Connections

Locating the Connections feature

Anyone in a Role with the Define Web Adapters privilege can create a Standard Web Adapter by opening the PROGRAM DESIGN menu and clicking on Connections. Please note: The Define Web Adapters privilege needs to be set by a CPR Admin, and you can request this privilege by contacting PowerClerk’s Support Team through the Ticket System.
 

 
 

What are Connections?

Sometimes, it’s desirable in a Workflow to have automated processes fill in pieces of data (e.g. to lookup the customer’s address in a CIS system) or to kick off processes in other systems (e.g. a “set meter request”). That’s where Web Adapters come in – they allow PowerClerk to call utility-specific web services.
 
PowerClerk’s Connections functionality enables you to define a set of configuration parameters to integrate utility-specific web services. It consists of:

• Configuration UI to allow utility admins to pick which input/output data fields to use.
• Configuration and Test UI to allow utility admins to configure the adapter based on what properties the adapter exposes (e.g. endpoint/URL pointing to the utility-specific web service). Please note: You can define separate URLs to switch between Production and Test Environments, and store authentication information, as well as which messaging format to use (XML or JSON).

Once you have configured, tested, and enabled your web adapter there are two ways to use your new Web Adapter in your program:

• On a Form with the Web Service Call form element to create a button on a Form (to call the Web Adapter when a user clicks the button).
• Via Automation to call the Web Adapter on status transitions or other Automation triggers, including automated retries if the targeted utility-specific web service is unreachable.

Standard Web Adapter versus Custom List Lookup

While a Standard Web Adapter can be used to retrieve information from a web service external to PowerClerk, creating a Custom List Lookup Connection allows to validate or retrieve data from an existing Custom List within PowerClerk. This kind of lookup can be beneficial if the use case scenario should not offer up the entire data available on the Custom List for selection by the applicant, but to retrieve data matches with the click of a button and then to further process the retrieved data in data fields outside of the originating Custom List:
 

 

Create Web Adapter

Input and Output Fields

When creating a user-defined Web Adapter, a collection of Input Fields (which are sent from PowerClerk to the web service) and Output Fields (which are sent from the web service back to PowerClerk) are specified. For each Field, the following properties are defined:
 

1. Name – the name of the field, which is used as a label in the UI
2. DataType – the type of data that is passed in this Field. The DataType must be one of the following:
   • String – used for a Single Line Text field on a Form
   • Choice – used for a Drop-down List field or Multiple Choice field on a Form
   • Int64 – used for an Integer field on a Form
   • Decimal – used for a Decimal field on a Form
   • Boolean – used for a Check Box field on a Form
   • DateTime – used for a Date field on a Form
3. IsRequired – Boolean indicating whether the program designer is required to provide a mapping for this Field when defining a Web Adapter Configuration.

See below for an example of the Edit Web Adapter dialog to define input- and output fields in Connections with the Create Web Adapter button:
 

 
 

Connecting, Testing, and Enabling

Once the new Web Adapter has been created and the input- and output fields have been defined it is still in a disabled state. You can now start configuring and testing the connection to the utility-specific service’s endpoint URL and enable the Web Adapter for usage within your PowerClerk program:
 

 
The sample configuration below demonstrates the settings which need to be defined to successfully connect to the utility-specific web service. Setting Support Email Alias allows users to define an email address to receive notifications and error messages in the context of this new web adapter. Connections also allow users to define a dedicated endpoint URL and authentication credentials for your program’s Test Environment to facilitate testing Web Adapter changes separately from your ongoing Production Environment:
 

 
Please note: The Message Type format (XML or JSON) dictates the format in which to provide the web service’s response and cannot be mixed between both formats.
 
To test if the above configuration is properly set up to retrieve data from your web service, please go ahead and click on Save Properties and then enter sample data to test out the web service connection:
 

 

Maintenance and Alterations

Clean Power Research will maintain input- and output logs for any request issued by a Web Adapter created in Connections. Please note that the Web Adapter testing dialog and Support Email Alias (with a valid email address) will provide the means to troubleshoot common connectivity issues and exceptions, such as:

1. The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized. – Root Cause: The credentials in the connectivity configuration dialog are invalid and need to be corrected or the utility-specific web service does not recognize the credentials as valid any longer.
2. The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found. – Root Cause: The endpoint URL for setting Production URL or Test URL are invalid and in need of a correction or the utility-specific web service is unavailable.
3. The remote server returned an error: (500) Internal Server Error. – Root Cause: The utility-specific web service is not working properly and cannot provide a proper response to the Web Adapter request.

Please note: When encountering issues with your Standard Web Adapter configuration, you may also find additional error details on the Admin >> Operation Status page under the Failed Background Operations tab.
 
When altering a Web Adapter created through the Connections functionality, please note that once a Web Adapter has been used on a Form or in context of an Automation it cannot be altered in terms of input- or output fields and the proper way to re-use a prior Web Adapter configuration is to use the Copy functionality on the old Web Adapter to create a new version as shown below. This will create a new Web Adapter instance and allow you to proceed with necessary changes:
 

 

Web Adapter Message Formats

Web Adapter calls between PowerClerk and a utility-specific web service are made with a HTTP POST request to the endpoint URL that is associated with the web service. A client certificate is provided, and only HTTPS with TLS 1.2 is supported. For each Web Adapter, a serialization format for the message (for request and response) must be chosen as either XML or JSON. If XML is being used, then the message header will have “Content-Type” and “Accept” set to “application/xml”. If JSON is being used, then “application/json” will be used in the header instead. If username and password are needed for authentication to the server, then these values will be stored in the header through Basic Access Authentication (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_access_authentication for details).
 
The message body is a collection of Name / Value pairs, where the Name is the specified as part of the Web Adapter Field, and the Value is the data associated with the PowerClerk DataField the Field is mapped to through configuration.
 
For XML, the message looks like the following.

<Fields>
    <Field Name="Account Number">123</Field>
    ...
</Fields>

For JSON, the message looks like the following. Note that for XML, values are always represented as strings, but for JSON, some values (such as numbers and Booleans) are not.

{
    "Account Number":"123",
    ...
}

The format for the Value depends on the DataType for the Field, as well as the type of serialization used.
 

1. String or Choice DataType: The Value is simply the string data from PowerClerk. The only difference between these 2 DataTypes is that a Choice value must be a member of a pre-defined set of Strings in PowerClerk. Note that certain special characters will need to be escaped, following the requirements of the serialization format chosen. For XML the characters that must be escaped are documented at https://www.w3.org/TR/xml11/#sec-predefined-ent. The characters that must be escaped for JSON are documented at http://www.json.org/. For example, a Field with the Name “Sample String” and Value “`”@#$%^&*()<>\’” would be serialized as follows:
    
   XML
       <Field Name="Sample String">`"@#$%^&amp;*()&lt;&gt;\'</Field>
   JSON
       {"Sample String":"`\"@#$%^&*()<>\\'"}
    
2. Int64 or Decimal DataType: The number numeric value is represented directly as a number in JSON, and as a String in XML. For example, the value 123 would be serialized as follows:
    
   XML
       <Field Name="Sample Integer">123</Field>
    <Field Name="Sample Decimal">123.0</Field>

   JSON
       {
        "Sample Integer":123
    }
    {
        "Sample Decimal":123.0
    }
3. Boolean DataType: The value is represented directly as a lower-case Boolean value in JSON, and as a capitalized String in XML. For example:
   XML
       <Field Name="Sample Boolean">True</Field>
   JSON
       {"Sample Boolean":true}
    
4. DateTime DataType: In both JSON and XML, the value is represented as a String in the ISO 8601 UTC format. For example:
    
   XML
       <Field Name="Sample DateTime">2019-10-24T00:00:00Z</Field>
   JSON
       {"Sample DateTime":"2019-10-24T00:00:00Z"}
    

A complete sample message with all the above data is shown below:
 
XML

<Fields>
    <Field Name="Sample String">`"@#$%^&amp;*()&lt;&gt;\'</Field>
    <Field Name="Sample Integer">123</Field>
    <Field Name="Sample Decimal">123.0</Field>
    <Field Name="Sample Boolean">True</Field>
    <Field Name="Sample DateTime">2019-10-24T00:00:00Z</Field>
</Fields>

JSON

{
    "Sample String":"`\"@#$%^&*()<>\\'",
    "Sample Integer":123,
    "Sample Decimal":123.0,
    "Sample Boolean":true,
    "Sample DateTime":"2019-10-24T00:00:00Z"
}

 

Error Handling

On the application level, PowerClerk’s Standard Web Adapter allows you to emit a descritive error message instead of a regular result set. To emit an error please use the following keywords ServiceErrorMessage and ServiceErrorDetails which PowerClerk will interpret as follows:
 
Example error in XML:

<Fields>
    <Field Name="ServiceErrorMessage">This is an error</Field>
    <Field Name="ServiceErrorDetails">These are the error details.</Field>
</Fields>

 
Example error in JSON:

{
    "ServiceErrorMessage": "This is an error",
    "ServiceErrorDetails":  "These are the error details",
}

 
See below example screenshots on how this error would appear within the Test Connection dialog:
 

 
On an actual form this error will be displayed to the user encountering this error as follows:
 

 
 

Supported Message Formats

Message Format 1: Fields and Project Information message format

When configuring a Standard Web Adapter, the default option Fields and Project Information in the Message Version drop-down as shown in below screenshot does emit project meta data along with each Standard Web Adapter call:
 

 
With this option turned on, all input fields of your Standard Web adapter configuration are present within the Fields node, and the project meta data can be found in the Project Information node. The project information node contains the follwoing fields: ProjectNumber, ProjectPublicId, ProjectStatus, and ProjectStatusTimestamp.
 
See below examples of the project information node in JSON and XML.
 
XML

<Request>
    <Fields>
        <Field Name="input1">Test Message</Field>
        <Field Name="input2">True</Field>
        <Field Name="input3">2.718281828</Field>
    </Fields>
    <ProjectInformation>
        <ProjectNumber>TEST-00001</ProjectNumber>
        <ProjectPublicId>ABCDEFGHIJKL</ProjectPublicId>
        <ProjectStatus>Test Status</ProjectStatus>
        <ProjectStatusTimestamp>2021-12-25T10:31:14</ProjectStatusTimestamp>
    </ProjectInformation>
</Request>

 
JSON

{
    "fields":
    {
        "input1": "Test Message",
        "input2": true,
        "input3": 2.718281828
    },
    "projectInformation":
    {
        "ProjectNumber": "TEST-00001",
        "ProjectPublicId": "ABCDEFGHIJKL",
        "ProjectStatus": "Test Status",
        "ProjectStatusTimestamp": "2021-12-25T10:31:14"
    }
}

 
 

Message Format 2: Fields only

The Fields Only option in the Message Version drop-down suppresses sending the Project Information node and does not delineate the Fields node separately. This means the messages will be simplified to the following format:
 
XML

<Request>
    <Field Name="input1">Test Message</Field>
    <Field Name="input2">True</Field>
    <Field Name="input3">2.718281828</Field>
</Request>

 
JSON

{
    "input1": "Test Message",
    "input2": true,
    "input3": 2.718281828
}

 
 

Create Custom List Lookup

When using a Custom List already existent in the respective PowerClerk program, setting up a Connection to this Custom List will allow validation and retrieval of output data of the Custom List based on the provided input. This lookup functionality is particularly helpful if the underlying Custom List has thousands of selections to choose from, which would become difficult to handle via regular drop-down selection. Also, the results of a Connection to this Custom List Lookup can be populated into a variety of data fields present on the Form, which do not have to be located in proximity of the actual lookup button. Please note: The actual configuration of input and output fields of the Custom List is configured through the Connection available on the Automations page or on the Form Editor:
 

 
Once enabled, the Custom List Lookup Connection will become available for configuration for example on a Form to retrieve data from the Custom List and post it to individual output fields directly onto the form:
 

 
The result in this example populates the respective data with the push of the Lookup pole location button in the output fields as follows:
 

 

Video Guides

Would a video guide help to better explain Connections? Contact us and let us know.
 
A full list of all Video Guides can also be found here.

FAQs

Have additional questions? Contact us to nominate your FAQ and help others find answers to your own questions concerning this feature.

Create A Support Ticket

Not finding your answer here?  Submit a question to our support team at the PowerClerk Ticket System and leverage the PowerClerk team’s expertise.