Connectors & instances introduction
Last updated
Last updated
Understanding the relationship between connectors and instances is key when you are working with process flows. In short:
A is a generic integration of a third-party business system/application - it contains everything needed 'under the hood' (for example, endpoints, authentication methods, etc.) to sync data from/to the associated application.
An of a connector is unique to your company, personalised with your own credentials and settings. Any instances that you add are available for use in when you add a .
These relationships are illustrated below:
The chances are that your business uses a range of third-party applications - for example, you might take sales orders in Shopify, manage customer data in Voyado, and handle financial accounts in NetSuite.
In Patchworks, a connector is an integration of a third-party business system/application that you can if you need to sync data from/to the associated application. A curated library of prebuilt connectors can be found in the .
If you need to integrate a third-party application that doesn't have a prebuilt connector in the - and if you have technical knowledge of APIs and working with data structures - you can use the to integrate any application with a REST API.
When you , you are installing a package of generic configuration and setup that's required to integrate the associated third-party application in Patchworks. You only need to install a given connector once. After that, you can add as many of it as you need for use in your .
Similarly, if you , that update is applied to all associated instances automatically.
An instance is the mechanism used to configure a connector for your own use in .
Instances are added to process flows via the .
Every instance requires authentication credentials that allow you to access the associated third-party application. Typically, you'll create one instance for each set of credentials that you have for a given connector that you want to use in . The examples below show how this might work in practice.
Event connectors are a different sort of connector, used to configure listeners for message brokers such as RabbitMQ. For more information please see the section.