Create Zuora-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 Zuora data for business applications. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Zuora in Connect Cloud and build a simple workflow from Zuora data in Nintex.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure, cloud-to-cloud interface for Zuora, allowing you to build workflows from live Zuora 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 Zuora, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Zuora data.

Configure Zuora Connectivity for Nintex

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

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

   Zuora uses the OAuth standard to authenticate users. See the online Help documentation for a full OAuth authentication guide.

   Configuring Tenant property

   In order to create a valid connection with the provider you need to choose one of the Tenant values (USProduction by default) which matches your account configuration. The following is a list with the available options:

   • USProduction: Requests sent to https://rest.zuora.com.
   • USAPISandbox: Requests sent to https://rest.apisandbox.zuora.com"
   • USPerformanceTest: Requests sent to https://rest.pt1.zuora.com"
   • EUProduction: Requests sent to https://rest.eu.zuora.com"
   • EUSandbox: Requests sent to https://rest.sandbox.eu.zuora.com"

   Selecting a Zuora Service

   Two Zuora services are available: Data Query and AQuA API. By default ZuoraService is set to AQuADataExport.

   DataQuery

   The Data Query feature enables you to export data from your Zuora tenant by performing asynchronous, read-only SQL queries. We recommend to use this service for quick lightweight SQL queries.

   Limitations
   • The maximum number of input records per table after filters have been applied: 1,000,000
   • The maximum number of output records: 100,000
   • The maximum number of simultaneous queries submitted for execution per tenant: 5
   • The maximum number of queued queries submitted for execution after reaching the limitation of simultaneous queries per tenant: 10
   • The maximum processing time for each query in hours: 1
   • The maximum size of memory allocated to each query in GB: 2
   • The maximum number of indices when using Index Join, in other words, the maximum number of records being returned by the left table based on the unique value used in the WHERE clause when using Index Join: 20,000

   AQuADataExport

   AQuA API export is designed to export all the records for all the objects ( tables ). AQuA query jobs have the following limitations:

   Limitations
   • If a query in an AQuA job is executed longer than 8 hours, this job will be killed automatically.
   • The killed AQuA job can be retried three times before returned as failed.
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Zuora 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 Zuora data from Nintex Workflow Cloud.

Connect to Zuora from Nintex

The steps below outline creating a new connection to Zuora 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 Zuora connection (a.g., Zuora1)
5. Click "Connect"
6. Configure the connection permissions and click "Save permissions"

Create a Simple Zuora Workflow

With the connection to CData Connect Cloud configured, we are ready to build a simple workflow to access Zuora 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 Zuora 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.