Adding applications and APIs to your flow
You can add events and actions to your flows by selecting from applications and APIs in the App Connect catalog. You can also add applications and APIs in other ways, such as by configuring your flow to call flows in IBM® App Connect Enterprise or by invoking an HTTP endpoint, such as the REST API for an application, and in both cases passing data returned from the response into later actions in the flow.
What applications and APIs can I add?
For a list of the applications that are currently available in your Designer, see the Catalog / Applications tab. The applications list includes out-of-the-box applications from IBM, partners, and third-parties.
Click an application to see the events and actions that you can use in your flows. Some applications have a pre-defined set of events and actions that are displayed even before you connect App Connect to those applications. For other applications, you'll need to first connect App Connect to those applications to be able to discover available or additional events and actions.
For a list of the APIs that are currently available in your Designer, see the Catalog / APIs tab. The APIs list includes APIs that were added to the catalog by importing OpenAPI files, web services added by importing WSDL or ZIP files, and shared APIs in your IBM Cloud® organization.
Click an API to see the actions (operations) that you can use in your flows.
Most applications or APIs enable you to perform the basic create, retrieve, update, or delete (CRUD) actions on their objects. For example, you can create leads or contacts in CRM applications such as Insightly or SugarCRM, retrieve records from database systems such as IBM Db2® or Oracle Database, or invoke POST operations on an API. Other applications can, however, contain specialized actions to suit their function. For example, a file management application such as SFTP provides a rename action for files and folders, and IBM Watson® Personality Insights provides an analyze action to extract personality characteristics based on how a person writes. For more information about how CRUD actions work in App Connect, see CRUD actions.
Before you begin
You can begin to add applications and APIs to your flow without doing anything before, and can complete some required activities while editing your flow. However, some activities need to be completed before you can add an application or API to your flow, and other activities might be better completed before you begin so that you can configure your flow most easily.
- Connect App Connect to applications (1)(2) Before you can add an application into your flow, you must usually configure an account to connect App Connect to the application. Also, for some applications, before you can see the events and actions in the applications list, you first need to connect App Connect to the application.
- Add APIs (and SOAP web services) to the catalog and then connect to the APIs (2). Before you can add an API (or web service) into your flow, you must add the API to the catalog and then connect App Connect to the API.
You can add a callable flow node into your flow to call another (callable) flow. If the callable flow is running in another App Connect instance, such as an integration server running in App Connect Enterprise or IBM Integration Bus installed on premises, you must connect your App Connect instance to the instance that contains the callable flow. For more information about using callable flows to connect flows on IBM Cloud and on premises, see Connect App Connect on IBM Cloud to callable flows on integration servers.
- (1) You can complete this activity while editing a flow, but it might help to complete the activity before you begin.
- (2) If your application or API is not available from the internet, you need to configure a secure connection to your private network as part of the activity to connect App Connect to the application or API.
High-level procedure:
- Click a (+) in your flow, where you want to add the application or API
- Click the application or API from the lists provided
- Select the event or action (For some applications, you first need to connect if needed to see events and actions.) The selected application or API is added to the flow Connect to the application. (Select from available accounts or create a new account)
Read more:
- How-to guides for apps For information about using applications that have specific requirements.
- Sharing flow processing between App Connect on IBM Cloud and App Connect Enterprise or Integration Bus For information about calling flows that are running in App Connect Enterprise or IBM Integration Bus, and about those flows calling event-driven flows in App Connect on IBM Cloud.
- Calling out to an API endpoint by using the invoke method for the HTTP application For information about invoking operations for APIs that are imported or shared in App Connect, and about calling out to an API endpoint by using the invoke method for the HTTP application..