Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Background
• Prerequisites
• Business scenario
• Steps
  • Creating free trial Account in APPSeCONNECT
  • Login to APPSeCONNECT for the first time
  • Using Apps
    • Follow the steps to add your app
    • To Add your own REST app
  • Assigning Credentials in the Cloud Apps
  • Assigning Credentials
  • Creating Entities
  • Creating Cloud connections
  • Assigning App credentials
  • Creating Workflow
  • Mapping and transformation
  • Creating and deploying to Cloud Environment
• Putting all together.
• Things to remember.
• Conclusion.
• References

Introduction

Integrating different application can get complex at times and if only one generic adapter is used to integrate different applications of different authorization, the complexity can increase exponentially. This article will guide a user from the very beginning regarding integrating different apps of different authorization(namely Basic and OAuth 2.0) using a generic adapter.

Background

As a business user, it is of utmost importance to seamlessly sync data from my CRM app(Microsoft Dynamics CRM) to my Project management software(JIRA software). With the increase in popularity of the ecommerce market, human interaction can be prone to erroneous data sync and that is where APPeCONNECT comes into play. APPSeCONNECT provides flexibility and reduces human intervention and is also highly scalable. Check out the Benefits of Connecting Dynamics CRM with Ecommerce!

Prerequisites

• Login to APPSeCONNECT portal and select “Create App” and then “Create Technology App”.
• After creating the app, navigate to connections module and then select create a connection and from there configure template.
• The connection need to be cloud compatible.
• Then from the manage module, select the primary environment as cloud environment.
• Now, navigate to workflow module and select create workflow

Business scenario

With APPSeCONNECT we are looking forward to sync the customers from JIRA software to Mircosoft Dynamics CRM. Also, we will need to keep a track of the issues raised by the customers. So, Issue sync from Microsoft Dynamics CRM to JIRA software.

Steps–

Create Free Trial Account in APPSeCONNECT:

To create an account in APPSeCONNECT follow the below steps:

1. Open any browser and go to https://portal.appseconnect.com/. You will be prompted with the login screen.
2. If you are a new user, click on Create an Account for registration.
   
3. Fill up all the details. You will be asked to fill up some basic information about you and your organization to start using the solution. Please fill all the mandatory fields (marked as *).
   
4. Click on “Get Started”, to start your trial account with APPSeCONNECT.
5. Once your account is created, you need to open your mailbox for a message from us. Open that mail and click on the Account Activation link provided.
   
6. Your account is activated now. You can go to https://portal.appseconnect.com/ and log in with your email id and password.

Login to APPSeCONNECT for the First Time:

1. Open any browser and go to https://portal.appseconnect.com/. You will be prompted with the login screen.
2. Sign In with your email id and password (given in Activation Email in our inbox).
3. You will be redirected to a page to reset your password. Fill in the fields and click Save changes.
   
4. You will be taken to Login page. Then log in with email id and new set password.
   

   Note: Keep “Remember me” checkbox checked to keep password saved.

5. You have to Accept License Agreement to avail the solutions.
   
6. You may provide Phone Number or Skip it.
7. If you have completed any of the wizard instructions on your login, then you will be presented with the Dashboard
   

To use Apps:

If you have already Registered to APPSeCONNECT and logged in to portal, then the first thing that you need to do is to add Apps to your solution. 

Follow the Steps to Add your App:

1. For selecting the Apps, you have to navigate to the Apps page
   
2. Here you can select your application of choice by selecting and saving Apps. On selecting the App (i.e. marking the App as checked).
   
3. You will get an option to select the version of your App. Select the version from the drop-down and click on the save button.
4. On clicking the Save button, the App of that particular version will be added to your account.

To Add your own REST app

1. For creating Apps, you have to navigate to the Apps page.
2. From the top right dropdown select “Create technology App”
   
3. Fill in the fields and click on Save
   Note: You can customize the app by providing Icon, Picture, editting description, name etc. For that, click on View button shown on the app:
   
4. After creating the Jira App, it will show up on the list like the image below.
   

Assign Credentials in the Cloud Apps:

To provide cloud credentials in your apps follow the below steps:

1. Navigate to the Apps page.
2. Click “+” button on the app
3. Click on Credential button
   
4. Click on the “+” button on REST section then “Add New Credentials”
5. Fill in the details and then Save
   

For Apps using Generic REST Adapter assign credentials in the following way

1. Navigate to the Apps page.
2. Click “+” button on the app
3. Click on Credentials button then “Add New Credentials”
4. Fill in the details and then Save
   

To create entity, schema, attributes and action for the Apps

1. Go to your REST app (say Jira) -> Schema -> Add Schema and then attributes
2. You can import your schema by clicking “Import Schema” button.
3. You can import schemas in XML, JSON formats.
4. You can add your actions and by clicking “Add Action” button shown in the apps where you can define your End Point, HTTP Method, Accept Type, Action filters.
   

To create Cloud Connection:

Based on your App selection, you will be creating Templates, which will be nothing but pre-defined connection frameworks for reusing. Follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to Connections page-> Click Create Connection button
2. Give a Connection Name then click on Configure Connector
   
3. In the Create connection window fill in the required details then click on Add Template.
4. Then select the connection, check the checkbox “Is cloud Supported” and Save.
   

To assign App credentials in the cloud Connection:

1. Go to the cloud connection and hover over it
2. Click on the extreme right button “Configuration  Assignment”.
   
3. Select the assignments of both apps and Save changes
   
4. Then Deploy the connection by checking the toggle button on hovering over the any side of connection
   
5. The complete connection will be looked like.
   

To Create Workflow:

1. Navigate to Workflow menu.
2. Click on “Create Workflow” button
   
3. Give your workflow a name and description
   
4. Now to start designing your workflow, on the workflow drawing pane drag and drop “Start” node
5. Then drag and drop “General Touchpoint” node
   
6. In the opened window select the Connection side from the dropdown then click on “Create touchpoint” button
   
7. Provide the details and proceed accordingly and Finally click on “Finish” button.
   
8. The drawing pane will be looked like
   
9. The Drag and drop “End” node (which is not mandatory) and link all the nodes
10. Now go back to Workflow page and activate your workflow by clicking the top right toggle button on your workflow.
11. You must Publish your workflow in the cloud from the Publish button within your workflow to make it up and running.

To map fields between two apps:

You can do mapping during the step To Create Workflow or you can follow the below steps afterwards

1. Go to your workflow
2. Click on the Process node in the group node then click on Mapping button.
   
   • Follow the below link to understand mapping in details:Map your fields as per your requirement. I am showing here the mappings that i have done to execute my workflow.
     

Note: https://docs.appseconnect.com/transformation/overview/
After each time changes in mapping you need to Publish your workflow.

To create Cloud Environment

APPSeCONNECT On-Premise Agent is a hybrid tool that sits on your own server and is configured on cloud and does the actual data synchronization with the help of other concerned adapters while the Cloud Agent is a similar tool that performs the same function as the on-premise agent but is present on cloud itself. No server is required to configure or sync using the cloud agent.

Follow the below steps to setup your cloud environment in APPSeCONNECT:

1. Navigate to Environments under manage menu.
   
2. Now click on “Create Cloud environment” button
3. Fill the details as required and Save.
   
4. You have been able to create the Cloud Environment.
   
5. Keep the cloud environment as “Primary Agent” by clicking on the checkbox beside your environment name.

Putting all together

Now you are ready to take the step towards execute you workflow and get data synced from one application to another. APPSeCONNECT gives you the leverage to execute and schedule your workflow Manually or Automatically.

1. To execute your workflow go to your workflow then Click on Edit button and Click on Play button
   
2. It gives you to visualize your whole process with user friendly messages and indication of execution
   
3. You can schedule your workflow as to execute automatically whether they will be running in hourly interval or in minutely.
   
   Now when you schedule the workflow using the button shown above, you will see the interface below.
   
4. You can check your execution result in your “Resync Bucket” under “Properties section in right side that shows how many and which data are pushed to destination application or not pushed.
   
5. From “Snapshot” button shown on the top bar of the workflow you can see the execution log details in “Log Bucket” from which you can easily understand how the data are successfully posted or why the data are not posted, what are the errors behind it.
   

Things to Remember

• The primary environment should be cloud environment
• The connection should be cloud compatible
• The app using the Generic REST adapter should follow authorization either “Basic” or “OAuth” or else No Authorization at all.

Conclusion

I hope now you can easily integrate any apps using Generic REST adapter with another app that will automate your business process and save your time and manpower. So without any hesitation opt for APPSeCONNECT and start syncing in cloud.

References

• https://docs.appseconnect.com
• https://developer.atlassian.com/server/jira/platform/rest-apis/
• https://community.appseconnect.com/integrating-microsoft-dynamics-nav-with-solve-360-using-rest-connector/
• https://community.appseconnect.com/integrating-using-generic-rest-adapter-quickbooks-shopify/