Connect to Avalara AvaTax Data in RunMyProcess through Connect Server

Akorbi Digital RunMyProcess makes it easy to create applications for complex business processes, such as budget application and contract management. CData Connect creates a virtual database for Avalara AvaTax and can be used to generate an OData API (natively consumable in RunMyProcess) for Avalara AvaTax. By pairing RunMyProcess with the CData Connect Server, you get direct 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 Server from RunMyProcess as you would any other REST service and get instant, live access to your Avalara AvaTax data.

In this article, we walk through connecting to Avalara AvaTax from CData Connect and accessing Avalara AvaTax data through an OData feed in RunMyProcess.

Configuring Connect Server

To work with live Avalara AvaTax data in RunMyProcess, we need to connect to Avalara AvaTax from Connect Server, provide user access to the new virtual database, and create OData endpoints for the Avalara AvaTax data.

Add a Connect Server User

Create a User to connect to Avalara AvaTax from RunMyProcess through Connect Server.

1. Click Users -> Add
2. Configure a User
3. Click Save Changes and make note of the Authtoken for the new user

Connect to Avalara AvaTax from Connect Server

CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Open Connect Server and click Connections
2. Select "Avalara AvaTax" from Available Data Sources
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Avalara AvaTax

   The primary method for performing basic authentication is to provide your login credentials, as follows:

   • User: Set this to your username.
   • Password: Set this to your password.

   Optionally, if you are making use of a sandbox environment, set the following:

   • UseSandbox: Set this to true if you are authenticating with a sandbox account.

   Authenticating Using Account Number and License Key

   Alternatively, you can authenticate using your account number and license key. Connect to data using the following:

   • AccountId: Set this to your Account Id. The Account Id is listed in the upper right hand corner of the admin console.
   • LicenseKey: Set this to your Avalara Avatax license key. You can generate a license key by logging into Avalara Avatax as an account administrator and navigating to Settings -> Reset License Key.
4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions (SELECT is all that is required for RunMyProcess).

Add Avalara AvaTax OData Endpoints in Connect Server

After connecting to Avalara AvaTax, create OData Endpoints for the desired table(s).

1. Click OData -> Tables -> Add Tables
2. Select the Avalara AvaTax database
3. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Next
4. (Optional) Edit the resource to select specific fields and more
5. Save the settings

(Optional) Configure Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)

When accessing and connecting to multiple domains from an application, such as Ajax, you might violate the limitations of cross-site scripting. In that case, configure the CORS settings in OData -> Settings.

• Enable cross-origin resource sharing (CORS): ON
• Allow all domains without '*': ON
• Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, PUT, POST, OPTIONS
• Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Authorization

Save the changes to the settings.

Sample URLs for OData Feeds

Once you have configured a connection to Avalara AvaTax, created a user, and created OData endpoints in Connect Server, you can access OData feeds for Avalara AvaTax 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 API page for Connect Server (click the API link on the top right of Connect Server Web page). For the URLs, you will need the URL of Connect Server, likely in the form: CONNECT_SERVER_URL/. Since we are working with Angular, we will append the @json parameter to the end of URLs that do not return JSON data by default.

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.

Retrieve Avalara AvaTax Data from RunMyProcess DigitalSuite Studio

With the connection to Avalara AvaTax and OData endpoints created, we are ready to add Avalara AvaTax data to RunMyProcess for retrieval.

Create a Provider

1. Log into RunMyProcess and open DigitalSuite Studio.
2. Click Resources to bring up the Resources page, then select then the CONNECTORS tab. 　　
3. Click the + (New Provider) button to create a new provider, choose the project to use, then click Confirm.
4. In the provider settings page, configure the following properties.
   • URL：Set the OData endpoint in the CData Connect Endpoints page.e.g. CONNECT_SERVER_URL/api.rsc/
   • Authentication Schema：Select Login/Password.
   • Login：Specify the CData Connect User name configured above.
   • Password：Specify the Authtoken of the user.
5. 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.'
6. Click Save to save the properties.

Retrieve Avalara AvaTax Data by Creating a Connector

1. In the CONNECTORS tab, click the button with three dots to create the provider, then select Add connector from the menu.
2. In the following page, set Connector URL to the OData endpoint configured in Connect Server.e.g. odataendpoint/
3. 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 Avalara AvaTax data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Avalara AvaTax (and more than 200 other data sources), visit the Connect Server page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Avalara AvaTax data in RunMyProcess.