How to Integrate Retool with Webex by Cisco

Navigate to Webex's developer portal at https://developer.webex.com/my-apps. Click Create a New App. On the app type selection screen, choose Bot — this is the simplest authentication method for server-side Retool integrations and provides a non-expiring token (unlike personal access tokens which expire in 12 hours). Fill in the Bot details: - Bot Name: e.g., 'Retool Dashboard Bot' - Bot Username: choose a unique username like 'retool-dashboard@webex.bot' - Icon: upload or select a default icon - Description: 'Internal Retool dashboard integration' Click Add Bot. On the confirmation page, Webex displays your Bot's Access Token — a long string starting with letters and numbers. Copy this immediately and store it securely. This token does not expire unless regenerated (unlike OAuth user tokens which expire hourly). Critical: your Bot can only access Webex Spaces (rooms) that it is explicitly added to. To add the Bot to a Space, go to Webex (app or web), open the Space, click on the Space settings or participants area, and invite the Bot using its email address (e.g., retool-dashboard@webex.bot). The Bot will then appear as a member of that Space and can send/receive messages there. For dashboards that need to access all Spaces in an organization (IT admin use case), you can also use a Webex Integration with OAuth 2.0 admin scopes — check Webex's developer documentation for compliance and admin scopes if full org-wide access is required.

In Retool, navigate to Settings (gear icon) → Configuration Variables. Click Add Variable. Name it WEBEX_BOT_TOKEN, paste your Webex Bot Access Token as the value, check the 'Secret' checkbox to prevent it from being visible to non-admin Retool users, and click Save. Now navigate to the Resources tab in the Retool sidebar. Click Add Resource. In the resource type search, type 'REST' and select REST API. Configure: - Name: 'Webex API' - Base URL: https://webexapis.com/v1 In the Authentication section, select 'Bearer Token' from the dropdown. In the Token field, enter: {{ retoolContext.configVars.WEBEX_BOT_TOKEN }} In the Headers section, add: - Content-Type: application/json - Accept: application/json Click Save Changes. Immediately test the resource by creating a quick query: Method GET, Path /people/me — this returns your Bot's own profile and confirms authentication is working correctly. The response should include your Bot's displayName, emails, and orgId. If you need OAuth 2.0 integration instead of a Bot token (for user-context access), select 'OAuth 2.0' in the Authentication dropdown and configure Webex's OAuth endpoints: Authorization URL (https://webexapis.com/v1/authorize), Token URL (https://webexapis.com/v1/access_token), with your Integration's Client ID and Client Secret from the developer portal.

Open or create a Retool app. In the Code panel, click + to add a new query. Select the Webex API resource from the Resource dropdown. Configure: - Method: GET - Path: /rooms - Query Parameters: - max: {{ pagination.pageSize || 50 }} - type: {{ roomTypeFilter.value || '' }} — filter by 'direct' or 'group' (leave empty for all) - sortBy: 'lastactivity' — sort by most recently active Will return Spaces the Bot is a member of. For admin-scoped integrations, add 'orgPublic: true' to get organization-wide Spaces. In the Advanced tab, add a JavaScript transformer to normalize the Webex response. Webex returns results inside an 'items' array: Set the query to run automatically on page load and name it 'roomsQuery'. Drag a Table component onto the canvas. Set Data to {{ roomsQuery.data }}. Configure columns: title (Space name), type, memberCount, lastActivity (formatted as relative time or locale date), created, and isLocked. Add row click handling to load the Space's members and messages when selected.

1// Transformer to normalize Webex rooms API response
2const items = data.items || [];
3return items.map(room => ({
4  id: room.id,
5  title: room.title || '(Direct Message)',
6  type: room.type || 'group',
7  memberCount: room.memberCount || 0,
8  isLocked: room.isLocked || false,
9  lastActivity: room.lastActivity
10    ? new Date(room.lastActivity).toLocaleString()
11    : 'No activity',
12  lastActivityRaw: room.lastActivity || null,
13  created: room.created ? new Date(room.created).toLocaleDateString() : 'N/A',
14  teamId: room.teamId || null,
15  isTeamRoom: !!room.teamId,
16  // Calculate days since last activity
17  daysSinceActivity: room.lastActivity
18    ? Math.floor((new Date() - new Date(room.lastActivity)) / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24))
19    : 999
20}));

To build a Space management panel, create queries for listing memberships and sending messages to the Space selected in the rooms table. For memberships, create a new query: - Method: GET - Path: /memberships - Query Parameters: roomId: {{ roomsTable.selectedRow.id }} - Run mode: Automatic when inputs change; Only run when inputs have valid values Add a transformer that normalizes the memberships response (items array) into flat objects with personDisplayName, personEmail, isModerator, and isMonitor fields. For sending a message to the selected Space, create a POST query: - Method: POST - Path: /messages - Body type: JSON - Body: { "roomId": "{{ roomsTable.selectedRow.id }}", "text": "{{ messageInput.value }}" } - Trigger: Manual Build the UI: drag a second Table for members and set Data to {{ membershipsQuery.data }}. Below it, add a TextArea component for composing a message (named 'messageInput') and a 'Send Message' button that triggers the POST messages query. Wire the Success event handler to show a notification and clear the messageInput value. For adding a new member, create a POST /memberships query with body { "roomId": roomsTable.selectedRow.id, "personEmail": addEmailInput.value }. For removing a member, create a DELETE /memberships/{membership.id} query and wire it to a Remove button in the memberships table.

1// Transformer for Webex memberships response
2const items = data.items || [];
3return items.map(m => ({
4  id: m.id,
5  personId: m.personId,
6  displayName: m.personDisplayName || 'Unknown',
7  email: m.personEmail || 'N/A',
8  isModerator: m.isModerator || false,
9  isMonitor: m.isMonitor || false,
10  joined: m.created ? new Date(m.created).toLocaleDateString() : 'N/A'
11}));

For server-side, scheduled notifications to Webex Spaces — such as daily operational summaries or threshold-based alerts — use Retool Workflows rather than app-level queries. Navigate to the Workflows section in Retool's home page sidebar. Click New Workflow. Click Add Trigger and choose either Schedule (for periodic alerts) or Webhook (for event-triggered notifications from external systems). For a scheduled daily summary: - Add a Schedule trigger set to weekdays at 9:00 AM - Add a Resource Query block using your internal database resource (PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.) - Write a SQL query that fetches the previous day's key metrics (e.g., error count, order volume, user signups) - Add a Code block that formats the metrics into a Webex message string - Add a final Resource Query block using your Webex API resource, Method POST, Path /messages, Body type JSON In the message body, reference the previous blocks' data using the block name syntax: { 'roomId': 'YOUR_SPACE_ID_HERE', 'markdown': '**Daily Summary** — ' + block2.output.summary }. Hardcode the target Space ID (from the rooms query in step 3) into the Workflow. Click Publish Release to activate the Workflow. The schedule will fire automatically and post the daily summary to your Webex Space. Monitor execution in the Runs tab. For complex multi-system notification pipelines combining Webex with databases, CRMs, and monitoring tools, RapidDev's team can help architect and build your Retool Workflow solution.

1// Code block: format database metrics for Webex message
2const metrics = block1.data[0]; // first row from DB query
3return {
4  summary: [
5    `**Daily Ops Summary — ${new Date().toLocaleDateString()}**`,
6    `📊 New users: **${metrics.new_users || 0}**`,
7    `💰 Revenue: **$${(metrics.revenue || 0).toFixed(2)}**`,
8    `⚠️ Errors: **${metrics.error_count || 0}**`,
9    `🎯 SLA compliance: **${metrics.sla_percent || 100}%**`
10  ].join('\n')
11};