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Get the Report →Connect to API Data in RunMyProcess through Connect Cloud
Use CData Connect Cloud to create on OData API for API Data and connect to API data in Akorbi Digital RunMyProcess.
Akorbi Digital RunMyProcess makes it easy to create applications for complex business applications, such as budget application and contract management. CData Connect Cloud creates a live connection to your API and can be used to generate an OData API (natively supported in RunMyProcess) for your API. By pairing RunMyProcess with CData Connect Cloud, you get true cloud-to-cloud connectivity to all your SaaS and cloud-based Big Data and NoSQL sources - no need to migrate your data or write your own integrations. Simply connect to Connect Cloud from RunMyProcess as you would any other REST service and get instant, live access to your API data.
In this article, we walk through connecting to your API from CData Connect Cloud and accessing API data through an OData feed in RunMyProcess.
Connect to your API from RunMyProcess
To work with live API data in RunMyProcess, we need to connect to your API from Connect Cloud, provide user access to the connection, and create OData endpoints for the API data.
(Optional) Add a New Connect Cloud User
As needed, create Users to connect to your API through Connect Cloud.
- Navigate to the Users page and click Invite Users
- Enter the new user's email address and click Send to invite the user
- You can review and edit users from the Users page
Add a Personal Access Token
If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.
- Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
- On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
- Give your PAT a name and click Create.
- The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.
Connect to your API from Connect Cloud
CData Connect Cloud uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.
- Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
- Select "API" from the Add Connection panel
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Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to your API.
To connect to your API, configure the following properties on the Global Settings page:
- In Authentication, select the Type and fill in the required properties
- In Headers, add the required HTTP headers for your API
- In Pagination, select the Type and fill in the required properties
After the configuring the global settings, navigate to the Tables to add tables. For each table you wish to add:
- Click "+ Add"
- Set the Name for the table
- Set Request URL to the API endpoint you wish to work with
- (Optional) In Parameters, add the required URL Parameters for your API endpoint
- (Optional) In Headers, add the required HTTP headers for the API endpoint
- In Table Data click " Configure"
- Review the response from the API and click "Next"
- Select which element to use as the Repeated Elements and which elements to use as Columns and click "Next"
- Preview the tabular model of the API response and click "Confirm"
- Click Create & Test
- Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add your API Connection page and update the User-based permissions.
Configure your API Endpoints for RunMyProcess
After connecting to your API, create a workspace and virtual dataset for your desired table(s).
- Navigate to the Virtual Datasets page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace).
- Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
- Select the your API connection (e.g. API1) and click Next.
- Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm.
- Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}
Sample URLs for OData Feeds
Once you have configured a connection to your API, created a user, and created OData endpoints in Connect Cloud, you can access OData feeds for API data. Below, you will see the URLs to access tables and the list of tables. For information on accessing the tables, you can navigate to the OData page for Connect Cloud. For the URLs, you will need the URL of Connect Cloud: https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}.
Table | URL | |
---|---|---|
Entity (table) List | https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}/ | |
Metadata | https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}/$metadata | |
posts | https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}/posts |
As with standard OData feeds, if you wish to limit the fields returned, you can add a $select parameter to the query, along with other standard OData URL parameters, such as $filter, $orderby, $skip, and $top. See the help documentation for more information on supported OData queries.
With the connection and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to API data from RunMyProcess.
Retrieve API Data from RunMyProcess DigitalSuite Studio
With the connection to your API and OData endpoints created, we are ready to add API data to RunMyProcess for Retrieval.
Create a Provider
- Log into RunMyProcess and open DigitalSuite Studio.
- Click Resources to bring up the Resources page, then select then the CONNECTORS tab.
- Click the + (New Provider) button to create a new provider, choose the account to use, then click Confirm.
- In the provider settings page, configure the following properties.
- URL: Set the OData endpoint in the Connect Cloud OData page: https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}.
- Authentication Schema: Select Login/Password.
- Login: Specify a CData Connect Cloud username (e.g. [email protected]).
- Password: Specify the PAT of the Connect Cloud user.
- Fill in the same properties in the ACCEPTANCE and TEST tabs. Note: You can copy the configured settings by clicking 'Copy this configuration button,' then pasting the content in the new tab by clicking 'Paste previously copied configuration.'
- Click Save to save the properties.
Retrieve API Data by Creating a Connector
- In the CONNECTORS tab, click the button with three dots to create the provider, then select Add connector from the menu.
- In the following page, set Connector URL to the OData endpoint configured in Connect Cloud (e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name})
- Click Save then Launch to test the connector execution. Click Launch test to execute. The process is successful if you get the JSON response of your configured table information.
More Information & Free Trial
Now, you have created a provider and connector to retrieve API data. For more information on creating OData feeds from your API (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live API data in RunMyProcess.