Event-Based Automation vs. Polling: What's the Difference?

In the world of workflow automation, efficiency and responsiveness are key. You want your processes to kick off exactly when they need to, not when a rigid schedule dictates. This brings us to a fundamental distinction in how systems monitor and react to changes: event-based automation versus polling.

These two approaches represent different philosophies for initiating actions. While both can achieve the goal of starting a workflow, their underlying mechanisms and implications for performance, cost, and real-time capability are vastly different.

Understanding this difference is crucial for building truly responsive and efficient automated systems. Let's dive into what each approach entails.

What is Polling?

Polling is essentially a "check-in" mechanism. A system or application repeatedly asks another system if there's new data or if a specific condition has been met. Think of it like repeatedly asking "Are we there yet?" on a road trip.

Here's how it generally works:

1. The polling system sends a request to the target system.
2. The target system responds with its current status or data.
3. The polling system processes the response.
4. This process repeats at a predefined interval (e.g., every minute, every hour).

Pros of Polling:

• Relatively simple to implement in basic scenarios.
• Can be used with systems that don't support event notifications.

Cons of Polling:

• Lag: There's inherent delay between an event happening and the polling system discovering it. The shorter the polling interval, the less lag, but at a cost.
• Resource Intensive: Frequent requests consume resources on both the polling system and the target system, even when no changes have occurred.
• Inefficient: Many requests return no new information, leading to wasted bandwidth and processing power.
• Scalability Issues: As the number of systems being polled increases, the resource consumption grows significantly.

Polling is like checking your mailbox every hour – you might miss a time-sensitive delivery, and you're wasting trips when there's nothing there.

What is Event-Based Automation?

Event-based automation, on the other hand, is triggered by… well, events. An event is a significant occurrence or change of state within a system. Instead of constantly asking for updates, the system that experiences the event actively notifies other interested parties.

This is the core principle behind platforms like Triggers.do. It allows you to:

• Define specific triggers based on events (like order.created, user.signed_up, file.uploaded).
• Receive events from various connected systems in real-time.
• Optionally apply filters to the event data to narrow down when a trigger should activate (e.g., amount > 100).
• Automatically initiate workflows when a trigger condition is met.

Here's how it works:

1. An event occurs in a connected system (e.g., a new order is placed).
2. The system publishes or sends a notification about this specific event.
3. Triggers.do receives this event notification.
4. Triggers.do evaluates if the event matches any defined triggers and their filters.
5. If a match is found, the associated workflow is automatically initiated.

Pros of Event-Based Automation:

• Real-Time Responsiveness: Workflows start immediately when the triggering event occurs, reducing latency.
• Efficient Resource Usage: Systems only communicate when something relevant happens. No wasted polling requests.
• Scalability: Designed to handle high volumes of events efficiently.
• Decoupling: Systems are less tightly coupled, making them easier to manage and update independently.
• Lower Costs: Reduced processing and bandwidth usage can lead to lower infrastructure costs.

Event-based automation is like getting an instant notification on your phone the moment a package ships – timely and efficient.

Comparing the Approaches

Let's summarize the key differences:

Why Choose Event-Based Automation?

For creating modern, responsive, and resource-efficient automated workflows, event-based automation is the clear winner. It allows your business processes to react instantly to changes, eliminating delays and maximizing efficiency.

Platforms like Triggers.do are built specifically to harness the power of event-based triggers. By connecting to your various systems and defining triggers based on real-time events, you can start workflows precisely when and where they are needed. This moves you away from rigid, scheduled tasks towards truly dynamic and responsive automation.

Want to see how simple it is to define an event-based trigger? Take a look at this example:

import { Trigger } from 'triggers.do';

const newOrderTrigger = new Trigger({
  name: 'New Order Created',
  description: 'Triggers when a new order is created in the system',
  event: 'order.created',
  source: 'ecommerce-platform',
  filter: {
    condition: 'amount > 100',
    priority: 'high'
  },
  handler: async (event) => {
    // Process the event and start workflows
    return {
      workflowId: 'order-processing',
      data: event.data
    };
  }
});

This defines a trigger that fires only when an order.created event is received from the ecommerce-platform and the order amount is greater than 100. No constant checking required!

Conclusion

While polling might have its place in simple, low-frequency scenarios, event-based automation is the superior approach for building dynamic, real-time, and scalable workflow systems. By reacting to events as they happen, you ensure your automation is always timely, efficient, and truly responsive to the pulse of your business. Embrace the power of event-based triggers to unlock the full potential of your process automation.

Ready to start building event-driven workflows? Learn more about Triggers.do and how you can start workflows when events happen.