Adalo Integrations & Tools
An "integration" in Adalo is any point where your app exchanges something with a service you do not host inside Adalo. There are only a handful of mechanisms, and picking the wrong one is the most common reason an integration turns into a week of work. This page explains each one and where Webnux Tools can help.
How Adalo integrations work
Adalo apps are built from collections, screens and actions. Anything outside that model reaches the app through one of four routes, each with different capabilities and limits.
- External collections, read and write records from a REST API as if they were an Adalo collection.
- Custom actions, a single HTTP request fired by a button or screen action.
- Webhooks, outbound notifications to another service, usually via a custom action.
- WebView components, a hosted web page embedded inside an Adalo screen.
External APIs
A custom action is the right choice for one-off requests: send an email, create a payment, notify a channel. It runs once, returns a response you can use in the next action, and does not keep state.
An external collection is the right choice when users need to browse, filter or paginate remote records. Adalo expects a flat JSON array, consistent keys, and a reliable total count for pagination, most failures come from a response shape Adalo cannot read.
External data
When data has to be shared between apps, is too large for Adalo collections, or already lives in another system, keeping it outside Adalo and reading it through an external collection is usually cleaner than importing it.
External Collections gives you a hosted database and an API that already returns the shape Adalo reads, so you do not build and host that layer yourself.
WebViews
A WebView renders a URL inside a screen. That is how Adalo apps get interfaces Adalo does not draw natively, a chat window, a multi-file uploader, a custom chart. You pass context to the page through URL parameters, and the page handles the rest.
AI integrations
AI in an Adalo app is either a request (call a model through a custom action and store the response) or an interface (embed a hosted chat page in a WebView). The first suits one-shot generation; the second suits conversations, because someone has to hold the message history and stream the reply.
How Webnux Tools helps
Each tool covers one of these routes: External Collections for remote data, AI Chatbots for a hosted chat interface, Multi Image Picker for uploads that Adalo cannot handle natively. The guides cover the method when no tool is needed.
Related tools
Questions
Can I connect any API to Adalo?
Most REST APIs, yes, through a custom action for single requests, or an external collection for browsable data. The API needs to accept the authentication method you can configure in Adalo, usually a header.
Why does my external collection show no properties?
Adalo reads properties from the first object of a flat JSON array. Wrapped responses such as { "data": [...] } or nested objects prevent detection.
Can I embed tools in an Adalo app?
Yes. Hosted Webnux Tools tools give you a URL you paste into an Adalo WebView component.