Integrating with a Third-party System using REST APIs

Serviceaide Automation supports integration with any third-party applications that support REST APIs. Workflow Developers can configure the APIs and connect to the target system to retrieve data or perform an action. These integrations can be added in sequence as steps to design a business process workflow. Here we configure the system details, authentication credentials, and mechanism for the connection.

To integrate with a third-party system, you should do the following:

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Create App 

'Connected Apps' represent the third-party applications that are the endpoints in a workflow. The integrations are defined at the tenant level with connectivity and authentication mechanism details, that are used by the Automation workflow to connect to the target system. A Workflow developer can create REST operations that are supported by the target applications.

To create an application, follow the below steps:

1. Navigate to Integrations in the left pane.

2. The Connected Apps page appears as shown below. All the existing connectors are available here. These are available throughout the tenant and can be used in various workflows.

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3. To create a new integration, click on Create App. The Create App page appears as shown below.

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4. Enter the App Name. This represents the target system where you want to execute the task.

5. Select the Integration Type based on the type of integration supported by the target system. For REST connectors, select REST Integration type.

6. Add an App Icon.

7. Add a Description.

8. Click Create to complete the App creation.

The created app is now available in the Connected Apps list. The next step is to create the Instance.

Create Instance

An instance represents the system environment you want to connect to, for example, Trial, Production, Staging etc. The App Instance helps to set the target environment for the execution of the web service operations. Here, you can define the Request configurations such as the Global Path parameter, Global Request Header, Global Query parameter, and authentication details required for connecting to the target system. The task is executed on the instance is selected in the Workflow. The configurations at the instance are global and can be overridden at the Operations level.

To create an instance, follow the below steps:

1. On the Integrations page, select the required Application and click on Create Instance as shown below.

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   The Create Instance page appears.

2. Enter the instance Name. The next step is to define the credentials and connection details for this instance.

3. In the Instance Configuration section, Enter the base URL to the target system environment where the task should be executed.

4. The Authorization Type is used to log in and perform the task. The Following are the supported authorizations types:

   1. No Auth: Use this option, if you do not need any authentication to log in to the third-party systems.

   2. Basic Auth: Use this option if the target system needs login credentials to authenticate and authorize the user. ‘Basic Auth’ consists of the following fields:

      1. Username: Specify the Username used to log in to the third-party system.

      2. Password: Specify the password used to authenticate access to the third-party system.

   3. Bearer Token: This is the unique authentication token required for external applications to communicate with Luma Automation. Enter the unique authentication Token required for external applications to communicate with the Automation Workflow.

5. Global Path Parameter: The path parameter is part of a path segment that occurs after its name. Path parameters offer a unique opportunity to dynamically replace the values and pass them in the URL. Example, http://myserver.com/some-path/{parameter1}/path-continued/{parameter2}.

   1. Enter the External Field and the Value.

6. Global Query Parameter: The query parameters are sometimes referred to as optional parameters. The query parameters are separated from the hierarchical parameters by the question mark. Query parameters appear in the URL after the question mark (?) after the resource name. Example, https://myserver.com/resource-name?param1=value1&param2=value2. 

   1. Enter the External Field and the Value.

7. Global Headers: Headers are mostly classified as Request Headers. You will have to set the request headers when you are sending the request.

   1. Enter the External Field and the Value.
      The following sample headers are encountered the most.

      • Authorization: Includes credentials containing the authentication information of the client for the resource being requested. 

      • Accept-Charset: This is a header that is set with the request and tells the server which character sets are acceptable by the client. 

      • Content-Type: Indicates the media type (text/HTML or text/JSON, XML/custom) of the response sent to the client by the server, this will help the client in processing the response body correctly.

8. Click Create to create the Instance.

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Operations

Operations are the actions, performed on the target system. These represent the functions that are exposed by the Target system’s API. As a Workflow designer, you can configure operations that can be added to the workflows to perform a specific task in the target environment.

There are two ways to create REST Operations for your Workflow:

1. Global Operations- Operations created at the tenant level and can be used in any workflow.

2. Workflow specific Operations- Operations created during workflow designing