Universal Connectors are generic modules used to connect to REST APIs. Using the Universal Connector (UC) wizard you can build your own reusable modules to simplify getting or sending data from/to external APIs when building flows in the FlowStudio. A UC can use settings provided by the user or data from flow messages when building the API calls. You can also provide your own custom icon and documentation for UCs. Once published a UC will look just like any other module in the FlowStudio library. UCs also support versioning, so you can update the module over time and then select the version to use when configuring the module in the FlowStudio editor.
Note 1: You must have permission to manage Universal Connectors to be allowed to make your own, or modify existing, UCs. However, all users can use the modules when creating flows.
Note 2: This tool is intended for users with basic understanding of REST APIs and API documentation.
A key concept when building a UC is the parameter syntax. When you enter a name inside curly braces somewhere in your API request configuration, like {param1}
, param1 will be treated as a configurabe parameter and the actual value will be assigned at runtime. Parameters can be used in URLs, in headers, in query parameters and in the message body for POST/PUT requests. There is no limit on the number of parameters that can be used. For each parameter you then decide from where to get the actual value. The options are:
To simplify the setup of UCs a wizard is available that will take you through six steps to create your own module. The wizard can be found on the Modules page and the Universal Connectors tab. The table shows all currently defined UCs. To build a new UC, click on +Add Connector
in the upper right corner, this will open the wizard. Follow the six steps described below to complete your new module. Inside the wizard you can use the Next/Previous
buttons or click on any of the icons at the top to jump between the steps.
In this step you define the following:
Has Output
.Select icon
button. The image will be scaled to fit on the module in FlowStudio, but for best results your image should be square and not have a higher resolution than 100x100 pixels. It is optional to specify a custom icon. If no icon has been loaded the Crosser icon will be used. However, using your own icon is definetely recommended since it will make it a lot easier to find your module when building flows.If your API requires authentication, it is setup in this step. If no authentication is needed you can skip this step.
If your API uses basic, bearer or OAuth2 authentication you have the option to get the credentials from the central credentials store (see Credentials for more information). The only thing you need to do then is to select API key
for bearer authentication, Username and Password
for basic authentication or one of the supported OAuth methods in the Credential drop-down list. When a user uses this module in the FlowStudio the available credentials will be presented in a drop-down and added to the API request.
If your API uses some other kind of authentication you can add the required headers or query parameters by filling out the relevant fields and click the +
button on the right. Any number of headers and query parameters can be added and the parameter syntax described above can be used to fill-in any part of the authentication settings when the module is used. If your API uses data from one of the supported credential types, but in a non-standard way, you use the option Use credential as setting
. Then the tool will not automatically use the credentials with the standard methods, but you then have the credential values available so that you can use them as parameter values to create custom athentications. Build the request as required by your service by using parameters. Then on the Configuration step, select User setting
as source, Credential
as type and then the value you want to assign to this parameter from the list of available values in the credential from the Requirements
drop-down. The user will be presented with a Credentials drop-down when using the module and the available credentials of the type you have selected will be shown. The content of the selected credential will however be used in a customized way, based on your configuration.
If you are connecting to a service that uses e.g. self-signed certificates you can enable Allow untrusted certificates
to disable certificate validation.
This step is where you configure the main parts of your API request. The following settings are available:
https://api.example.com/
is a valid URL, while https://api.example.com
is not. URLs can be configured using parameters, eg https://api.example.com/{resource}
, where resource will be replaced at runtime depending on how this parameter has been configured (see next step).+
button. Multiple headers and query parameters can be added and configurable parameters can be used by using parameter syntax described above, to adjust the request when the module is used.{body}
and set the body
parameter to Message parameter. Then any data assigned to the body property on the incoming message will be inserted as the body payload.In this step you configure any parameters you have used when configuring your API request in the previous step. If you haven’t used any configurable parameters you can skip these steps.
If your UC has an output there will always be one default parameter called targetPropertyParameter, so that the user can chose the message property to write the result of the API request to. The only thing you can change on this parameter is the default value and its position in the UI, if there are more parameters, see below.
For each parameter you must specify the following:
The documentation step is used to add in-module documentation, ie documentation available to the users in the FlowStudio. The structure is setup in the same way as for modules in the standard library, so that users can easily recognize the documentation. The left-hand side of this page is the input for markdown text and the right-hand side shows the result. There are two sections for the documentation:
The Summary step combines all information entered and shows what the module will look like in the FlowStudio, with the module icon, hover text, Settings and Documentation UI. If you are happy with the result, press Create
and the module will be built.
When you have created a UC it must be published before it can be used in the FlowStudio. In the UC table hover over the UC version you want to publish and click on the icon to the right. The UC will now be published and you will see it in the list of modules on the Modules tab, listed as a Custom module which means that it is only available to users within your organisation.
It is not possible to modify a published UC but you can update it by creating a new version. Click on the icon to the right of the current version and a new version will be created and opened in the wizard. When you are done with updating the new version it must be published, as above, before it shows up in the FlowStudio. When adding a UC module to a flow it will by default get the latest version. If you already have a UC in a flow and want to update to the latest version, open the settings UI and use the drop-down at the top to select the new version.
When you create a new version of a UC some settings cannot be changed: the name of the module and its type (Input/Output). If you want to change any of these you can create a new UC, but use a version of an existing UC as the starting point, by clicking the icon to the right of the version.