Key Concepts
App Xchange is a high-powered tool that can be complicated to use. Knowing a little bit about what to expect will make it easier when it’s time to put the tool to use.
App Xchange uses connectors, flows, configurations, services, and schedules to gather and send data. Combining these parts together is called an integration. Integrations are the way App Xchange knows what data to gather and send from each system. They can be built as needed, or you can use shared resources from other integrations to use in building your flow.
Connectors
Connectors are how the App Xchange platform communicates with external systems, like ProjectSight or Vista.
Connectors support a wide range of business functions and departments and are customized on a customer-by-customer basis. There are two types of connectors:
Standard connectors connect to public API
On-prem connectors for customers with no public API available
You can find more information about live connectors on our marketplace.
Flows
Flows are the star feature of App Xchange. They facilitate the transfer of data between connectors on the App Xchange platform.
Flows must have:
A trigger event - An action that happens in the external system, like creating a new change order or updating an employee phone number. App Xchange detects the action and starts running the flow.
Steps - The operations that process once the event is triggered.
A flow can be private or shared. A private flow is only visible to the users of the workspace where it was created. A shared flow can be used by integrations that you deploy to your customers.
Flows can range from simple to very complex. They are a powerful tool when trying to solve the problem of data interoperability.
Trigger Events
Editing a Trigger
Trigger events are actions that happen in an app that cause the flow to start running. When you set up the integration, you’ll determine the schedule for when App Xchange checks the external system for a trigger event.
Editing a Step
Steps
Once a trigger event has been detected for a flow, the flow steps begin.These are a series of steps that execute in order and perform a specific set of functions. Steps can follow many paths. They aren’t linear. They can branch and loop back to previous steps.
Some steps will require writing code to get the required functionality. Code can be written in JavaScript.
Jobs
A job is the work done by a connector within an integration. It includes the services that are part of the integration and the schedule to move the data.
Services
Services move data between external systems and App Xchange. They do this in one of two ways:
Cache writer service: Gets data from the source system and copies it into the App Xchange platform
Action processor service: Sends data from App Xchange to the target system
Services do the heavy lifting of processing the actions that are queued from a flow. Services are specific to each connector.
Schedules
Schedules run a sequence of services and on-demand flows to move data between App Xchange and external systems. These schedules define the timing of when and how an integration runs.
Integrations
Integrations use the connectors, services, flows, and jobs to power the movement of data between systems.
Integrations can reuse resources across multiple workspaces. There are multiple integration types:
Standard: Automates the data flow between two or more systems that the company uses. The Standard Integration is meant to be configurable and re-usable across many different customer workspaces.
Custom: Custom integrations are specific to a single customer workspace. They are built in such a way that they cannot be used across multiple customer workspaces.
CDX Project: CDX project integrations are scoped to a construction project and can be used on multiple projects across many different customers. It automates data flow between two or more systems on a construction project. Oftentimes, there are multiple companies and stakeholders that will be involved in this CDX project integration.
Integrations are discussed in detail in the Integration Building section.