About this guide:
This documentation for the IOLITE Nexus Connector Platform is intended for use by Salesforce system administrators who are installing and configuring this tool. The guide is set up in two sections. The first section is relevant to all administrators and is regarding the installation of the IOLITE Nexus Salesforce Connector Platform itself. These steps detail the installation of the Platform.
Once the Platform has been installed and configured - the Salesforce Administrator will download their specific Connector(s), and configure these connectors to suit their business needs. Individual Connector-specific documentation will be provided so that the Administrator can obtain relevant details for their specific Connector.
Nexus Overview
Installation of the Nexus Platform requires a few simple steps:
- You will receive a welcome email from IOLITE Solutions. This welcome email will contain instructions to install the IOLITE Nexus Connector Platform into your Salesforce instance. Click on the link in this email to begin the installation. If you did not receive a welcome email - please log a ticket at: https://www.
iolitepro.com/contact
You will also receive a separate email with security credentials from the software vendor (Please note: each vendor may provide their credentials differently). These security credentials will be essential to enabling the Nexus software to connect to the application. If you did not receive this information - please log a ticket at: https://www.
How it works:
An API is actually a collection of functions that is enabled on a software platform. There can be one or hundreds of functions that are defined to allow an external system (such as Salesforce) to have access to the data. Each function is called an endpoint. An endpoint supports a single action on a defined collection of fields.
Valid actions for an endpoint include:
Get (Retrieve data from 3rd party software)
Put (Insert data to 3rd party software)
Patch (Update data in 3rd party software)
Post (Update data in 3rd party software)
Delete (Delete data in 3rd party software)
In this example - Salesforce would be sending one piece of data (Account Number), and the example endpoint is defined such that it will return the Address, City, State, and Zip fields.
The Nexus platform already has all of the endpoints for the 3rd party software defined. When you download the Connector - you're downloading all of the fields necessary for every endpoint defined for that Connector.
These items in Nexus are called Data Events. Data Events are either Outbound (Salesforce ==> 3rd Party System, also referred to as a Request), Inbound (3rd Party System ==> Salesforce, also referred to as a Response), or both. The majority of endpoints will have both since you will either be requesting data based on something, or sending data and expecting a confirmation that it was received.
In order for the Data Event to be properly set up, the Salesforce administrator must map all the fields.
To configure the Nexus Data Event completely - the Salesforce Administrator needs to know how data will flow when executing a Data Event. Each Data Event will have all the possible Fields listed, and all the Administrator needs to do is identify where the data will flow (either from or to Salesforce...and which field).
Once all field mappings have been addressed (either mapped, or non-required fields can be left un-mapped), the Data Event will be configured, and the data can be accessed by invoking the action. You can invoke this action in multiple ways.
- Once the Data event is configured, it will automatically become available on the Universal Action Lightning Web Component. The Universal Action Lightning Web Component is an element that can be placed on any Lightning Page in Salesforce. Any Data Event that uses the Base object will be listed in the Universal Action Lightning Web Component. You can select the function and click "Execute" to initiate the data transfer for the Data Event. In this way - a Data Event can be initiated manually.
- If you wish to initiate the Data Event automatically, you can invoke it using FLOW or Apex.
- Sometimes functions are based on a list of data elements that come from a query. These callouts would use the List Builder tab where the query is built using the fields configured in the mapping step, as well as with an optional 'WHERE' clause that is added by the Administrator.
- List Builder functions can also be invoked via FLOW or Apex.