Incoming in Alumio

Table Of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Creating and maintaining incoming configurations
  • Monitoring incoming configurations
  • Video guide

Introduction

Incoming configurations define how data should be retrieved from an (external) source. Examples of such sources are (s)FTP directories, REST APIs, and databases. Incoming configurations can be reused for multiple integrations. To do so, you can select the same incoming configuration within multiple route configurations. Data will only be retrieved once and duplicated for each route configuration.

Incoming configurations can be created and maintained by navigating to Integrations → Incoming.

Creating and maintaining incoming configurations

Possible configuration fields:

  • Name - A name describing the connectivity this configuration enables, i.e. Retrieve Magento Orders
  • Identifier - A unique identifier for this incoming configuration (this field is automatically generated based on the name).
  • Description - Detailed description for the incoming configuration.
  • Disabled - A flag that indicates whether the incoming configuration is disabled. Disabled incoming configurations do not retrieve new data.
  • Subscriber - The subscriber is the technical component performing the communication with the (external) source.
  • Entity transformers - The transformers which should be executed on the data flowing through this integration.

Note: In the HTTP Subscriber, and HTTP Transformer users should be able to select the “Request URI encoder”. When a user users a URL with a space in one of the query parameters it should be encoded as “%20” or “+” depending on the option selected. This should also work for pagination configured in the HTTP Subscriber.

Besides, when using plugins in the HTTP Subscriber, you can see different logging options as:

  • Full request which means headers and body will be logged;
  • Headers and partial body include only the first 10,000 characters to be logged;
  • Headers only, this option is recommended for usage;
  • Custom where you can define which character length should be logged.

How to use the “Request URI encoder” function?

  • Configure an HTTP subscriber, and HTTP transformer
  • Use a GET request
  • Configure “Request Parameters”.
    • Select object
      • Enter an object with values that contain spaces.
      • These properties will be added as query parameters.
    • Test leaving “Request URI encoder” empty. Spaces in URLs should be encoded as “+”
    • Test selecting the value in “Request URI encoder”. These are both encoding types. The spaces in URLs should be encoded as “%20” or “+”.
  • In the HTTP subscriber
    • Configure pagination. Select “Fllow next” links.
    • Query parameters containing spaces added to the URL should be encoded correctly according to the selected encoding type.



Note: When running an incoming configuration whilst that incoming configuration is still running in another process, the following message will pop up to inform you about the process: “This process is already running in the background. Please wait until the process has finished and try again".

How to send documentation with the cXML request encoder
Sending such information like cXML invoices via Alumio can be done by using the cXML request encoder function available in the Incoming configuration.

Here is a step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Make an Incoming configuration and select HTTP Subscriber.
Step 2: Fill out Request URI, Request URI encoder, Request Method.
Step 3: Select Encoded data as a paiload type, put the Request Parameters.
Step 4: Select Request encoder - cXML.
Step 5: Select an appropriate document type you can send via Alumio in the “DTD” field. All DTD options correspond to the cXML documentation.
Step 6: Fill out the rest of the settings and run Incoming.

Monitoring incoming configurations

To review all logs created by an incoming configuration you can navigate to the Logs tab. This allows you to review all past logging created by the selected incoming configuration.

Video guide