Extending Nintex Workflow Cloud® further with Azure functions

Nintex Workflow Cloud allows users to build robust workflows using the many actions available in the Nintex Workflow Cloud designer. However, sometimes a required action is not available out-of-the-box.

You could look for a web service to accomplish that action, but what if you wanted more control of the action and not be beholden to the availability of the web service?

Azure functions to the rescue!

Azure functions example

Perhaps you need to be able to URL encode/decode a string value so that the QR Code Generator Connector available in the Nintex Solution Accelerator Gallery can work within your workflow. First, we will need to head over to your Azure portal and create a new Azure function!

One of the great features of Azure functions is that you can choose the coding language in which to build a function. For this example, we will be using Node.js. There are two parameters we want to collect:

• Method: Decode or encode
• Text: Value to decode or encode

Based on the values entered, the function will provide you a string value that has either been encoded or decoded, and that value will be the response back to the workflow. Below is the code to achieve this requirement:

Next, we will take advantage of another great feature of Nintex Workflow Cloud.

Custom Connectors magic

Nintex Workflow Cloud allows you to add custom connectors from third-party RESTful web services utilizing the OpenAPI standard. If an out-of-the-box action doesn’t exist, you can build the API definition of the service and import it into your Nintex Workflow Cloud tenant to be used as if it is a native action.

We built our example definition to have a dynamic subdomain for the host URL, so you can point it to our Azure tenant functions resource.

Although this API definition is calling for Basic Authentication, it is only added to dynamically enter your subdomain. Use ‘ ‘ blank spaces for username and password. If you did need to include some sort of authentication to make a call to the function, that is possible, as well.

To ensure that the user does not enter a method other than ‘Encode’ or ‘Decode’, you will notice that the object definition uses the “enum,” or enumerate property, so we can provide a dropdown select in the action configuration.

To make this even easier, you can find the Encode/Decode URI connector in the Nintex Solution Accelerator Gallery and import this example in your Nintex Workflow Cloud tenant.

Streamlining connectors with Nintex

In the Nintex Solution Accelerator Gallery, you can see what other custom connectors, process map templates, workflow templates, and Nintex RPA templates are available to get you ahead of the process game. Check it out today!

Once you have downloaded the custom connector from the gallery, you will then head over to your Nintex Workflow Cloud tenant and click on Xtensions® on the left-hand pane to import your custom connector. Follow the prompts (do not forget blank spaces for username and password in this example!) and now you will have the ability to encode or decode string values in your Nintex Workflow tenant.

Want to see more examples of customer connectors you can use with the Nintex Platform? Visit the Nintex Solution Accelerator Gallery, to see a collection of connectors for you to import into your Nintex Workflow Cloud tenant today.