Integrating applications by using rule connector elements

From Rule designer in BMC Helix Innovation Studio, use the Connector element to integrate your application with a third-party service or application. Connector element invokes the actions defined for a connector.

An action can be creating or updating an event or a task in your target application or using a query expression to fetch data from your target application. You add one or more actions to a rule, but each action is defined by a single Connector element.

For information on the connector development process and out-of-the box connectors, see Connectors-overview.

To add connectors in a rule

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Workspace tab.
2. Select the application in which your rule exists.
3. In the application, click Rules.
4. Click the rule name where you want to add connectors.
   The system opens the Rule designer and displays the process diagram on the canvas.
5. Drag the Connector element to the canvas and place the connector where you want to add the connector in the rule and provide the input and output connections.

6. Select the Connector element and enter the values for the following properties:

   Property	Description
   GENERAL
   Label	Enter the label for the Connector element.
   Connection Name	Enter the same name as entered for the Connection tab for this connection.
   INPUT MAP
   Connection	Select the name from the list. The list includes all the connectors that are configured in Connector Configurations from Administration tab.
   Use as alias	Enable the option if you want to use the connector element as an alias. For more information about processes related to aliases, see Adding-connector-configurations and Mapping-an-alias-to-connector-configuration.
   Action	Select the action that you want to perform for the Connector element. Action—To create or update an event or a task in your target application, select the action . Query—To fetch data from your target application, use a query expression .
   OUTPUT MAP
   Name	Select the process output from the list and map it with the action output. The process output is already created as a part of process.
   Source	Enter the value based on the Action you choose in the INPUT MAP. The value in this field varies depending upon the Action you select.

7. Enter the values for the parameters of the selected action.
   For example, enter a value for Issue Type. By default, only the required parameters are displayed. You can add the optional parameters by using the Add/Remove Parameters property.
8. Save the rule.

Example: Rule to create a JIRA issue by using JIRA connector

The following rule integrates an application with JIRA services. The rule uses the JIRA connector to create a JIRA issue when a new record instance for a record definition is created. The record definition is a regular definition that consists of a text field JIRA Issue Key, along with the default fields. To store the issue key of the JIRA issue that is created by using the rule, the JIRA Issue Key field is mapped to the connector output.

When a new instance of the record definition is created (On Create record event), the rule is triggered and performs the following tasks:

1. Connector gets input from the Description field of the record instance.
2. Connector creates a new issue in JIRA and the JIRA issue is populated with the details of the Description field of the record instance.
3. Connector provides the new JIRA issue key as an output and the JIRA issue key is stored in the JIRA Issue Key field of the record instance.

General properties sample values

The following table illustrates sample values for the General properties in the rule example:

Trigger sample values

The following table illustrates sample values for the Trigger element in the rule example:

Connector sample values

The following table illustrates sample values for the Connector element in the rule example:

Related topics

Integrating-applications-by-using-process-connector-elements

Troubleshooting-integration-service-connection-issues

Rule-designer-elements