Set up a wrapper connection

A wrapper is a developer toolkit to build connectors that provide communication between integrator.io and external APIs that can't use an application connector or any other universal connector. Wrappers require you to create a stack and are more complex to set up and maintain, but when simpler connector solutions fail, a wrapper connector can connect with any platform. Wrapper connectors can't be made available for use across other integrator.io accounts.

Contents

• When to use a wrapper connection
• Create a stack
  • Create a server stack
  • Create an AWS Lambda stack
• Create a wrapper connection

When to use a wrapper connection

Use a wrapper connector only if the external API doesn't have a branded connector created by Celigo and has requirements that can't be resolved using a universal connector.

• If Celigo already has an application connector that works for your integration purposes, you should use the application connector because it has been specifically customized for communication with the app.
• If an application connector does not exist, use a universal connector to create your integration flows. Universal connectors are the least complex solution for communicating with apps that don't yet have an application connector. 

For example, if the API doesn't allow REST or HTTP-based connections or requires you to use OAuth 1.0 authentication (which is not supported by the HTTP universal connector), use a wrapper.

Wrappers are also useful if the external app requires the base URI or relative path to be passed without encryption, but also requires sensitive information (like token, password) to use encryption in JSON format. You can't view encrypted information after you save the connection, so make sure you can easily reference the schema of the JSON object.

Create a stack

Wrappers require you to create your own stack to store all the logic for connecting to and communicating with the external system. Verify that you have Developer Mode enabled so that you're able to see Stacks in the Resources menu.

Create a server stack

Use the following steps to create a server stack:

1. Navigate to Resources > Stacks. You'll need to have Developer Mode enabled to access Stacks.
2. Click + Create stack.
3. In the Name field, enter an appropriate name for the stack that you are about to create.
4. Use the drop-down menu in the Type field to select Server.

5. Enter the server URL in the Host field.
6. Click Save & close.
7. Once you've saved the stack, click Show token in the System token column, and copy the token. You'll need this access token to enable the wrapper extension to communicate with integrator.io.

8. Review the express-integrator-extension readme files to specify the wrapper functions required to set up the connection. The ping function is especially important since it allows integrator.io to detect if the connection to your stack is active.

Create an AWS Lambda stack

Use the following steps to create a AWS Lambda stack:

1. Navigate to Resources > Stacks. You'll need to have Developer Mode enabled to access Stacks.
2. Click + Create stack.
3. In the Name field, enter an appropriate name for the stack that you are about to create.
4. Select AWS Lambda from the Type drop-down list.

5. Enter the Access Key Id and the Secret Access Key.
6. Select the region from the AWS Region drop-down menu.
7. Enter the Function name.
8. Select C# or Node.js from the Language drop-down menu.
9. Click Save & close.
10. Review the lambda-integrator-extension readme files to specify the wrapper functions required to set up the connection. The ping function is especially important since it allows integrator.io to detect if the connection to your stack is active.

Create a wrapper connection

Use the following steps to create a wrapper connection:

1. After completing the above steps, click Resources > Connections -> New connection, then choose the Wrapper application connector.

Name (required): Provide a clear and distinguishable name. Throughout integrator.io imports and exports, you will have the option to choose this new connection, and a unique identifier will prove helpful later when selecting among a list of connections that you’ve created.

Application (required, non-editable): A reminder of the app you’re editing. 

Ping function: If you're using a ping function in your wrapper code, specify that function name here. This enables integrator.io to test your connection. If your connection goes offline due to an intermittent issue, integrator.io runs a batch process every hour (with an exponential decay) to regularly ping your connection and bring the connection back online if possible. If the connection drops and is re-established, pending or in progress jobs will resume processing.

Stack: Choose the stack that is hosting your wrapper code.

Unencrypted: Provide any non-sensitive data here.

Encrypted: Provide any sensitive data here.

Concurrency level (optional): Up to 25 allowed....

Provide the information required for the stack and then test and save the connection.