n8n Workflow Best Practices: สร้าง Automation ที่มีคุณภาพ

Workflows ที่ดีไม่ได้แค่ทำงานได้ แต่ต้องอ่านง่าย maintain ง่าย และเชื่อถือได้ เรียนรู้ best practices จากประสบการณ์จริง

Naming Conventions

Workflow Names

Pattern: [Category] - [Action] - [Target]

✅ ดี:
- "Sales - Sync CRM to Database - Daily"
- "Marketing - Send Newsletter - Weekly"
- "Support - Create Ticket from Email"
- "Finance - Generate Invoice - On Order"

❌ ไม่ดี:
- "Workflow 1"
- "test"
- "new workflow"
- "copy of sync"

Node Names

Pattern: [Action] [What]

✅ ดี:
- "Get Orders from API"
- "Filter Active Customers"
- "Send Slack Alert"
- "Insert to Database"

❌ ไม่ดี:
- "HTTP Request"
- "HTTP Request1"
- "Set"
- "Code"

Variable Names

✅ ดี (ใน Code Node):
const customerEmail = $json.email;
const orderTotal = $json.total;
const isVipCustomer = $json.total > 10000;

❌ ไม่ดี:
const x = $json.email;
const temp = $json.total;
const flag = $json.total > 10000;

Workflow Organization

Folder Structure

📁 n8n Workflows
├── 📁 Sales
│   ├── CRM Sync
│   ├── Lead Scoring
│   └── Deal Notifications
├── 📁 Marketing
│   ├── Newsletter
│   ├── Social Media
│   └── Campaign Tracking
├── 📁 Support
│   ├── Ticket Creation
│   ├── SLA Monitoring
│   └── Customer Feedback
├── 📁 Finance
│   ├── Invoice Generation
│   ├── Payment Processing
│   └── Reports
└── 📁 Internal
    ├── Error Handlers
    ├── Utilities
    └── Templates

Tags

ใช้ tags เพื่อจัดกลุ่ม:

By Status:
- production
- staging
- development
- deprecated

By Frequency:
- realtime
- hourly
- daily
- weekly

By Priority:
- critical
- high
- normal
- low

Workflow Design

Keep It Simple

❌ ไม่ดี: Workflow ใหญ่ทำทุกอย่าง
→ ยากต่อการ debug
→ ยากต่อการ maintain
→ Single point of failure

✅ ดี: แยกเป็น workflows ย่อย
Main Workflow → Sub-workflow 1
             → Sub-workflow 2
             → Sub-workflow 3

Benefits:
- Reusable components
- Easier testing
- Better error isolation

Use Sticky Notes

ใส่ Sticky Notes อธิบาย:
- Purpose ของ section
- Business logic ที่สำคัญ
- ข้อควรระวัง
- TODO items

Group Related Nodes

จัดกลุ่ม nodes ที่เกี่ยวข้อง:

[Input Section]
  Trigger → Validate → Parse

[Processing Section]
  Transform → Enrich → Filter

[Output Section]
  Save → Notify → Log

Error Handling

Always Handle Errors

Pattern ที่ดี:

1. Main Process
   Continue on Fail: true

2. IF - Check for Error
   Condition: {{ $json.error !== undefined }}

3. Error Path:
   - Log error details
   - Send alert
   - Save to error queue

4. Success Path:
   - Continue processing

Error Workflow

สร้าง dedicated error handler:

Workflow: Global Error Handler

1. Error Trigger
2. Format error message
3. Send to monitoring (Slack/Email/PagerDuty)
4. Log to database
5. Update dashboard

Logging

Log สิ่งสำคัญ:
- Workflow start/end
- Data counts
- Processing time
- Errors with context
- Business metrics

Code Node Example:
console.log(JSON.stringify({
  timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
  workflow: $workflow.name,
  step: 'data_processing',
  itemCount: $input.all().length,
  executionId: $execution.id
}));

Testing

Test Environments

แยก environments:

Development:
- ใช้ test credentials
- Test data only
- Safe to experiment

Staging:
- Production-like setup
- Subset of real data
- Final validation

Production:
- Real credentials
- Real data
- Monitoring enabled

Test Cases

สร้าง test workflows:

Test: Happy Path
- Normal input → Expected output

Test: Edge Cases
- Empty data
- Large data sets
- Special characters
- Missing fields

Test: Error Cases
- Invalid input
- API failures
- Timeout scenarios

Manual Testing Checklist

Before Production:
☐ Test with sample data
☐ Test with edge cases
☐ Test error scenarios
☐ Verify all credentials
☐ Check output format
☐ Review logs
☐ Test performance with real volume

Performance

Batch Processing

❌ ไม่ดี: Process ทีละ item
→ ช้า, เปลือง resources

✅ ดี: Process เป็น batches
Split In Batches:
  Batch Size: 100
  → Process 100 items at a time
  → Wait between batches (avoid rate limits)

Caching

Cache ข้อมูลที่ไม่ค่อยเปลี่ยน:

1. Check cache
2. IF cache exists and fresh
   → Use cached data
3. ELSE
   → Fetch new data
   → Update cache

Parallel Processing

รัน independent operations พร้อมกัน:

Split workflow:
├── Path A: API Call 1
├── Path B: API Call 2
└── Path C: API Call 3
    ↓
    Merge results

Security

Credentials

☐ ใช้ n8n credentials (ไม่ hardcode)
☐ Rotate credentials regularly
☐ Use least privilege
☐ Separate dev/prod credentials

Data Protection

☐ ไม่ log sensitive data
☐ Encrypt data at rest
☐ Use HTTPS for all connections
☐ Validate input data
☐ Sanitize output

Access Control

☐ Restrict workflow access
☐ Review sharing settings
☐ Audit changes
☐ Use SSO if available

Documentation

Workflow Description

ใส่ใน workflow description:

## Purpose
อธิบายว่า workflow นี้ทำอะไร

## Trigger
- Schedule: Daily at 9 AM
- หรือ Webhook: /api/process

## Dependencies
- API: CRM API v2
- Database: PostgreSQL (customers)
- Service: Email (SendGrid)

## Owner
- Team: Sales Operations
- Contact: sales-ops@company.com

## Change Log
- 2024-01-15: Initial version
- 2024-02-01: Added error handling

README per Workflow

# Sales CRM Sync Workflow

## Overview
Syncs customer data from CRM to local database every hour.

## Prerequisites
- CRM API credentials
- Database access
- Slack webhook for alerts

## Configuration
1. Set CRM_API_KEY in credentials
2. Configure database connection
3. Set Slack channel

## Monitoring
- Check execution history for failures
- Alert channel: #sales-alerts

## Troubleshooting
- If sync fails, check CRM rate limits
- Verify database connectivity

Monitoring & Alerting

Health Checks

Workflow: System Health Check

Schedule: Every 5 minutes

Checks:
1. Test API connectivity
2. Test database connection
3. Check queue size
4. Verify recent executions succeeded

IF any check fails:
→ Send alert

Dashboards

Track metrics:
- Executions per day
- Success rate
- Average execution time
- Error count by type
- Data processed volume

Alerting Rules

Alert on:
- Workflow failure (immediate)
- Success rate < 95% (15 min)
- Execution time > 5x normal
- No executions in expected window

Version Control

Export Workflows

# Export all workflows
n8n export:workflow --all --output=workflows/

# Export specific workflow
n8n export:workflow --id=123 --output=workflow-123.json

Git Integration

Repository structure:
workflows/
├── production/
│   ├── sales-sync.json
│   └── marketing-email.json
├── staging/
└── development/

Use CI/CD to deploy to n8n

Checklist

Before Production

☐ Meaningful workflow name
☐ All nodes named properly
☐ Error handling implemented
☐ Credentials configured (not hardcoded)
☐ Logging added
☐ Performance tested
☐ Documentation complete
☐ Alerts configured
☐ Approved by reviewer

Regular Maintenance

☐ Review error logs weekly
☐ Update deprecated nodes
☐ Rotate credentials quarterly
☐ Review unused workflows
☐ Update documentation
☐ Performance review

สรุป

Best Practices Categories:

1. Naming: Clear, consistent conventions
2. Organization: Folders, tags, grouping
3. Design: Simple, modular, documented
4. Error Handling: Always plan for failures
5. Testing: Multiple environments, test cases
6. Performance: Batch, cache, parallelize
7. Security: Credentials, encryption, access
8. Documentation: Description, README, changelog
9. Monitoring: Health checks, dashboards, alerts
10. Version Control: Export, git, CI/CD

Remember: Build workflows like production software:

• Plan for failure
• Document everything
• Test thoroughly
• Monitor continuously

---

อ่านเพิ่มเติม:

• n8n Basic Workflows
• n8n Error Handling
• n8n Installation Guide