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Middle workflows are good at moving data between apps, but sometimes a workflow needs to create a cleaner version of the data before another workflow can use it.
For example, a fitness business might send class attendance, purchases, and member details from several systems, each with different field names and formats. One workflow can standardize those inputs and save the result as Middle records, such as a clean member profile, a class attendance summary, or a marketing preference history.
The Create or Update Record step lets a workflow save that data to Middle’s integration database under an app connection and record type. Once saved, the record can be inspected, updated, reused by other workflows, exported to another system, or used as an audit trail for how the data was created. This gives you more control over the data your integrations use!
Transform data for bulk processes
Many integrations need data prepared in a specific format before it can be sent to another system. Names, dates, statuses, and categories may all need to be standardized.
Using Middle’s workflow parameter system, you can apply those transformations to synced data and save the results as separate records. A scheduled workflow can then collect the prepared records, export them, and send them to their destination.
Keeping preparation and delivery in separate workflows makes transformations easier to inspect. You can review the transformed records before they are included in an export and troubleshoot an individual record without working backward through an entire file.
Calculate and store summaries
Individual records often become more useful when you look at them together. A member’s check-ins, purchases, and appointments can tell you more than any one activity on its own.
After a class or event ends and attendance is finalized, a workflow could calculate how many people attended, how many were first-time visitors, and how many registered but didn’t show up. Save those results as a summary linked to the class, instructor, and location.
Other workflows could use that record to send an instructor recap, update a reporting system, or compare attendance across locations. The calculation runs when attendance is finalized, with updates only when the underlying attendance changes.
Capture business events
An app may expose someone’s current status without providing a separate record of when that status changed.
When Middle detects a change, your workflow can create an event record. For example, when a person’s SMS preference changes from opted out to opted in, you could store their identifier, the source app, the new preference, and when Middle observed the change.
That event can trigger another workflow or remain available for later reference. By defining foreign-key relationships, you can connect it to the relevant person and access their related events when building other workflows.
This creates a history of the changes your workflow captures from that point forward.
How updates work
Each record has a primary key: the identifier Middle uses to recognize it. When your workflow saves a record, Middle checks for that key within the selected app connection and record type.
If the key is new, Middle creates the record. If it already exists, Middle updates the existing record. Changes are available through record history.
Use a consistent key when maintaining something like a member summary. Use a distinct key for each event when you want to preserve separate observations.
Troubleshoot and audit your transformations
Middle’s workflow execution history lets you inspect how a transformation ran, including the values used to build the record. The stored record and its change activity are linked to the workflow execution that produced them.
If a category looks wrong or a calculated value is unexpected, you can trace it back to the workflow that saved it. You can review the transformation logic, correct it, and run the workflow again to update the record.
Put it to work: prepare data for normalized files
Consider a partner that needs regular files containing contacts, events, products, locations, and opt-outs. Each source app may represent that information differently, while the partner expects one consistent format.
A Middle workflow could map source-specific contact types into shared categories, standardize timestamps, and translate lead sources into the partner’s expected values. The Create or Update Record step would save those results in record types that match the partner’s file requirements.
A separate scheduled workflow could export those records and deliver the files. The team would have visibility into the source data, the prepared records, and the delivery process.
Put it to work: coordinate marketing preferences across apps
A business using disparate apps that all manage marketing preferences receives preference changes in several places. You could build a process around two sets of stored records. The first captures each observed preference change, including its source, channel, and timestamp. The second stores the current preference for an email address or phone number, calculated using rules you define.
When a new observation arrives, a workflow could update the current preference record. Additional workflows could then pass the result to connected apps and a data warehouse.
This gives the team both a current value to use and the underlying observations needed to explain how it was determined.
Build the data your next workflow needs
Start with a record you wish you had: a clean contact, a member summary, or a history of preference changes. Define its fields, build the workflow that produces it, and save it in Middle.
Once that record exists, it becomes a useful starting point for everything you build next!
Documentation: https://docs.middle.app/middle-docs/accounts/workflow-steps/create-or-update
