Link actions

What are Link app actions?

Links are actions that reroute users from Pipedrive to an external page hosted by your app to complete an action. It allows users to use and send the data from their Pipedrive accounts to your app. In this way, the data will gain value as it is displayed in context with the functionality of your app.

Link actions can give users the option to, for example, add contacts to email lists, create documents/proposals, send messages, and more with just a click of a button.

See how link actions can work for a proposals and contacts app. In this example, the app displays the name of the deal, the value of the deal, and the contact person's information in the app.

See how link actions can work for a bots and messaging app. In this example, the app displays the contact person's name, info, and phone number.

Where are link actions found and how do they work?

Visibility in the UI

Link actions can be added to the actions menu in the upper right area of the detail view and the list view. Link actions in the list view will appear when an item(s) is selected. Link actions are visible when the user clicks on the three-dot actions menu in detail and list views.

Each app is allowed to have 3 link actions or JSON/custom modals per view. This means an app can have a total of 21 app extensions (link actions or JSON/custom modals) from menus (7 possible views x 3 extensions).

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If the user hasn't selected any items in the list view, the link actions aren't available.

How do the link actions work?

When a user selects a link action from the menu, a new browser tab will be opened. Next, in the same browser tab, the user will be redirected to an app’s page if the user has an active app installation status. The redirection will be done to a URL consisting of the app’s URL (supplied by the app owner in the Developer Hub) and parameters that Pipedrive adds relating to the selected item(s). The added parameters enable the app to make requests to Pipedrive’s API and fetch data to allow the user to complete a link action.

Note that because the items selected by a user will directly relate back to the URL, you can run into a situation where several hundreds of items will be populated directly to the URL. In these scenarios, please be ready to encounter URL length limitation errors.

The new tab opened right after the user clicks the action has the following URL structure. The :actionId parameter in the URL is the unique identifier of the link action that Pipedrive will replace with a value.

https://{COMPANYDOMAIN}.pipedrive.com/app-extensions/actions/:actionId?resource=...&view=...

These are the parameters that are added to the URLs:

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Note that in the list view, selectedIds and excludedIds will appear empty when all items are selected with the select-all checkbox.

excludedIds will also appear empty when just some items are manually selected.

Example URLs

Sample URL that is added to Developer Hub: https://www.randomawesomeapp.com/action/handle

In the list view...

The parameters that Pipedrive sends: ?resource=deal&view=list&userId=12345&companyId=12345&selectedIds=1%2C9&excludedIds=&filter=%7B%22everyone%22%3A1%7D

The whole list view URL: https://www.randomawesomeapp.com/action/handle?resource=deal&view=list&userId=12345&companyId=12345&selectedIds=1%2C9&excludedIds=&filter=%7B%22everyone%22%3A1%7D

In the activities list view when the activity start and end date are selected: https://www.randomawesomeapp.com/action/handle?resource=activity&view=list&userId=12345&companyId=12345&selectedIds=1%2C9&excludedIds=&filter=%7B%22user_id%22%3A%2211%22%2C%22 activity_type%22%3A%22call%2Cmeeting%2Ctask%2Cdeadline%2Clunch%22%2C%22activity_start_date%22%3A%222020-12-08%22%2C%22activity_end_date%22%3A%222021-01-14%22%7D

In the detail view...

The parameters that Pipedrive sends: ?resource=deal&view=details&userId=12345&companyId=12345&selectedIds=9

The whole detail view URL: https://www.randomawesomeapp.com/action/handle?resource=deal&view=details&userId=12345&companyId=12345&selectedIds=9

How can I add a link action to Pipedrive?

You can add the link action when registering an app or when updating an app.

In Developer Hub, click on your app’s name and go to the App extensions tab.

In the App extensions tab, click “Add link” in the Links section to access the form. Fill in the link action’s name and the rest of the relevant fields. Once you’re done, click “Save”.

Link actions in app approval process

What if my app has already been approved?

If you already have an app or an integration available in the Pipedrive Marketplace, please use your sandbox account (request one if you don't have a sandbox account) for testing the new app actions. Remember that any changes saved when updating a public app in Developer Hub will immediately be visible to your app users.

What to consider when I submit my app actions to review?

When app actions are submitted for review, we will thoroughly test them before approval. We strongly advise testing your app actions on a test app before submitting it for reviewal. Here are some things to consider while developing the actions:

• App actions must provide contextual information. This means that when the user has clicked an app action from inside the Pipedrive web app and they have been redirected to your app’s page, related data from the user’s Pipedrive account is displayed inside your app.
• Your app must be able to handle app actions performed both when a user has logged in to your app as well as when the user is not logged into your app:
  • If the user is logged in to your app, the actions initiated by a user from Pipedrive must be fulfilled from your app’s end.
  • If the user isn't logged in to your app, the URL must redirect to your app’s login or register an account page. After the user has logged in from the app's page, your app must be able to continue to fulfill the action initiated by the user in Pipedrive.
• If the app is uninstalled from the vendors’ side, ensure that the app actions won’t appear in Pipedrive UI anymore. For more information, read about handling user’s app uninstallation.