Building End-to-End Business Workflows with Martini
Let’s be honest: a lot of “automation platforms” feel like they were built for people who don’t write code.
You know the type—nice drag-and-drop UI, but the moment you need to implement actual logic or hit a third-party API with anything more than a GET request, the whole thing falls apart. Either you’re stuck hacking around limitations, or you’re rewriting the whole thing in code anyway.
I’ve been there. That’s why I gave Martini a shot—and I’m glad I did.
The Use Case: Purchase Order Approval
I needed to automate a pretty common workflow: purchase order (PO) approval. But it wasn’t just a toy project—it had multiple systems involved:
- A frontend (built in Bellini) where users submit POs
- An accounting system with a custom REST API
- An internal ERP that still runs on… let’s just say “vintage architecture”
Here’s the flow:
- Receive and validate the PO
- Enrich with vendor data from an external API
- Route for approval based on amount
- If approved, send data to accounting + ERP
- Notify the user
Straightforward logic—but enough moving parts to break most no-code tools.
Building the Flow in Martini
I opened Martini, jumped into the workflow builder, and started dragging blocks. Each block represents a real service or operation—backed by reusable components, not just hardcoded flows.
- Validation: Built a quick service to check required fields and format the payload
- Enrichment: Hit a third-party API to grab vendor metadata—bound it in two clicks
- Conditionals: Routed based on PO amount using visual logic (and yeah, you can write it in Groovy/JS if needed)
- Parallel execution: Accounting + ERP updates happened concurrently
- Notification: Final step sends an email/webhook with outcome
The best part? I could simulate inputs and debug each step along the way—without deploying it blind and praying it worked.
API Integration That Didn’t Suck
This part blew me away.
Martini lets you import OpenAPI specs and auto-generates the service connectors. I brought in both the accounting API and ERP connector in under five minutes.
From there, binding data was visual. Transforming payloads? Visual. But if I needed to tweak something specific (like a nested array format)? Code was just a click away.
No weird JSONPath hacks. No “premium plan required” messages. Just tools that let you get stuff done.
Real Logic, Real Code (When You Need It)
Unlike some low-code platforms, Martini doesn’t treat “real code” like a dirty word. I added:
- Groovy scripts for conditional business logic
- A small Java function to format vendor metadata
- Auth tokens using built-in OAuth2 support (didn’t have to write the flow myself)
It’s truly low code, not no code. And that distinction matters a lot when you’re building for production.
Monitoring + Deployment: Not an Afterthought
Once the workflow worked, I deployed it from Martini’s UI. It became a secure, versioned API I could hit from the Bellini frontend—or anything else.
Even better, Martini gave me:
- Execution logs for every run
- Built-in alerts and error tracking
- Rollback and version history
This is where most workflow tools fail. They assume you’re fine debugging with “try again later” messages. Martini actually treats your automation like software—because it is.
TL;DR
Martini let me:
- Build a multi-system PO approval flow without boilerplate
- Plug in real APIs using OpenAPI specs
- Inject custom logic where needed
- Deploy and monitor like a grown-up
And I did it all without hitting a “now upgrade to Enterprise” wall.
