How to use IBM App Connect with Front

Front is a platform for customer operations that helps support, sales, and account management teams provide exceptional service at scale.

Availability:

App Connect Enterprise as a Service connector
Local connector in containers (Continuous Delivery release) 12.0.12.3-r1 or later

Supported product and API versions

To find out which product and API versions this connector supports, see Detailed System Requirements on the IBM Support page.

Connecting to Front

Complete the connection fields that you see in the App Connect Designer Connect > Applications and APIs page (previously the Catalog page) or flow editor. If necessary, work with your Front administrator to obtain these values.

Front authorization types and connection fields:

BASIC OAUTH: Server URL: Select the URL for the API server that makes runtime calls.; Application client ID: Specify the unique client identifier to use for authentication.; Application client secret: Specify a client secret to use for authentication.; Access token: Specify the access token that is generated from the application client ID and client secret.; Refresh token: Specify the refresh token that is generated from the application client ID and client secret.; Allow self-signed certificates: Set to true or false. Set to true if you want to be able to accept self-signed certificates that are trusted and used only in a nonproduction environment. The default is false.; Override server URL: Required if you want to connect to an endpoint in a private network by using the private network client, or if you want to override the server URL. Specify an override value for the host and port for the connector in the format <http or https>://<host_name>:<port>. If you are not using the private network client or do not require an override, leave this field blank.; Private network connection: Select the name of a private network agent that App Connect uses to connect to your private network. This list is populated with the names of private network agents that are created on the Private networks page. For more information, see Connecting to a private network.

BEARER TOKEN: Server URL: Select the URL for the API server that makes runtime calls.; API token: Specify the API token that you use to access Front.; Allow self-signed certificates: Set to true or false. Set to true if you want to be able to accept self-signed certificates that are trusted and used only in a nonproduction environment. The default is false.; Override server URL: Required if you want to connect to an endpoint in a private network by using the private network client, or if you want to override the server URL. Specify an override value for the host and port for the connector in the format <http or https>://<host_name>:<port>. If you are not using the private network client or do not require an override, leave this field blank.; Private network connection: Select the name of a private network agent that App Connect uses to connect to your private network. This list is populated with the names of private network agents that are created on the Private networks page. For more information, see Connecting to a private network.

OAUTH 2.0 AUTH CODE: Server URL: Select the URL for the API server that makes runtime calls.; Application client ID: Specify the unique client identifier to use for authentication.; Application client secret: Specify a client secret to use for authentication.; Refresh token: The refresh token that is generated from the application client ID and client secret.; Access token: The access token that is generated from the application client ID and client secret.

To obtain the connection values for Front, see Obtaining connection values for Front.

To connect to a Front endpoint from the App Connect Designer Applications and APIs page for the first time, expand Front, then click Connect. For more information, see Managing accounts.

Tip:

Before you use the account that is created in App Connect in a flow, rename the account to something meaningful that helps you to identify it. To rename the account on the Applications and APIs page, select the account, open its options menu (⋮), then click Rename Account.

General Considerations

Before you use App Connect Designer with Front, take note of the following considerations:

You can see lists of the trigger events and actions that are available on the Applications and APIs page of the App Connect Designer
For some applications, the events and actions depend on the environment and whether the connector supports configurable events and dynamic discovery of actions. If the application supports configurable events, you see a Show more configurable events link under the events list. If the application supports dynamic discovery of actions, you see a Show more link under the actions list.
If you are using multiple accounts for an application, the set of fields that is displayed when you select an action for that application can vary for different accounts. In the flow editor, some applications always provide a curated set of static fields for an action. Other applications use dynamic discovery to retrieve the set of fields that are configured on the instance that you are connected to. For example, if you have two accounts for two instances of an application, the first account might use settings that are ready for immediate use. However, the second account might be configured with extra custom fields.

Events and Actions

Front events

These events are for changes in this application that trigger a flow to start completing the actions in the flow.

Show more configurable events: Events that are shown by default are pre-configured by using optimized connectivity. More items are available after you configure events that can trigger a flow by polling this application for new or updated objects. For more information about configurable events, see Configuring polled events to trigger flows.

Front actions

Your flow completes these actions on this application.

Object	Action	Description
Accounts	Retrieve all accounts	Retrieves the accounts of the company
	Create account	Creates a new account
	Update account	Updates an account
	Delete account	Deletes an account
	Retrieve account contacts	Retrieves the contacts associated with an account
	Add contacts to account	Adds a list of contacts to an account
	Delete contacts from account	Removes a list of contacts from an account
	Retrieve account by ID	Retrieves account details using ID
Custom fields	Retrieve account custom fields	Retrieves the custom fields that can be attached to an account
	Retrieve contact custom fields	Retrieves the custom fields that can be attached to a contact
	Retrieve conversation custom fields	Retrieves the custom fields that can be attached to a conversation
	Retrieve inbox custom fields	Retrieves the custom fields that can be attached to an inbox
Channels	Retrieve all channels	Retrieves the channels of the company
	Retrieve channel by ID	Retrieves a channel using channel ID
	Update channel	Updates a channel
	Create channel	Creates a channel in an inbox
Inbox	Retrieve all inboxes	Retrieves the inboxes of the company
	Create inbox	Creates an inbox in the default team (workspace). The default team will be the oldest team created that still exists at the time of the request.
	Retrieve inbox channels	Retrieves the conversations in an inbox. For more advanced filtering, see the Search conversation action.
	Retrieve inbox conversations	Retrieves the conversations in an inbox. For more advanced filtering, see the Search conversation action.
	Retrieve inbox by ID	Retrieves an inbox using inbox ID
Contacts	Retrieve all contacts	Retrieves the contacts of the company
	Create contact	Creates a new contact
	Retrieve contact by ID	Retrieves a contact using contact ID
	Update contact	Updates a contact
	Delete contact	Deletes a contact
Conversations	Retrieve all conversations	Retrieves the conversations in the company in reverse chronological order (most recently updated first). The order will respect your company's bump settings, which determine when conversations bump to the top.
	Create discussion conversation	Creates a new conversation that only supports comments (known as discussions in Front). If you want to create a conversation that supports messages, use the Create message action. If you want to add a comment to an existing conversation, use the Create comment action.
	Search conversation	Search for conversations. Response will include a count of total matches and an array of conversations in descending order by last activity.
	Retrieve conversation by ID	Retrieves a conversation using conversation ID
	Update conversation	Updates a conversation
	Retrieve conversation inboxes	Retrieves the inboxes in which a conversation is listed
Comments	Retrieve comment by ID	Retrieves a comment using comment ID
Comments	Create comment	Adds a comment to a conversation
Messages	Create message	Sends a new message from a channel. This is one of the ways to create a new conversation. The new conversation will support both messages and comments (discussions).
	Create message reply	Replies to a conversation by sending a message and appending it to the conversation
	Receive custom messages	Receive a custom message in Front. This action is available for custom channels only.
	Retrieve message by ID	Retrieves a message using message ID