Managing accounts

You can create multiple accounts that are connected to each application or API. You can also rename your IBM® App Connect accounts for ease of identification, update the credentials for your accounts when necessary, and remove accounts that you no longer need.

The ability to connect to multiple accounts means that you can create flows that use different accounts to connect to different instances of an application. The following examples show some situations where you might need to connect to multiple accounts.

To connect to test and production instances so that a flow can push data from test to production
To connect to instances in different locations and synchronize data in those instances
To configure more than one set of user credentials or generate more than one API key to accommodate different access levels. For these cases, you can create an account for each set of credentials or API key.

You can manage accounts for an application or API in the following ways.

Add another account

From the Applications or APIs tab on the catalog page or from the flow editor, expand the list of accounts, then click Add a new account.

Screenshot that shows expanded list of accounts

Then, specify a new set of account details for the application or API. The new account is added to the list.

Screenshot that shows accounts 1 and 2 for the Salesforce connector

Choose which account to use

If you're connected to multiple accounts, you can indicate in the flow editor which application instance to trigger an event from or apply an action to. You can select the account when you add the event or action.

Screenshot that shows the account selection field for a Gmail event node in a flow

You can also switch to a different account after you add the event or action. Select the application or API node and choose the appropriate account from the list.

Tip: If you're using multiple accounts for an application, the set of fields that are displayed when you select an action for that application might vary based on the selected account. In the flow editor, some applications always provide a set of static fields for an action. However, other applications use dynamic discovery to retrieve the set of fields that are configured on the instance that you’re connected to. For example, if you have two accounts for two separate instances of an application, the first account might use the standard settings for the application. The second account might be configured with extra custom fields.

Update the connection details of an account

Use the update option to reauthorize your connection if your access to an application or API expires or is revoked, or if your credentials change. This option is also useful if you want to use different credentials for an account that is used in one or more of your existing flows. To update an account for an application or API, go to the Applications or APIs tab on the catalog page and find the relevant application or API. Select the relevant account from the Account list for that application or API. Then, in the options menu (⋮) for the account, click Update Account to specify different connection details.

Screenshot of the options menu for an account, which contains the options Update Account, Remove Account, and Rename Account.

Note:

You can't update the account for an application if that account is being used in a running flow. To update an account, first stop all flows that are using that account. With an API account, you don’t need to stop running flows before you update the account.
If you use Firefox to update a Salesforce account in App Connect that was created with Use the website (OAuth2), the Firefox Block pop-up windows property prevents the Connect to Salesforce dialog box from opening. You can update the account in App Connect by either using a different browser or temporarily turning off the Firefox Block pop-up windows property.

Remove an account

From the Applications or APIs tab on the catalog page, open the options menu (⋮) for the relevant account and click Remove Account to delete the connection to that account.

Note: Before you remove an account, you must remove all use of the account from flows. Either delete all the flows that use that account, or edit the flows to remove the nodes that use that account or switch to a different account.

Update the account name

From the Applications or APIs tab on the catalog page, open the options menu (⋮) for the relevant account and click Rename Account to specify a different account name. Account names must be unique for an application or API.

Note: You can't rename the account for an application if that account is being used in a flow. Therefore, rename accounts before you use them in a flow. You can rename the account for an API even if the account is used in a flow.