Create Adobe Analytics-Connected Nintex Workflows

Nintex Workflow Cloud is a cloud-based platform where you can design workflows to automate simple or complex processes using drag-and-drop interactions — without writing any code. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Adobe Analytics data for business applications. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Adobe Analytics in Connect Cloud and build a simple workflow from Adobe Analytics data in Nintex.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure, cloud-to-cloud interface for Adobe Analytics, allowing you to build workflows from live Adobe Analytics data in Nintex Workflow Cloud — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Nintex allows you to access data directly using SQL queries. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Adobe Analytics, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Adobe Analytics data.

Configure Adobe Analytics Connectivity for Nintex

Connectivity to Adobe Analytics from Nintex is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Adobe Analytics data from Nintex, we start by creating and configuring a Adobe Analytics connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Adobe Analytics" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Adobe Analytics.

   Adobe Analytics uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to create an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties. See the "Getting Started" section of the help documentation for a guide.

   Retrieving GlobalCompanyId

   GlobalCompanyId is a required connection property. If you do not know your Global Company ID, you can find it in the request URL for the users/me endpoint on the Swagger UI. After logging into the Swagger UI Url, expand the users endpoint and then click the GET users/me button. Click the Try it out and Execute buttons. Note your Global Company ID shown in the Request URL immediately preceding the users/me endpoint.

   Retrieving Report Suite Id

   Report Suite ID (RSID) is also a required connection property. In the Adobe Analytics UI, navigate to Admin -> Report Suites and you will get a list of your report suites along with their identifiers next to the name.

   After setting the GlobalCompanyId, RSID and OAuth connection properties, you are ready to connect to Adobe Analytics.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Adobe Analytics Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

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.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Adobe Analytics data from Nintex Workflow Cloud.

Connect to Adobe Analytics from Nintex

The steps below outline creating a new connection to Adobe Analytics data from Nintex (via Connect Cloud).

1. Log into Nintex Workflow Cloud
2. In the Connections tab, click "Add new"
3. Select "Microsoft SQL Server" as the connector and click "Connect"
4. In the SQL Server connection wizard, set the following properties:
   • Connection Name: a Connect Cloud
   • Username: a Connect Cloud username (e.g. user@mydomain.com)
   • Password: the Connect Cloud user's PAT
   • Database Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Database Name: the Adobe Analytics connection (a.g., AdobeAnalytics1)
5. Click "Connect"
6. Configure the connection permissions and click "Save permissions"

Create a Simple Adobe Analytics Workflow

With the connection to CData Connect Cloud configured, we are ready to build a simple workflow to access Adobe Analytics data. Start by clicking the "Create workflow" button.

Configure the Start Event Action

1. Click the start event task and select the "Form" event
2. Click "Design form"
3. Drag a "Text - Long" element onto the Form and click the element to configure it
   • Set "Title" to "Enter SQL query"
   • Set "Required" to true
4. Drag a "Text - Short" element onto the Form and click the element to configure it
   • Set "Title" to "Enter desired result column"
   • Set "Required" to true

Configure an "Execute a Query" Action

1. Add an "Execute a query" action after the "Start event: Form" action and click to configure the action
2. Set "SQL Script" to the "Enter SQL Query" variable from the "Start event" action
3. Set "Column to retrieve" to the "Enter desired result column" variable from the "Start event" action
4. Set "Retrieved column" to a new variable (a.g., "values")

Configure a "Send an Email" Action

1. Add a "Send an email" action after the "Execute a query" action and click to configure the action
2. Set the "Recipient email address"
3. Set the "Subject"
4. Set the "Message body" to the variable created for the retrieved column

Once you configure the actions, click "Save," name the Workflow, and click "Save" again. You now have a simple workflow that will query Adobe Analytics using SQL and sand an email with the results.

To learn more about live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, check out the CData Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.