1n8n Automation Use Cases
2├── Productivity & Office
3│   ├── Auto-save Gmail attachments to Drive
4│   ├── Sync calendar events to Notion
5│   └── Daily digest email from multiple sources
6├── Marketing & Sales
7│   ├── Auto-nurture leads from forms
8│   ├── Post to multiple social platforms
9│   └── Track competitor prices
10├── Data & Analytics
11│   ├── Scrape websites to Google Sheets
12│   ├── Daily reports from databases
13│   └── Data sync between apps
14└── AI Integration
15    ├── Auto-reply emails with GPT-4
16    ├── Content generation pipelines
17    └── AI-powered chatbots

1Workflow = Nodes + Connections + Data Flow
2 
3Trigger → Action 1 → Action 2 → ... → Final Action

1// Schedule Trigger - Chạy định kỳ
2- Cron: "0 9 * * 1-5"  // 9am weekdays
3- Interval: Every 1 hour
4
5// Webhook Trigger - HTTP endpoint
6- POST https://n8n.domain.com/webhook/abc123
7- Nhận data từ forms, APIs, apps
8
9// Manual Trigger - Chạy thủ công
10- Test workflows
11- One-time executions

1// Google Sheets - Read/write spreadsheets
2- Get rows, update cells
3- Append new data
4
5// Database - SQL operations
6- MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB
7- SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE
8
9// HTTP Request - Call any API
10- GET, POST, PUT, DELETE
11- Authentication: API key, OAuth

1// IF - Conditional branching
2if ({{ $json.amount > 1000 }}) {
3  → High value path
4} else {
5  → Low value path
6}
7
8// Switch - Multiple conditions
9switch ({{ $json.category }}) {
10  case "urgent": → Path A
11  case "normal": → Path B
12  default: → Path C
13}
14
15// Merge - Combine data streams

1Gmail Trigger (new emails with label "Important")
2→ Extract data (sender, subject, date, body)
3→ Google Sheets (append row)
4→ Gmail (mark as read)

1// Gmail Trigger Node settings
2Label: "Important"
3Poll Interval: Every 5 minutes
4Simple: false  // Get full email data

1{
2  "sender": "={{ $json.from.text }}",
3  "subject": "={{ $json.subject }}",
4  "date": "={{ $json.date }}",
5  "preview": "={{ $json.textPlain.slice(0, 200) }}",
6  "url": "={{ $json.webLink }}"
7}

1Operation: Append
2Spreadsheet: "Email Tracker"
3Sheet: "Important Emails"
4Columns: sender, subject, date, preview, url

1Operation: Update
2Message ID: "={{ $node['Gmail Trigger'].json.id }}"
3Label: Remove "UNREAD"

1// Current node data
2{{ $json.fieldName }}
3
4// Previous node data
5{{ $node["Node Name"].json.field }}
6
7// All items
8{{ $items }}
9
10// Item index
11{{ $itemIndex }}

1// String manipulation
2{{ $json.email.toLowerCase() }}
3{{ $json.name.split(' ')[0] }}  // First name
4
5// Math
6{{ $json.price * 1.1 }}  // +10% tax
7
8// Date
9{{ new Date($json.timestamp).toLocaleDateString() }}
10
11// Conditional
12{{ $json.status === "active" ? "✅" : "❌" }}

1// Example: Calculate total from items
2let total = 0;
3
4for (const item of $input.all()) {
5  total += item.json.amount;
6}
7
8return {
9  totalAmount: total,
10  itemCount: $input.all().length,
11  avgAmount: total / $input.all().length
12};

1Schedule Trigger (8am daily)
2├── Branch 1: Gmail → Count unread
3├── Branch 2: Google Calendar → List events
4├── Branch 3: Todoist → Get tasks
5├── Branch 4: GitHub → Count commits
6└── Branch 5: OpenWeather → Get forecast
7    ↓
8Merge all branches
9    ↓
10Format HTML email
11    ↓
12Send via Gmail

1Cron: "0 8 * * *"  // 8am daily
2Timezone: "Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh"

1// Gmail Node
2Operation: Search
3Search: "is:unread"
4Simple: true
5
6// Code Node
7return {
8  unreadCount: $input.all().length
9};

1// Google Calendar Node
2Operation: Get Many
3Calendar: primary
4Time Min: {{ $today }}
5Time Max: {{ $today + 1d }}
6Max Results: 10
7
8// Code Node - Format events
9const events = $input.all().map(item => ({
10  time: new Date(item.json.start.dateTime).toLocaleTimeString('vi-VN', {hour: '2-digit', minute: '2-digit'}),
11  title: item.json.summary
12}));
13
14return { todayEvents: events };

1// Todoist Node
2Operation: Get All
3Filter: "today | overdue"
4
5// Count & categorize
6const tasks = $input.all();
7return {
8  tasksToday: tasks.filter(t => t.json.due.string === "today").length,
9  tasksOverdue: tasks.filter(t => t.json.is_recurring === false && new Date(t.json.due.date) < new Date()).length
10};

1// HTTP Request Node
2Method: GET
3URL: https://api.github.com/users/YOUR_USERNAME/events
4Authentication: Bearer Token
5
6// Code Node - Count commits yesterday
7const yesterday = new Date();
8yesterday.setDate(yesterday.getDate() - 1);
9const yesterdayStr = yesterday.toISOString().split('T')[0];
10
11const commits = $input.all().filter(event => 
12  event.json.type === "PushEvent" && 
13  event.json.created_at.startsWith(yesterdayStr)
14);
15
16return { commitsYesterday: commits.length };

1// OpenWeather Node
2Operation: Current Weather
3Location: "Ho Chi Minh City"
4
5return {
6  temp: Math.round($json.main.temp),
7  description: $json.weather[0].description,
8  humidity: $json.main.humidity
9};

1// Merge Node - Wait for all branches
2
3// Code Node - Create HTML email
4const data = $input.all().reduce((acc, item) => ({...acc, ...item.json}), {});
5
6const html = `
7<!DOCTYPE html>
8<html>
9<head>
10  <style>
11    body { font-family: Arial; line-height: 1.6; }
12    .card { background: #f5f5f5; padding: 15px; margin: 10px 0; border-radius: 8px; }
13    .number { font-size: 32px; font-weight: bold; color: #0066cc; }
14  </style>
15</head>
16<body>
17  <h1>�� Daily Dashboard - ${new Date().toLocaleDateString('vi-VN')}</h1>
18  
19  <div class="card">
20    <h3>�� Email</h3>
21    <div class="number">${data.unreadCount}</div>
22    <p>Unread messages</p>
23  </div>
24  
25  <div class="card">
26    <h3>�� Calendar Today</h3>
27    ${data.todayEvents.map(e => `<p>🕐 ${e.time} - ${e.title}</p>`).join('')}
28  </div>
29  
30  <div class="card">
31    <h3>✅ Tasks</h3>
32    <p>${data.tasksToday} due today | ${data.tasksOverdue} overdue</p>
33  </div>
34  
35  <div class="card">
36    <h3>�� GitHub</h3>
37    <p>${data.commitsYesterday} commits yesterday</p>
38  </div>
39  
40  <div class="card">
41    <h3>��️ Weather</h3>
42    <div class="number">${data.temp}°C</div>
43    <p>${data.description}</p>
44  </div>
45</body>
46</html>
47`;
48
49return { html };

1// Gmail Node
2Operation: Send
3To: your-email@gmail.com
4Subject: "Daily Dashboard - {{ new Date().toLocaleDateString('vi-VN') }}"
5Email Type: HTML
6Body: {{ $json.html }}

1// ✅ DO
2- Descriptive node names: "Filter high-value customers"
3- Add Sticky Notes for documentation
4- Group related workflows in folders
5- Use consistent naming conventions
6
7// ❌ DON'T
8- Generic names: "HTTP Request 1", "IF 2"
9- No documentation
10- All workflows in root
11- Inconsistent styles

1// Error Trigger Node
2Connected to: Any node that might fail
3
4// Error handling workflow
5Error Trigger
6→ Code Node (log error details)
7→ Send Telegram alert
8→ Write to error log file

11. Manual Trigger → Test with sample data
22. Limit: 1 → Process only 1 item during testing
33. Pin Data → Fix input data for consistent testing
44. Execution History → Review past runs

1# Sign up at n8n.cloud
2# Pricing: $20/month
3# Pros: No setup, automatic updates
4# Cons: Cost, less control

1version: '3'
2 
3services:
4  n8n:
5    image: n8nio/n8n
6    restart: always
7    ports:
8      - "5678:5678"
9    environment:
10      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
11      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=admin
12      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=your-password
13      - N8N_HOST=your-domain.com
14      - N8N_PROTOCOL=https
15      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://your-domain.com/
16    volumes:
17      - ~/.n8n:/home/node/.n8n

1docker-compose up -d

1# 1-click deploy
2# Free $5 credit monthly
3# Auto-scale
4# Perfect for personal use