Integration and API Manager

Overview

The IAM (Integration Error Handling and API Event Manager) application aims to maintain a record of both outbound requests from Appian to external services (through integration objects) and of inbound requests from external services to Appian (through a WebAPI object), as well as gracefully handling any exceptions. IAM provides a solution for handling the responses of outbound integration calls and exposes an API, or re-usable functionality, for inbound event management to help accelerate development in applications where WebAPIs, integration objects or both are required.

Recommended use cases of the accelerator application include:

• Auditing of outbound calls to external systems through integration objects and/or inbound calls to Appian from external systems through an API object.
• Using integration objects, when it is important to know where an erroneous response has been received (either for the end-user who’s action caused the error, or for some administrator)
• Exposing Appian to an external system through an API, where the inbound calls need to be routed according to the type of call (the event type)
• Exposing Appian to an external system where it is important to validate the JSON schema of the request body.
• Correlating outbound integration calls with asynchronous inbound API responses.

Key Features & Functionality

The IAM goals are is achieved through the following core functionalities:

• Event Manager Auditing - Outbound and Inbound: The event manager auditing functionality is a simple way of maintaining a record of all outbound and inbound events, and key attributes against those events.
• Integration Error Handling: Auditing, displaying and reporting of identified integration errors.
• Appian Event Manager API: The existing Event Manager WebAPI can be used if a single WebAPI for the environment is sufficient, or similar WebAPIs can be created using the Event Manager API as a template, where developers can utilise existing IAM expression rules to enable the functionality. Functionality includes API header and JSON body validation and inbound API event routing.
• Correlation of Outbound Requests & Inbound Response: Enables matching of an Outbound Event with a subsequent Inbound Event, through the use of a correlation ID.
• An Administrators site with Administrative features (data management, JSON Schema creation & upload)