The Get Data action allows the use of a GET request to an API in your workflows. This article discusses the Get Data action in more detail.
Table of Contents
Understanding the Get Data Action
GET requests retrieve information from resources on the web, but do not to change the state of these resources.
The Get Data action allows a GET request to be used with your workflows. The API GET request must have been set up previously in the API Manager, which is accessible from the Main Menu. For more information, see Using the AUTTO API Manager.
NOTE: The Get Data Action is disabled if a GET request has not been set up in the AUTTO API Manager.
With the Get Data action, you select the square brackets for the parameters that are sent with an API GET request to retrieve the data from an external system. You will also need to define the square brackets that will receive the data from the external system. You can then use the square brackets in your workflow.
If you enable the Run for Table option for a Get Data action, you will need to specify an input table that serves as the base version of an output table. The parameters that are sent with the API GET request to get the data from the resource/s can come from the input table. The API response/s sent back to the workflow is/are entered into the output table. For more information on the Run for Table option, see Getting Started with Run for Table.
The Get Data action works with both persistent data tables created under the Main Menu and temporary tables created earlier in a workflow.
Setting Up a Get Data Action
Use a Get Data action anytime you need to connect to and retrieve information from a web resource that is made available via an API.
To set up a Get Data action:
- Drag a Get Data action to the canvas of the Workflow Editor, then connect it to the previous action in the workflow.
- Position your cursor over the action, then click the Edit icon when it appears.
- On the Action Editor, select the API call to be used with the action from the list. This API call should have been set up earlier in the API Manager (for more information, see Using the AUTTO API Manager).
- Under the Parameters section, select the square brackets for the parameters which will be sent with the API GET request.
- Under the Response section, enter the name/s for the square bracket/s to which the response data will be saved.
NOTE: The Response section always contains an API Success Yes/No output that will return either Yes or No depending on whether the API connection succeeded in retrieving data or not. You are required to provide a name for the square bracket to which this message will be saved. Depending on your requirements, you can then add a Condition action that will allow your users to take the workflow into different paths based on this output. For more information, see Condition Action. - Click the x button on the top-left to save your changes and close the Action Editor.
NOTE: The Get Data Action is one of several Actions in AUTTO that have a Run for Table option, which allows you to use it against every record in an existing table and enter the results into a new table. Using square brackets, you can then use the new table later on in the workflow. For more information, see Getting Started with Run for Table.
How a Get Data Action Works
The Get Data action does not appear on the User Application. Instead, it runs the API call and sends the outbound [square_brackets] as parameters to the external system. It then receives the API response which it then saves as [square_brackets] for use later in the workflow.
Comments
0 comments
Article is closed for comments.