Collection Operation — Examples

Example 1 — Filter: Active Customers Only

A workflow receives a list of all customers from a CRM query. Use filter to retain only those with an active subscription status before sending renewal reminders.

{
  "node_type": "CollectionOperation",
  "name": "FilterActiveCustomers",
  "config": {
    "operation": "filter",
    "collection": "{@ output.GetAllCustomers.data }",
    "expression": "item.subscriptionStatus === 'active' && item.emailOptIn === true"
  }
}

Outcome: result contains only customers who are both active and opted in to email. count tells the next Switch node how many emails to send. An empty result (count = 0) can be handled by a conditional branch to skip the email loop.

Example 2 — Map: Extract Invoice IDs from Order Objects

A Loop node needs an array of IDs to iterate over, but the source data is an array of full order objects. Use map to project just the IDs.

{
  "node_type": "CollectionOperation",
  "name": "ExtractOrderIds",
  "config": {
    "operation": "map",
    "collection": "{@ var.orders }",
    "expression": "item.orderId"
  }
}

// Input: [{ orderId: "ORD-1", total: 100 }, { orderId: "ORD-2", total: 200 }]
// Output result: ["ORD-1", "ORD-2"]

Outcome: result is a plain string array of order IDs. The Loop node can iterate directly over output.ExtractOrderIds.result.

Example 3 — Reduce: Sum All Invoice Line Item Totals

After processing a multi-line invoice, calculate the grand total by reducing the line items array to a single numeric sum.

{
  "node_type": "CollectionOperation",
  "name": "SumLineItems",
  "config": {
    "operation": "reduce",
    "collection": "{@ var.lineItems }",
    "expression": "acc + item.amount",
    "initial_value": 0
  }
}

// Input lineItems: [{ amount: 100 }, { amount: 250.50 }, { amount: 75 }]
// Output result: 425.50

Outcome: result = 425.50. Store this in a variable for use in the PDF invoice template and payment node.

Example 4 — Sort: Products by Price (Cheapest First)

A product recommendation workflow needs to present the cheapest in-stock products first. Sort the product array by unit price ascending.

{
  "node_type": "CollectionOperation",
  "name": "SortProductsByPrice",
  "config": {
    "operation": "sort",
    "collection": "{@ output.GetProducts.data }",
    "field": "unitPrice",
    "direction": "asc"
  }
}

Outcome: result is the same array sorted from lowest to highest unitPrice. The Loop node that follows renders product cards in price order.

Example 5 — Distinct: Deduplicate a Contact Email List

A mailing list assembled from multiple sources may contain duplicate contacts. Use distinct on the email field to ensure each recipient receives only one message.

{
  "node_type": "CollectionOperation",
  "name": "DeduplicateEmailList",
  "config": {
    "operation": "distinct",
    "collection": "{@ var.allContacts }",
    "field": "email"
  }
}

// Input: [
//   { name: "Alice", email: "alice@co.com" },
//   { name: "Alice Smith", email: "alice@co.com" },  // duplicate email
//   { name: "Bob", email: "bob@co.com" }
// ]
// Output result: [
//   { name: "Alice", email: "alice@co.com" },  // first occurrence kept
//   { name: "Bob", email: "bob@co.com" }
// ]

Outcome: The first occurrence for each unique email value is kept. The downstream email dispatch loop receives a clean, deduplicated list.