The services the requests keep naming

Part 5 laid out the node families and Part 6 had you build a workflow by hand. Back at a desk, though, nobody asks for a node family. They ask for something like this:

Slack for notifications, Gmail for mail, Google Sheets for records, Google Drive for storage. Between them these four have close to a monopoly on the everyday tools of a small or mid-sized office — the source guide puts around 90% of office automation on top of them, and reckons that learning their nodes covers roughly 80% of the internal requests you will be handed.

The services left over are not a separate problem. Notion, Airtable and Zoom work much the same way, and anything without a node at all you can call yourself with the HTTP Request node, which is Part 9's subject.

Every SaaS node asks the same three questions

Open the Slack node and you get three dropdown menus at the top. Open Gmail, Google Sheets, Google Drive, or a node you have never seen before, and there they are again. This is the common language n8n gave all of its SaaS nodes, and it is the single most useful thing in this article.

flowchart TD
  A["Open any SaaS node"] --> B["1 · Credential
which account is this acting as"]
  B --> C["2 · Resource
which kind of thing in that service"]
  C --> D["3 · Operation
what to do to that thing"]
  D --> E["Every field below here is redrawn
to fit the Resource and Operation you chose"]

The notification workhorse, and the file it will not carry

Slack is the node people reach for most when the point is to tell somebody something. Sales numbers, build results, incoming orders — it is the fastest way to put a line in front of a team.

In n8n v1 the Slack node's full Resource list has seven entries: Channel, File, Message, Reaction, Star, User, User Group. Day to day you will live inside a handful of pairings.

Two ways to do the credential

The node's Authentication dropdown offers two, called Access Token and OAuth2, and the same Slack node can switch between them whenever you like.

What you can type into the Text field

The Text field on Message → Send is not plain text. Slack has its own markdown, and it is not quite the markdown you are used to.

The file it will not carry

This one surprises people. Message → Send does not take binary attachments. If you need to put a file in a channel, that is a second node: File → Upload, with the channel in Channel and data in Input Data Field Name, matching the binary property the node before it produced. The upload itself produces a message with the file on it. Text and a file at the same time means chaining the two nodes.

flowchart LR
  A["Something happened upstream"] --> B{"What do you need
to put in the channel"}
  B -->|"words only"| C["Slack node
Message → Send"]
  B -->|"a file only"| D["Slack node
File → Upload"]
  B -->|"both"| E["Slack node
Message → Send"]
  E --> F["then a second Slack node
File → Upload"]
  C --> G["It appears in the channel"]
  D --> G
  F --> G

Sending, fetching, and the quota that ends the day

The Gmail node sends mail and fetches mail: marketing thank-you notes, support replies, sales watching for a customer's answer.

One credential type, and what it is doing

The Gmail node supports Google OAuth2 and nothing else. The first time you set it up, a Google authorization page opens, you sign in and agree to read and write access for Gmail. It takes well under a minute. What is worth understanding is what you now hold.

stateDiagram-v2
  [*] --> Authorized : you agree on the Google consent screen
  Authorized --> Working : n8n stores the refresh token
  Working --> Working : the access token expires each hour and n8n quietly swaps in a new one
  Working --> Blocked : you revoke n8n in Google account settings, or change the password with two-step on
  Blocked --> Authorized : reauthorize on the Credentials page

What Send can do

• Plain text or HTML. Switch with the Email Type dropdown. With HTML you can paste a complete HTML document and design a styled email.
• To, CC, BCC and Reply-To. All four recipient fields take several addresses, comma-separated.
• Attachments. The Binary Data toggle, with the property name matching the file the node before it produced.
• A subject built from an expression. The subject line can be assembled at run time — Order #{{ $json.order_id }} confirmed, for instance. Expression syntax is Part 10's subject.

Fetching mail uses Gmail's own search syntax

Under Message → Get Many there is a Filters block, and inside it a field called Search. It is not called Filter, so do not go hunting for that word. Whatever you would type into the search bar of Gmail on the web works here unchanged.

The trigger is a different node

To start a workflow when mail arrives you need Gmail Trigger, which is a separate node from Gmail. It polls rather than listening: the Poll Times dropdown offers Every Minute, Every Hour, Every Day and so on, and by default it pulls 10 messages at a time, which Options → Limit takes up to 50. Every Minute gets you close to instant, but polling that often on a large account will get you rate-limited by the Google API.

The office database, matched by header name

For a great many small and mid-sized companies, Google Sheets is the database. The CRM is a Sheet. The stock list is a Sheet. The event sign-up list is a Sheet. Learning this node is learning how to let n8n read and write the office's actual data.

Two credential choices, and they suit different people

Append Row, field by field

1. Step 1

   Pick the Document

   The dropdown lists every Google Sheets file on the account, so usually you just pick one. You can also paste a URL, or a Sheet ID.

2. Step 2

   Pick the Sheet, meaning the tab

   One Sheets file can hold several tabs. Pick the right one now rather than wondering later why the rows are landing somewhere you are not looking.

3. Step 3

   Set Mapping Column Mode to manual

   The Mapping Column Mode dropdown has three options: Map Automatically, which fills the row on its own as long as the keys in the upstream JSON match the Sheets headers exactly; Map Each Column Manually, where you write an expression into each box yourself; and Nothing. When you are not certain the names line up, go manual. In automatic mode a single key with a different name leaves that column silently empty.

4. Step 4

   Fill in an expression per column

   n8n lists every header in the Sheet — say Name, Email and Signed up at — with an input box for each. You drop an expression into each box:

   {{ $json.name }}

   {{ $json.email }}

   {{ $now }}

Update, and the one field that decides everything

The Update operation hinges on Column to Match On, where you choose which column acts as the key for finding the row. Take a customer status sheet keyed on Email. Upstream sends an object with two fields:

The Sheets node looks for the row whose Email column holds that address, and sets its status column to "paid". If no row matches, nothing happens — and, importantly, nothing errors either.

Files in, files out, and a field that refuses names

The Drive node stores files and fetches them: filing a customer upload, putting a daily backup CSV in the cloud, downloading an attachment so the next node can use it.

The credential is Google OAuth2, the same as Gmail. If you already made a Gmail credential, the Drive node lets you pick that same one without authorizing again.

Upload needs three things

The Parent field has three modes and no fourth

From n8n v1 on, the Drive and Folder fields on the Google Drive node are both Resource Locator fields: one field, three modes you switch between.

All three get you to the same folder. What you cannot type is the folder's name — a name will not do, and anything that is not an ID, a URL or a pick from the list is rejected. That feels unhelpful until you think about a courier: “the blue house on the corner” is how a person finds a place, and a postcode is how a system finds it. Two folders can both be called Invoices. Only one has that ID.

Download needs only a File ID

The file ID usually arrives from the node before it — a Drive Search, or a trigger. You can also read it off a share link yourself: in a link of the shape drive.google.com/file/d/1xxx/view, the string in the middle is the file ID. The download hands binary downstream, ready for a Slack node to attach or a Gmail node to send.

One form entry, four services, one line

Here is the scenario, and it is a real one. A customer fills in a Google Form and uploads a file with it. You want to send them a thank-you email automatically, attach the file they uploaded, and tell the sales channel on Slack that a new customer has arrived.

flowchart LR
  A["Google Sheets Trigger
Row Added"] --> B["Google Drive
File → Download"]
  B --> C["Gmail
Message → Send"]
  C --> D["Slack
Message → Send"]
  A -.->|"Name, Email, Subject"| C
  A -.->|"Name, Email, Subject"| D
  B -.->|"binary in data"| C

1. Step 1

   Trigger on a new row

   Drop in a Google Sheets Trigger. Most Google Forms write their responses into a Sheet automatically, so a new response is a new row. Set Trigger On to Row Added, and use the Resource Locator to point Document and Sheet at the Sheet holding the form responses. Every Minute is fine for Poll Times.

2. Step 2

   Fetch the file the customer uploaded

   If the form has a file-upload question, that row holds a share link to a Drive file rather than the file itself. Add a Google Drive → File → Download node and pull the file ID out of the URL from the previous step:

   {{ $json["Attachment"].split("id=")[1] }}

   When this step finishes it emits binary, which everything downstream can use as an attachment.

3. Step 3

   Email the person who filled in the form

   Add a Gmail → Message → Send node. In To, refer back to the Email column of the form:

   {{ $('Google Sheets Trigger').item.json["Email"] }}

   In Subject, put:

   Thank you for your submission - Hello {{ $('Google Sheets Trigger').item.json["Name"] }}

   Write your thank-you text into Message. Then expand Options → Attachments and put data in Property Name (Binary) — that is what sends the file downloaded in step 2 along with the email.

4. Step 4

   Tell the sales channel

   Add a Slack → Message → Send node. Pick #new-forms as the Channel, or better, its channel ID. Build the Text with an expression:

   *New form submission!*\nName: {{ $('Google Sheets Trigger').item.json["Name"] }}\nEmail: {{ $('Google Sheets Trigger').item.json["Email"] }}\nSubject: {{ $('Google Sheets Trigger').item.json["Subject"] }}\nThank-you email sent automatically :white_check_mark:
5. Step 5

   Save, then test it once by hand

   Save with Ctrl + S at the top right. Go and fill in the Google Form yourself with some fake data, come back to n8n and press Execute Workflow. Once all four nodes have turned green with a check, look in the mailbox to see whether the email arrived, and in Slack to see whether the notification landed. Green nodes are a claim, not a confirmation.

6. Step 6

   Turn on the Active toggle

   Once the test is clean, flip Active at the top right. From that moment, every form submission runs this workflow without you.

The same node, several accounts

On the Credentials page in the left-hand menu you can create several credentials of the same kind — a Slack personal workspace, a Slack company workspace, a Slack customer A workspace. The Credential dropdown on each Slack node then picks which one that node uses.

That means one workflow can hold two Slack nodes talking to different workspaces: internal notices to the company workspace, customer replies to the customer's. Gmail, Sheets and Drive work the same way. Name them so the dropdown is readable — Slack - Personal and Slack - Company beats two entries both called Slack. Naming, sharing and revoking credentials properly is Part 10.

Ten symptoms, and where each one actually lives

Almost everything that goes wrong with these four nodes is one of ten things. Place the symptom before you start changing settings.

flowchart TD
  A["Every node went green,
but nothing arrived"] --> B{"Which node was the
last real action"}
  B -->|"Slack"| C{"Did you give it a channel name
or a channel ID"}
  C -->|"name"| C1["Switch to the channel ID, and check
the bot has been added to that channel"]
  C -->|"ID"| C2["Read the node output for
invalid_auth or not_authed"]
  B -->|"Gmail"| D["Insufficient Permission means the grant
is missing a scope. Delete the credential
and authorize again, ticking every box"]
  B -->|"Sheets"| E{"Append, or Update"}
  E -->|"Append"| E1["Compare the header row
character for character"]
  E -->|"Update"| E2["Column to Match On found nothing.
Usually a number against a string"]
  B -->|"Drive"| F["Check the Parent mode, and whether
Include Shared Drives is ticked"]

Where to go from here