Using Anaplan with IBM App Connect Enterprise
Anaplan offers cloud-based modelling and planning solutions for sales, operations, and finance with which users can collaborate for better decisions, align operations, and execute processes on a single platform. IBM® App Connect Enterprise provides an Anaplan Request node, which enables you to connect to Anaplan and issue requests to execute, update, retrieve, upload, and download objects, including cell data, file content, and list items.
About this task
IBM App Connect Enterprise communicates synchronously with Anaplan through the Anaplan Request node, which is available on Windows, AIX, and Linux® systems.
- Actions
- Execute action.
- Cell data
- Update cell data.
- Export definition
- Execute export.
- Files
- Upload file content.
- Download file content.
- Import definition
- Execute import data to model.
- Large volume read
- Download page for list.
- Download page for view.
- Execute large volume read for list.
- Execute large volume read for view.
- List items
- Retrieve list item.
- Create multiple list items.
- Update multiple list items.
- Delete multiple list items.
- Processes
- Execute process.
- Views
- Retrieve cell data for a view.
For more information about configuring the Anaplan Request node, see Anaplan Request node.
Procedure
- In the IBM App Connect Enterprise Toolkit, create a flow that contains an Anaplan Request node.
- Select the Anaplan Request node in the flow to show the node properties in the editor.
- On the Basic tab, click Launch Connector
Discovery. A panel is displayed in which you specify the name of the policy project and vault details to be used during connector discovery.
- Specify the details of the policy project and vault to be
used during connector discovery:
- In the Policy Project field, specify the policy project that is
used to store the policies that are created during connector discovery. Alternatively, you can create a new policy project by clicking New and then specifying the name of the new policy project. Then click Finish.
- Specify the vault to be used during connector discovery. By default, credentials that
are used during connector discovery are stored in an external directory vault, which is
an App Connect Enterprise vault that can be used by any integration server.
Alternatively, you can store the credentials in an integration server vault, which is created in the
integration server's work directory and can be used only by that specific integration server. To specify the vault to be used for storing the credentials, complete the steps in the Using the Connector Discovery wizard section of one of the following topics:
- In the Vault key field, enter the vault key that is used to access the credentials stored in the vault. The vault key must be at least 8 characters in length.
- Optional: By default, the specified vault location and vault key are saved as preferences in the Toolkit so that the values are preset when you launch Connector Discovery. If you do not want the preferences to be saved, deselect Save in vault preferences.
- In the Policy Project field, specify the policy project that is
used to store the policies that are created during connector discovery.
- Click Launch Discovery to start the Connector Discovery wizard for
the Anaplan connector. The Connector Discovery window is displayed. If existing Anaplan connections (accounts) are available, a list of those connections is displayed. If there are no existing connections, the status of the Anaplan connector is shown as
Not connected
.- If one or more Anaplan connections (accounts)
are available, complete the following steps:
- Select the connection (account) that you want to use by clicking it.
- Click the required object type and then select the action that you want to perform on the object. For example, to retrieve list items from Anaplan, click List item and then Retrieve list item.
- If there are no existing connections (accounts), complete the following steps:
- Click the required object type and then select the action that you want to perform on that object. For example, to execute actions in Anaplan, click List item and then Retrieve list item.
- Click Connect to display a menu from which you must select one of the
following Authorization methods:
- Provide credentials for App Connect to use (BASIC OAUTH)
- Provide credentials for App Connect to use (BASIC)
- Select an authorization method and click Continue. A window is displayed in which you enter the details of your account.
- Click Connect to create a new connection. A window is displayed in which you enter the details of your account.
- If you selected BASIC as the authorization method, enter the following
details:
- In the Username field, enter the user ID or email address of the registered Anaplan user account.
- In the Password field, enter the password for the specified username.
- If you selected BASIC OAUTH as the authorization method, enter the following
details:
- In the Access token field, enter the access token that is generated from the application client ID and application client secret.
- In the Refresh token field, enter the refresh token that is generated from the application client ID and application client secret.
- In the Client ID field, enter the unique identifier of the Application that is created in the Anaplan console.
- In the Client Secret field, enter the application client secret for the unique application client ID created in Anaplan.
- Click Connect.
For more information about connecting to Anaplan, see How to use IBM App Connect with Anaplan in the IBM App Connect Enterprise as a Service documentation.
- If one or more Anaplan connections (accounts)
are available, complete the following steps:
- Set the required connector properties in the wizard.
You can add conditions for the retrieval of the data, by clicking Add condition and then selecting the property that you want to filter on. For example, to retrieve a list item with a specified format, select application/json > , > text/csv > , or > Custom from the menu. You can also set properties that specify the maximum number of documents to retrieve and the action to be taken if that limit is exceeded.
- When you have finished specifying the properties in the Connector Discovery wizard, click
Save.
The credential that is used for connecting to Anaplan is stored in the vault, and the other connection details, including details of the specified format (if any), are saved in the Anaplan policy. The values of the properties that you set in the wizard are returned to the Anaplan Request node in the IBM App Connect Enterprise Toolkit.
- When you have finished discovery and saved the property values, exit the Connector Discovery wizard by clicking the X in the upper-right corner of the window or by pressing Alt+F4.
- Return to editing the Anaplan Request node in the
IBM App Connect
Enterprise Toolkit. The connector properties that were set in the Connector Discovery wizard (in step 6) are now visible on the Anaplan Request node. The Basic tab shows the values of the Action and Object properties that you set in the wizard. For example, if you selected List items > Retrieve list item in the wizard, the following properties are visible on the Basic tab of the node:
- Action -
RETRIEVEALL
- Object -
listitem
The values of the Action and Object properties are displayed in read-only format. If you want to change these values, you can do so by clicking Launch Connector Discovery again and setting new values in the Connector Discovery wizard.
The Schema base name property specifies the base name of the schema files that describe the format of the request and response messages that are sent and received from the Anaplanconnector. The schema base name is set automatically the first time that you run discovery for the node, and it is based on the current flow name and node name. If you set this property manually before running discovery for the first time, the value that you set is used. If you rename the schemas after discovery, you must edit this property so that it matches the schema base name that is used by the renamed schemas in the project. If you change this property after discovery, you must either rename the schema names to match or run discovery again.
Depending on the action that was selected during discovery, the Connector Discovery wizard generates either a request schema and a response schema, or a response schema only. A request schema is generated only if the selected action and object require a request message. The generated request schema is used for validation of the request message. If the action was
RETRIEVE
orDELETE
, only the response schema is returned by the connector.The generated schema files are added to the project and can be used by a Mapping node for transforming input or output data. The full filename of the schema is derived from the schema base name (such as
gen/MyMessageFlow.Anaplan_Request
), suffixed with either response.schema.json or request.schema.json. You can open the schema by clicking Open request schema or Open response schema. - Action -
- Check that the property settings on the Anaplan Request node are correct and then save the message flow.
- On the Connection tab of the Anaplan Request node, the Policy property
shows the name of the policy that contains the details of the security identity to be used for the
connection. The policy has a type of
Anaplan
.For more information, see Anaplan policy. - Optional: Set the Timeout property on the Connection tab to specify the time (in seconds) that the node waits for Anaplan to process the operation.
- The Filter tab of the Anaplan Request node contains properties that control the way in
which the message flow selects data. The initial values of these properties are taken from the
property values that were set for the Anaplan connector
in the Connector Discovery wizard, including filter options properties and any conditions that were
specified (as described in step 6). If you subsequently
return to the Connector Discovery wizard and change the values of any properties (by adding new
conditions, for example) those updates are reflected in the properties set on the node.
The Filter Options properties control which objects are to be operated upon when the Anaplan Request node executes. The Filter Limit properties control the maximum number of items to be retrieved and the action to be taken if the limit is exceeded.
You can modify the values by clicking Edit next to the value that you want to modify in the Filter Options section, and by changing the property values that have been set in the Filter Limit section.
The property values can be either text values or ESQL or XPATH expressions that are resolved from the contents of the message that is passed to the Anaplan Request node as it executes.
- On the Request tab, set the Data location property to specify the location in the incoming message tree that contains the object data to be created in Anaplan. This data forms the request that is sent from the Anaplan Request node to the Anaplan system.
- On the Result tab, set the Output data location property to specify the location in the output message tree that contains the data of the record that is created in Anaplan.
- By default, request messages are validated against the request schema that was generated during connector discovery. You can turn off request validation or change the validation settings by using the Validation properties of the Anaplan Request node.
- Save the message flow.