Store ReferenceCode in Appian from ExternalTool via API

Question

Hello everyone, 
 We are currently working on integrating an external tool (let&rsquo;s call it ExternalTool) with Appian. This tool sends data to Appian via an API, and we would like to know: 
 Is it possible to store one or more fields (such as "ReferenceCode") directly into the Appian database at the time the API call is received, without requiring any user interaction or manual processing? 
 If anyone has experience with this kind of direct data persistence from external APIs, your guidance or best practices would be greatly appreciated. 
 Thanks in advance for your help!

Shubham Aware · Answer

safaa_friha said: This tool sends data to Appian via an API 
 Wants to know how Appian is receiving a data? If External calls Appian API: Create a Web API in Appian to receive the data. Use a!writeToDataStoreEntity()/a!writeRecord() directly in the Web API to save to database. If Appian calls External API: Create an Integration object to call the external API, then build a Process Model that uses the Call Integration smart service to fetch the data followed by a!writeToDataStoreEntity()/a!writeRecord() to save it to the database. Schedule this process to run automatically using a Timer event for periodic data fetch and storage without user interaction.

Harsha Sharma · Answer

When you create web API in Appian you can configure to write data into database using smart services such a!writeRecords() or a!writeToDataStoreEntity() by passing in the data external system sent in the body of the http request. And yes, without any manual intervention the data (singular or multiple) can be transformed into record type or cdt and then written to db. Here is an example & documentation to refer for the same. In case any further doubt is there feel free to discuss here.

Stefan Helzle · Answer

Did you consider to use a synced record to persist that data in Appian?