions. [Automations Architecture and Data Flow](https://dev.wix.com/docs/rest/business-management/automations/architecture-data-flow.md) provides more detail about the automation flow and how conditions and delays affect it. ## Who can use the Wix Automations platform? There are two groups that interact with Wix Automations: 1. Wix users looking to streamline their business logic. Users can build automations on their site with the [Automations Builder](https://support.wix.com/en/article/wix-automations-creating-an-automation-with-the-new-builder). 2. Wix app developers can use automations extensions to create triggers, actions, and pre-installed automations for their app’s users. ### The Automations Builder By default, every Wix site comes with a basic set of triggers and actions. When a user installs a Wix app on their site, the app can add triggers and actions to this set. This lets the user create a greater variety of automations. Users create these automations, using the available triggers and actions, in the Automations Builder. The Builder is an intuitive tool located under [Automations](https://www.wix.com/my-account/site-selector/?buttonText=Select%20Site\&title=Select%20a%20Site\&autoSelectOnSingleSite=true\&actionUrl=https:%2F%2Fwww.wix.com%2Fdashboard%2F%7B%7BmetaSiteId%7D%7D%2Ftriggers) in your site dashboard. #### Pre-installed automations Users can create automations themselves, but they can also benefit from [pre-installed automations](https://dev.wix.com/docs/build-apps/develop-your-app/extensions/backend-extensions/automations/pre-installed-automations/about-pre-installed-automations.md), which are added for them by the various apps installed on their site. Users can’t change the trigger or actions that make up a pre-installed automation, but they can configure some of the actions' settings and may be able to activate or deactivate the automation. ### Automations Extensions As a developer, you can extend your app with triggers, actions, and pre-installed automations. These extensions become available to users when they install your app on their site. The Automations APIs allow you to work with all three of the options above to provide services to users. #### Provide triggers and actions for the Builder Automations extensions allow you to expose your events as triggers, and your APIs as actions. Site owners can then use these building blocks in the Automation Builder to create their business automations. #### Provide pre-installed automations As a developer, you can build your own automations using any exposed building blocks. You select the trigger and actions, as well as any conditions and delays, for the user. The user can't change the trigger or actions, but you can allow them to activate or deactivate the automation and make changes to the action configuration. You can also set whether or not users can edit delays and conditions or add their own. These full automations become available to users who install your app. You create automations extensions in your app dashboard.