Lola Workflow Defination icon

Lola Workflow Defination

Lola Workflow Defination

Lola Workflow Defination

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Overview

The "Lola Workflow Defination" node is designed to retrieve and cache metadata about workflows available in the n8n environment. It allows users to specify a set of parameter names, fetches corresponding workflow information (such as workflow IDs), and stores this data in the output. Optionally, it can cache the results globally for faster subsequent access within the same workflow.

Common scenarios:

  • Dynamically referencing other workflows by name or ID within an automation.
  • Reducing API calls by caching workflow metadata across executions.
  • Building advanced workflow orchestration where workflow relationships are managed dynamically.

Practical example:
Suppose you have several workflows that need to trigger or reference each other by name. This node can be used at the start of your main workflow to collect all relevant workflow IDs based on their names, making them easily accessible for later steps.

Properties

Name Meaning
Parameters A list of parameter names (as strings) to look up. Each entry has a "Name" field representing the workflow name to search for.
Cache Ouput Whether to enable global caching of the output data. If enabled, the node will reuse previously fetched data if available.

Output

  • The node adds a field called workflowConfig to the JSON output of the first item.
  • workflowConfig is an object where each key is a parameter name specified in "Parameters", and the value is the corresponding workflow's ID.

Example output:

{
  "workflowConfig": {
    "MyWorkflowA": "12",
    "MyWorkflowB": "34"
  }
}
  • If caching is enabled and valid cached data exists, the node will return the cached workflowConfig instead of fetching new data.

Dependencies

  • No external services or API keys are required.
  • Relies on n8n's internal workflow metadata and static data storage for caching.
  • No special environment variables are needed.

Troubleshooting

Common issues:

  • Parameter not found: If a specified workflow name does not exist, its entry will be missing from workflowConfig.
  • Cache not updating: If "Cache Ouput" is enabled and workflow definitions change, the node may return outdated data until the cache is cleared or the workflow is re-executed with different parameters.
  • Empty output: If no parameters are provided, or none match existing workflows, workflowConfig will be empty.

Error messages:

  • The node does not throw explicit errors for missing workflows; missing entries simply won't appear in the output.
  • If there are issues accessing workflow metadata, ensure the node has appropriate permissions within n8n.

Links and References

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