Chapter 4. About connections to applications that you want to integrate

To create a connection, you select the connector for the application that you want to connect to and then enter values in input fields to configure a connection to that application. The configuration details that you need to provide vary for each application. After configuring the connection, you give it a name that helps you distinguish it from any other connections to the same application. Optionally, you can specify a description of the connection.

You can use the same connector to create any number of connections to that application. For example, you might use the AMQ connector to create three different connections. Each AMQ connection could specify a different broker.

For examples, see:

In an integration, you might want to connect to an application that uses the OAuth protocol to authenticate access requests. To do this, you must register your installation of Fuse Online for access to that application. Registration authorizes all connections from your Fuse Online installation to a given application. For example, if you register your Fuse Online installation with Salesforce, all connections from your Fuse Online installation to Salesforce use the same Salesforce client ID and the same Salesforce client secret that registration provided.

In each Fuse Online environment, for each application that uses OAuth, only one registration of Fuse Online as a client is required. This registration lets you create multiple connections and each connection can use different user credentials.

While the specific steps vary for each OAuth application that you want to connect to, registration always provides your Fuse Online environment with a client ID and a client secret. Some applications use other labels for the client ID and client secret. For example, Salesforce generates a consumer key and a consumer secret.

For some OAuth applications, Fuse Online provides an entry in its Settings page that makes it easy to register with the application. To see which applications this applies to, in the left panel of Fuse Online, click Settings.

After obtaining authorization for Fuse Online to access an application that uses OAuth, you can create one or more connections to that application. When you create a connection to an OAuth application, Fuse Online validates it to confirm that authorization is in place. At any time, you can validate the connection again to ensure that authorization is still in place.

Some OAuth applications grant access tokens that have an expiration data. If the access token expires, you can reconnect to the application to obtain a new access token.

To validate a connection that uses OAuth or to obtain a new access token for an OAuth application:

If validation or reconnection fails, then check with the application/service provider to determine if the application’s OAuth keys, IDs, tokens, or secrets are still valid. It is possible that an item has expired or been revoked.

If you find that an OAuth item is invalid, has expired, or been revoked, obtain new values and paste them into the Fuse Online settings for the application. See the instructions in Connecting Fuse Online to Applications and Services for registering the application whose connection did not validate. With the updated settings in place, follow the instructions above to try to validate the updated connection. If validation is successful, and there is a running integration that is using this connection, restart the integration. To restart an integration, stop it and then start it.

If validation fails and reconnection fails but everything appears to be valid at the service provider, then try reregistering your Fuse Online environment with the application and then recreate the connection. Fuse Online validates the connection when you recreate it. If you recreate the connection, and there is an integration that is using the connection, then you must edit the integration to delete the old connection and add the new connection. If the integration is running, then you must stop it and restart it.

When you add a connection to an integration, Fuse Online displays a list of the actions that the connection can perform when it connects to the application. You must select exactly one action. In a running integration, each connection performs only the action you choose. For example, when you add a Twitter connection as an integration’s start connection, you might choose the Mention action, which monitors Twitter for tweets that mention your Twitter handle.

Selection of some actions prompts you to specify one or more parameters, which configure the action. For example, if you add a Salesforce connection to an integration and choose the On create action then you must indicate the type of object whose creation you are interested in, such as a lead or a contact.

After you create a connection, Fuse Online assigns an internal identifier to the connection. This identifier does not change. You can change the connection’s name, description, or configuration values and Fuse Online recognizes it as the same connection.

There are two ways to view and edit information about a connection:

On the Connection Details page, for the connection that you want to edit, click next to a field to edit that field. Or, for some connections, below the configuration fields, click Edit to change configuration values. If you change any values, be sure to click Save.

If you update a connection that is used in an integration that is running, you must republish the integration.

For connections to applications that use the OAuth protocol to authorize access, you cannot change the login credentials that the connection uses. To connect to the application and use different login credentials, you must create a new connection.

After you upload an extension that defines a custom connector, the custom connector is available for use. You use custom connectors to create connections in the same way that you use Fuse Online-provided connectors to create connections.

A custom connector might be for an application that uses the OAuth protocol. Before you create a connection from this kind of connector, you must register your Fuse Online environment for access to the application that the connector is for. You do this in the interface for the application that the connector is for. The details for how to register your Fuse Online environment vary for each application.

For example, suppose the custom connector is for creating connections to Yammer. You would need to register your Fuse Online environment by creating a new application within Yammer. Registration provides a Yammer client ID for Fuse Online and a Yammer client secret value for Fuse Online A connection from your Fuse Online environment to Yammer must provide these two values.

Note that an application might use different names for these values, such as consumer ID or consumer secret.

After you register your Fuse Online environment, you can create a connection to the application. When you configure the connection, there should be parameters for entering the client ID and the client secret. If these parameters are not available, you need to talk with the extension developer and ask for an updated extension that lets you specify the client ID and client secret.