Difference between UI and Business Processes
When building applications in Autorun.ai, it’s important to separate UI Processes from Business Processes. Both are essential, but they serve very different purposes and run in completely different parts of the system.
UI Processes
UI Processes are tied directly to the visual components in your application. They run in the browser, inside pages, tables, forms, and buttons.
UI processes are responsible for:
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Handling immediate actions triggered by the user
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Updating what the user sees
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Managing component-level state
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Running code based on UI events
UI processes are triggered by UI events such as:
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onClick (button pressed)
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onLoad (page loaded)
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onChange (field changed)
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onSave (form saved)
Typical UI Process examples:
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Loading data when a page opens
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Showing or hiding components conditionally
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Prefilling form fields
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Running client-side validation before submission
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Executing lightweight logic directly on the page
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Calling a business process via a button
Think of UI Processes as the frontend logic: they react to what the user does and update the interface accordingly.
Business Processes
Business Processes run on the server, independent of the UI. They are tied to data events and background automation, not user interactions.
Business Processes are triggered by backend events such as:
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Before Create / After Create
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Before Update / After Update
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Before Delete / After Delete
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Scheduled (CRON) triggers
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API calls / webhooks
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Button-triggered back-end actions
Business processes are responsible for:
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Complex logic and validations
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Creating or updating related records
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Performing calculations
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Integrating with external APIs
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Enforcing business rules
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Running background workflows
Typical Business Process examples:
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When a new Offer is created → send a notification or email to users
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When a new Project is created → automatically generate Tasks
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Every night at 02:00 → run a cleanup or reporting job
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Before saving a record → validate required fields
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After deleting a record → update related entities or remove dependencies
Summary
UI Processes run on the frontend and are tied to visible components such as pages, tables, forms, and buttons. Business Processes run on the backend and handle system logic that is independent of the user interface.