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Navigation: Integration > PerfectApps Connections > Creating PerfectApps Connections

Defining Connection Actions

Once a connection is defined, you must create one or more actions for it. An action can optionally take data from the app - its Send parameters - and use it in the request to the external system. If no data needs to be passed, then the action can call the connection without any app field data (as in a simple database lookup). Most connection types support data in both directions; see the individual connection action topics for what each type allows. Depending on the connection type and connection action being used, the connection can return data (the lookup result), which you can map back into app fields.

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1.Navigate to the Connections Dashboard. In the tree, select a connection that you have previously defined.

2.In the Actions table, click on the + button below the table to create a new action.

3.Click the Edit button for the new action. (The screenshot shown below is an example for a Database Action; different connection types will show a slightly different screen.)

4.Name the action using the Name field.

5.Select the action Type. The options listed depend on the connection type. The most common action for a database is a lookup, in which case you would choose SELECT.

6.If you are using a database connection, specify the name of the database table that this action should access.

7.In the Send Parameters section, click Add to add a Send Parameter. Click in the Name column and give the parameter any name you like. The right-most column is the field or database column name. The middle column is the operator. You will usually leave it as =, but you can change this if appropriate. Enter Like as an operator to enable wildcard searches in the connection actions. Note: Use the Auto Complete button to create send parameters for every field in the database table.

Take care when using the Auto Complete button with an existing Action. Whilst it will create new parameters for any new fields in the database table, it will also overwrite existing parameters, and that could affect existing Connect or Connect & Search commands in apps.

In the case of a lookup, there may not be any data passed, in which case the list would remain empty. However, if, for example, a user entered an order number into the app, you could pass this through to the query. Background lookups will mostly use a Send parameter. Pop-up Lookups will usually not need one. If some app events need to pass a Send parameter and others do not, define the action with the parameter and leave it unmapped in the Connect commands that do not need it.

8.In the Return Parameters list, click Add to add a row for each field of data expected to be returned. The first column is a name you can choose. The second column is the actual field name in the target database table. Note: Use the Auto Complete button to create return parameters for every field in the database table.

9.Where there is likely to be duplicated data returned from a table, select the Distinct Values Only checkbox to return each unique set of values only once.

Depending on the connection type, there may or may not be any expected return data. An Insert action returns no data; a Select action does.

10.Click Apply Changes to save the action.