Claris Connect Help

Claris Connect™ is a cloud-based integration platform that allows you to create entire workflows by connecting applications. Claris Connect runs on Safari and Chrome web browsers.

Before you begin working with Claris Connect, see the glossary to understand the Claris Connect terms used in this document.

When you purchase Claris Connect from the Claris® Store, you specify the organization (or team) for the Claris Connect license. After the purchase, you receive a welcome email with links to Claris Customer Console and Claris Connect. You use Claris Customer Console to manage your Claris Connect team and subscription. For information, see Claris Customer Console Help.

As a team manager, in Claris Customer Console, you can:

• invite other users to join Claris Connect, as users or team managers
• remove team managers, removing them from all projects in Claris Connect
• remove non-team managers from Claris Connect

When you sign in to Claris Connect, you land on the homepage, and your team name is displayed at the top left.

At the top right of the homepage, click to access your user profile in Claris Customer Console, or to sign out.

Click ... next to the team name to see the number of active and allotted flows and used and allotted monthly API requests for your subscription. If you are a team manager, you can invite and manage users, and upgrade your subscription in Claris Customer Console. You can also add a secure on-premise agent for data access behind a firewall; see Adding an on-premise agent.

The monthly API requests are calculated based on the number of flow runs for all the steps in all projects. This number is reset on the first day of each month. In general, each step creates an API request. Use the flow history for information about flow runs for each project. See Viewing flow history.

When you work with Claris Connect, follow these general steps.

1. Determine the workflow you want to automate, including the apps to connect and the steps you want performed. Write down a task statement, such as: "When a user submits a form on Formstack, add the user to a Mailchimp audience."

2. Plan the project and flow based on the task statement. For example:

   • Decide to create a Formstack project because the flow starts with Formstack.
   • Identify the trigger and action (or actions) in the flow. In this example, submitting the Formstack form is the trigger, and adding the user's email to the Mailchimp audience is the action.

3. Identify any prerequisite tasks for the flow, and perform them before creating the flow. These are steps external to Claris Connect. For example:

   • You need user accounts for each app that you want to connect—in this case, Formstack and Mailchimp accounts.
   • In Formstack, you must create and publish a form.
   • In Mailchimp, you must create an audience.
4. Create the project. See Create a project.
5. Create and enable the flow. See Create a flow.
6. Test the flow. See Test a flow.

A project is an organizing container for your flows. You work with projects on the Claris Connect homepage, where you create projects and use a project's options menu to edit, rename, or delete a project.

After you sign in to Claris Connect, the homepage shows any existing projects. If you don't have any projects yet, you are prompted to create your first one.

Key Claris Connect features are available within projects. When you are in a project, you see five tabs on the left navigation pane:

Use this tab	To
My Projects	Go to the homepage.
Flows	Create flows.
Approvals	View the status of approval requests created with the built-in Approval app. See About approvals.
Webhooks	Create a webhook for use as a trigger in a flow. See Using a webhook in a flow.
Sharing	Invite users to collaborate on a project. See Share a project.

The History tab provides troubleshooting information for a flow. If flow history is enabled, Claris Connect saves the history for all the flow runs for up to 30 flows in a project for 30 days.

The history is enabled or disabled for all flows in a project.

To enable flow history:

1. On the Flows tab of a project, click History.
2. Click Enable Flow History, then click Enable.

To disable flow history:

1. On the Flows tab of a project, click History.
2. Use the slider at the bottom of the screen to disable flow history.

Important:Disabling flow history deletes all history from the project and cannot be undone.

After flow history is enabled, you can:

• filter the flows for which you want to see information by the name and status of flows
• view the status of all or selected flow runs

• for each flow run, view the status, version, name, timestamp, and additional information such as whether the flow was replayed

  • the status can be: Success, Error, Pending (delayed), or Scheduled. Scheduled indicates that the flow action is scheduled using the Schedules utility.
  • additional information can be Replayed, or Compilation error at step number

• click a flow run to view the steps in the flow. From the step view:

  • to return to the flow list, click Back
  • to move between flow runs, click Next or Previous
  • to run the flow again, click the button
• click a step to view the HTTP request and response. (Trigger steps only contain a request.)

The HTTP request shows the HTTP method, body, and URL parameters. This page also shows the success or error status and the request URL. If there are any errors, the response displays the error.

Note: You can't view information for any steps that didn't run.

The Connected Apps tab lists the accounts for your connected apps. You can:

• edit the default account name. Click the name, type the new name, and click out of the name field.
• test a connected account.
• reconnect to an account (for example, if you have updated your credentials).
• delete an account.

  You cannot delete an app account that is used in a flow in the project. You must first edit the flow step to remove the connected app.

Claris Connect provides a set of preconfigured templates that streamline flow creation. For example, the Typeform to Slack template posts a message in Slack when a Typeform form entry is submitted. When you use a template, you create a project for the template and the resulting flow.

To use a template:

1. On the new project pane of the homepage, hold the pointer over and choose Create from Template.
2. On the Templates tab, click the template you want to create a flow from.
3. On the badge text page describing the template, click Use Template.

   The template wizard appears. The wizard has four tabs: Introduction (if this is the first time you have used the template), Connect, Configure, and Finish.

4. Read the introduction, which describes the prerequisites for the template, such as the information required in the connector apps. Then click Next.
5. In the Create a New Project dialog box, enter a new project name or accept the template name displayed, then click Create.
6. On the Connect tab, click Connect New Account for each of the apps. After each is connected, click Next.
7. On the Configure tab, click Save for the configuration action of each connector, then click Next.
8. On the Finish tab, click Go to Project.

The flow created from the template is available for use in the project.

A trigger is an event that initiates a flow. A trigger has two basic elements: the component (utility or app) in which the flow starts, and the event in the component that initiates the flow. Triggers fall into three categories:

• App triggers are real-time events that you configure in a flow. The badge text for an app lists any available triggers. For example, "Email changed" is a Mailchimp trigger. You can configure a flow that activates when a Mailchimp user changes their email address.
• The Claris Connect Schedules utility lets you trigger a flow to run at a specific time and at scheduled intervals thereafter. See Scheduling flows.
• The Claris Connect Webhook utility lets you configure a trigger with an incoming HTTP request. Once you configure the webhook, a flow initiates when an HTTP request is posted to the webhook URL. See Using a webhook in a flow.

When a configured flow detects its trigger event, the flow runs. You can view the flow's run on the History tab.

Claris Connect provides different types of steps for you to use in flows. As you add a flow step, you can test and edit its configuration to ensure its success. To edit or delete steps, see Edit a flow.

Action steps

An action step performs an operation in the target app: typically, a create, update, or search operation. Each action requires a set of input fields and typically returns data that can be used in subsequent steps.

Note: In addition to using step data in action steps, you can also manually enter constants, such as string names.

If-Then steps

An If-Then step performs a conditional action. The step only runs if the specified event occurs. For example, you can create an If-Then step that captures the email field on a Formstack form; checks that the email isn't a personal address ending with @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, or @hotmail.com; and if not, adds the email to a Mailchimp list.

1. In a flow step, choose If-Then from the options menu.
2. In the If field, click Edit a description, enter a step description, then press Enter.
3. Choose the step data object for the If statement.
4. Choose a condition to be met.
5. Enter a value or choose a step data object.
6. Continue to add AND or OR statements.
7. Click Save.

Repeat steps

Use a Repeat step to iterate through a list of items. The Repeat actions are carried out on each item in the list. For example, you can use the Repeat step to iterate through the found set for a FileMaker custom app and perform different actions based on the data for each record.

1. In a flow step, choose Repeat from the options menu.
2. Select a list item from the previous step data and click Save.
3. Choose the connector and then the action to be performed on each list item and click Save.
4. Choose the connector and then the action to be performed on the list output and click Save.

Stop steps

A Stop step halts the flow. Often, a Stop step is used if an error is likely to occur. You can add a Stop step to a flow when you are troubleshooting the flow.

1. In a flow step, choose Stop from the options menu.

   If you choose the Stop with Error Message option, the message status is "error" with the HTTP code 400.

2. Enter the message to be displayed when the flow stops.
3. Click Save.

You can also use a Stop step with an If-Then step to add a condition to a flow. For example:

1. Create a flow that is triggered when a new member is added to an audience in Mailchimp.
2. Add an If-Then step that:
   1. Detects whether the email address is from @example.com.
   2. If true, posts the message "New audience member from example.com" on a Slack channel.
   3. If false, uses a Stop step to stop the flow.
3. If the email address isn't from @example.com, posts the message "New audience member" on the Slack channel.

Without the Stop step, two messages would be posted for new audience members from @example.com.

On-Error steps

An On-Error step detects errors so you can take remedial action if one occurs. For example, a remedial action might be to send an email notification to a user if a file failed to upload. An On-Error step must be attached to the action step you want to monitor—in this example, a file upload.

When you choose On-Error from a flow step's options menu, you are prompted to configure a new action, beginning with choosing an app or utility for the remedial action.

Testing a step

As you configure a flow step, you can test it.

1. Click the step to test, then click Review and Test.

2. On the step configuration page:

   • to view the test response page, click Test Action
   • to update the step fields, click Edit Configuration
3. Click Save.

Notes

• Testing the flow action runs the step in your production environment.
• The steps that run appear on the History tab of the flow.

Step data is the actual data returned from a previous step in a flow. You can use this data in configuring subsequent steps in your flow.

You work with step data using the button when configuring the input fields for an action. This button appears on the right of each input field.

Note: Step data is of the following data types: text, integer, float, date, Boolean, array (list), or JSON. When you select data from a previous step to use in an action input field, make sure to use a compatible data type. For example, use date step data in a date field.

To use step data:

1. Click for a step to add an action step to the flow.
2. Click the app or utility you want to add to the flow.
3. On the Configure tab, complete the input fields for the action.
   • Click to display the fields from the previous steps and their respective data.

     A search box appears above the available previous steps.

   • Click a previous step to see the available fields and data.
   • Select the step data to add.
4. Click Save.

Use the Schedules utility to schedule a flow step at a specified time interval. The step can be a trigger or an action.

To schedule a trigger step:

1. Click New Flow, then choose Schedules from the list of utilities.
2. Select an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or custom interval.

   Custom intervals must be specified as cron expressions. See CronMaker.

3. Configure the time or date by completing the input fields.
4. Click Save Trigger.

To schedule an action step:

1. In a flow step, choose Action from the options menu, then choose Schedules from the list utilities.
2. Select whether you want the step to wait for a certain amount of time or a certain date.
3. Click Save.

Use the Approval utility to create an email approval as a step in a flow. The primary approver you specify in a flow step can only approve the specified flow. For example, you could create a flow that sends an approval email to a manager after an employee submits a form using Formstack or Typeform.

You can also add secondary approvers for a project. Secondary approvers can process approvals for all flows in the project.

Create an approval in a flow step

1. In a flow step, choose Action from the options menu, then click Approval from the Utilities list.
2. New approval is selected; click Continue.
3. Complete the fields for the approval. Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).
4. Click Save.

An email with the content you entered is sent to the approver. If approvers don't use Microsoft Outlook, they can accept or reject approvals in the email. Approvers who use Microsoft Outlook can go to the Claris Connect project to respond to approval requests. See View and manage approval requests.

Add secondary approvers

1. Make sure the user is a collaborator for the project. See Share a project.

Team managers are automatically collaborators and approvers for all projects.

2. In the left-hand navigation pane, click Approvals.
3. Click the Approvers tab.
4. In the secondary approvers field, search for a user by typing the name or email address.
5. Select the user, then click Add.

The user is added to the list of approvers.

Notes

• Secondary approvers don't receive email messages about approval requests.
• You can't remove team managers from the list of secondary approvers.
• The list of approvers in the Approvers tab shows team managers and any collaborators you added as secondary approvers. It doesn’t include approvers specified in flow steps.

View and manage approval requests

1. In the left-hand navigation pane, click Approvals.
2. Click the Requests tab to check the status of an approval.

   All approvals in your project are listed on this page.

3. To search the list of requests, use the search filters, then click Search.

   

4. To process a pending request, click a request, then click Approve or Reject.

Webhooks enable Claris Connect to post or retrieve data through an HTTP request to a specific URL. Claris Connect also allows you to send or retrieve data in JSON format with webhooks.

Create a webhook to use in flows

1. In the left-hand navigation pane, click Webhooks.

   The Webhooks page appears.

   

2. Under Create new webhook, enter a name that will be used in the webhook URL, then click Create.
3. Click the created webhook field to edit the webhook's settings or delete the webhook.

   Note:If you delete the webhook, the endpoint will no longer be available to accept data.

   • To require authorization to use the webhook, enable Use authentication.
   • To get a sync response when the webhook is accessed, enable Return sync response.
4. If you required authentication to use the webhook, and you want to send it to a user, copy the project API key. You can also generate a new key. If you regenerate the key, you must provide the new key to other users.

After you configure the webhook, it is available for use in flows.

Using a webhook in a flow

You can use a webhook as a trigger to receive an incoming HTTP request. When you use a webhook as a trigger, you generate a unique URL. Whenever that URL receives an HTTP request, it triggers the associated flow.

You can also use a webhook as an action step, which sends an outgoing HTTP request each time an event occurs in the connected app.

To use a webhook as a trigger:

1. Click New Flow, then click Webhook from the list of utilities.
2. Incoming HTTP Request is selected; click Continue.
3. To view the webhook options, click the down arrow in the Select Webhook list. You can choose an existing webhook or choose Create a New Webhook.

4. If you create a new webhook, you are prompted to name it.

   Whether you select an existing webhook or create a new one, the URL appears below your entry. The phrase webhook_name/catch appears at the end of the URL.

5. Send an HTTP request to the URL to continue.
6. To get a sync response when the webhook is used, click the URL. Copy it and append "?sync=true" to the URL. To customize the response, configure the Reply with JSON action step next in the flow.
7. Click Save Trigger.

To use a webhook as an action:

1. In a flow step, choose Action from the options menu, then click Webhook from the list of utilities.
2. Select the webhook action step you want to configure: for example, Reply with JSON.
3. Enter any additional configuration for the webhook action. For example, update the JSON body to be returned.
4. Click Save.
5. Use the Enable/Disable slider on the flow page to enable the flow.
6. To check the flow's results, click the History tab and review the HTTP request and response for the flow steps.

This section explains how to create a named variable for using step data in other fields.

1. In a flow step, choose Action from the options menu, then click Variable from the list of utilities.
2. Click Continue.
3. Enter the variable name to update, or click Create a New Variable.

   For a new variable, enter the variable name.

4. Enter the variable value. Click to select data fields from previous steps.
5. Click Save.

The variable is now available in the step data list for subsequent steps.

For example, this flow creates and uses a variable:

1. Create a flow that is triggered when a ticket order is placed on Eventbrite.
2. Create an RSVP Goal variable with the value 25.
3. Add a Get Event action step from Eventbrite.
4. Add a Post Message action step from Slack.
5. Add an If-Then step that calculates whether the RSVP goal has been reached:
• If true, posts a message on Slack.
• If false, the flow ends.

For each FileMaker® connector:

• a Claris ID is required to sign in with.
• the database server must be hosted on the internet.
• the Claris FileMaker Data API must be enabled on the server.
• custom apps must have the FileMaker Data API extended (fmrest) privilege enabled.
• a valid third-party SSL certificate must be installed on the database server. The default certificate installed with FileMaker Server is not sufficient.

The information required to establish the connection differs between FileMaker Cloud and FileMaker Server connectors.

FileMaker Cloud	FileMaker Server
Organization (team) name	Domain (DNS name)
Instance URL	Username
Database name	Password
	Database name (with optional extension)

Because both FileMaker Cloud and Claris Connect use Claris ID, you are automatically authenticated and don't have to specify your username and password, as you do for FileMaker Server.

You can use the FileMaker Cloud or FileMaker Server connectors as a trigger or as actions. (Only one trigger is available.) You can choose from several actions, as shown in the badge text for each connector.

Adding a FileMaker connector trigger

To use either the FileMaker Cloud or FileMaker Server connector as a trigger, you must create a script in your custom app.

1. Create a flow and select the FileMaker connector to use. See Create a flow.
2. On the Action page that displays the script trigger A new record has been created, click Continue.
3. On the Account page, click Connect New Account.
   • For FileMaker Cloud, select the organization (team) associated with your account, the instance name, and the database name. Then click Sign In.
   • For FileMaker Server, enter the required information and click Sign In.
4. On the Configure page, a set of instructions appears. Write down the generated callback URL, because you cannot copy and paste it.

   You will add this callback URL in step 5.

5. Open Claris FileMaker Pro™ and create a script.

   In the script, follow the instructions displayed in Claris Connect exactly to complete the connector configuration, and save your work.

6. After creating the script in FileMaker Pro, go to Claris Connect and click Save.
7. Run the script in FileMaker Pro, which sends the data you specified in the $$JSON data variable to Claris Connect.

   The data is then available for use in subsequent steps in the flow.

This example shows a script in FileMaker Pro. Notice where the data fields appear for:

Value: "{\\"action\\":\\"script\\, "}"

Note:The onscreen instructions describe creating a script trigger, but you can also manually run the script or attach it to a button.

Adding a FileMaker connector action

To use a FileMaker connector as an action:

1. Select the connector in a flow step.
2. On the Action page, select the action (for example, Create record), and click Continue.
3. Choose the layout to use in your custom app and click Save.

   Only the fields in that layout are available for use as step data in your flow.

1. From the options menu next to your team name, choose Add On-Premise Agent.

   The Add On-Premise Agent wizard appears.

2. Accept the Terms of Service and click Next.
3. Enter a unique name for the agent and choose the operating system for your computer, then click Next.
4. Download the installer file and copy the agent key that's displayed.

   You enter the agent key when you run the installer in step 7.

5. On your computer, navigate to the installer file, then double-click the file, and click Next.
6. Accept the default install folder or enter a different one, then click Next.
7. Paste the copied agent key and click Next.
8. When the installation completes, click Finish.
9. Do one of the following.
• To add data sources, click Next in the Add On-Premise Agent dialog box, then click Add a Data Source. Follow the onscreen instructions to add a FileMaker On-Premise or MySQL On-Premise data source.
• To use the command line to add data sources, see Configuring the agent.

Each named connection you add has its own namespace (group of related elements). Therefore, for each connector, you can have multiple named connections to different databases.

When you finish installing the agent, it appears on the On-Premise Agents tab on the homepage.

Installing the agent creates a configuration.yml file in the installation folder. You can edit this file to add new data sources or to update the settings for existing data sources.

If you accepted the default installation folder, the configuration.yml file is located in the /Library/Connect folder.

Note: Use single quotation marks for fields such as the domain name that you want parsed as a string.

The configuration.yml file initially has these fields: name, id, team, and host. You add a set of fields for each connector.

Field name	Description
name	(Generated) The agent name you specified
id	(Generated) The agent ID
team	(Generated) The team ID
host	(Generated) The host URL
connector_name	mysql or filemaker
connection_name	Identifies this instance of the connector. Each named connection has its own namespace. Therefore, for each connector, you can have multiple named connections to different databases.
host (MySQL) or domain (FileMaker)	The IP address of the MySQL host, or the URL of the FileMaker domain
user (MySQL) or username (FileMaker)	The database user name
password	For MySQL agents, the password for the host computer; for FileMaker agents, the password for the database
database	The database name (optional for MySQL)

Here is an example configuration.yml file. The indentations are required; use two or four spaces for indentation.

name: Bedford Falls
id: 7c2f37ca-854e-4564-8705-24c2e08846a0
team: 58ecd75244b1e4406592e666
host: 'https://localhost:3000'
mysql:
pottersville:
host: 127.0.0.1
user: potter
password: BankL0an$
database: finance
filemaker:
bailey-park:
domain: https://example.com
username: bailey
password: 0dB0dy!
database: angels

Claris Connect provides a command line utility to run and manage the agent. To see the available commands, open a terminal window in the installation folder and type agent --help

Command	Description
version	Returns the current application version
update	Updates the configuration file
decrypt string	Decrypts credentials for use in the configuration file
encrypt string	Encrypts credentials for use in the configuration file
configure key	Generates a new configuration file, overwriting the previous file
run	Runs the agent, based on the current configuration file
start	Starts the agent as a service, based on the current configuration file
stop	Stops the currently running agent service

An uninstaller file is available in the installation folder. Running the uninstaller deletes the folder and its contents.

After you add an on-premise agent, it appears as Active in its project on the On-Premise Agents tab in Claris Connect. The agent is available as a connector to use in flow action steps.

Use the options menu for the agent to delete the agent from Claris Connect or to retrieve the agent key.

To use an on-premise agent in a flow:

1. Select the agent connector in a flow step.
2. On the Action page, select the action; for example, Create record, and click Continue.
3. When using an agent in a project for the first time, you are prompted to allow Claris Connect to access your on-premise server account:

   Enter the agent key and the connection name as specified in configuration.yml, and click Sign In.

   See Configuring the agent.

4. Choose the layout to use in your custom app and click Save.

   Only the fields in that layout are available for use as step data in your flow.

action

A step that carries out a create, update, or search operation on a target application.

connector

Software that integrates workflows and shared data between apps or data sources.

Editor page

The page where projects or flows are created.

field

An input field of any type (text or data).

flow

A workflow that connects two or more apps or utilities within a project.

flow step

Also step. Any operation in a flow. Triggers, actions, and If-Then, Stop, and On-Error are all flow steps.

flow template

Also template. A predefined flow.

flow trigger

Also trigger. An event that initiates a flow.

flow variable

Also variable. A named variable for use in flow steps.

navigation pane

On a project page, the area on the left that contains the Flows, Approvals, and Settings tabs.

on-premise agent

A proxy server which allows Claris Connect to securely access data behind a firewall.

project

A set of related flows. For example, the user might have a Salesforce Connectors project.

step data

Actual data returned from a previous step, or preview data.

utility

A predefined component used in steps, such as scheduling an action or performing a calculation.

webhook

Data and executable commands sent from one app to another over HTTP using a POST request.