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Tip of the Week - Centralized third party connections in Evolve - a whole new world of possibilities

  • 1.  Tip of the Week - Centralized third party connections in Evolve - a whole new world of possibilities

    Employee
    Posted 03-18-2025 09:46

    In Evolve, having the ability to centrally connect to multiple types of systems opens up an endless world of possibilities for streamlining and standardizing business process solutions while providing the ultimate user experiences for your business users.  The ability to have central connections that can be used in one or many solutions helps both technical users (the ones creating the connections) and developers (the ones using the connections in solutions) save time by organizing connections and making them easy to access.

     

    Let's start by talking the different types of connections that can be created in Evolve to enable users to have options for multi-system integration.  We talked specifically about APIs in a previous Tip of the Week.  However, there are a lot of other types of connections that can be created in Evolve.

     

    Types of Data Connections

     

    • SAP
    • SQL Server
    • ODBC (Microsoft SQL)
    • OLEDB
    • ODBC (Oracle)
    • ODBC (IBM Db2)
    • ODBC (MySQL)
    • SharePoint List or Library
    • EnterWorks
    • REST API
    • Precisely API
    • LDAP Query (query your Active Directory structure)

     

     

    Keep in mind each individual type of connection means you can connect to multiple systems and/or have multiple connections to the same system.  You can use these connections to both query (download) and submit (upload) data.  Click here for online help with creating and editing different types of data connections.

     

    Once you create a connection to a third party system, then what?  It's all about the options!  One or more options can be added to individual Evolve web form solutions.

     

    Examples of data connection use cases

     

    • Use as master data reference in objects on web forms.  For example, help simplify web form data entry by providing valid field values using things like lookup controls or drop down lists.
    • Use a data connection to determine workflow participants.
    • Query external systems to download data for reference and/or automatically populate fields on web forms.
    • Validate address and location data to not only validate that an address is correct but also add additional location related data above and beyond a standard address.
    • Upload new or changes to existing data in one or multiple systems from a single user-friendly web form using web service controls.

     

    Imagine the possibilities of building multiple options into a single solution.  Business users could read from and/or write to multiple systems from one web form.  The goal is to provide an easy to use interface that helps make the business user's experience as pleasant as possible using built in data quality and enrichment features that help to ensure the data is right the first time.

     

    Once you have created your central data connection, you can add the data connection to a web form solution, choose the fields you want to use from the data connection, map form fields to the connection, create a web service for the connection, and use the connection in several different ways.

     

    Evolve integration examples

     

     

    The integration possibilities are endless.  Contact your account executive to discuss your use case and the possibilities of how Evolve can help.



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    Tammy Lake
    Sales Engineer
    *Precisely Software Inc.
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  • 2.  RE: Tip of the Week - Centralized third party connections in Evolve - a whole new world of possibilities

    Posted 03-19-2025 02:59

    Thank you Tammy for sharing this. We are using most of all connections to Reference Data Lists. I like the independence of it (adjust a field value using Excel or Manual) and it is instantly available to be used in all kind of ways. What I do miss very much however, is to add a single record to an existing Ref data list from a form. Today it is only possible to download the whole list (could be hundreds of records), add a line and then upload the whole again... Not very efficient and performance wise not smart.

    KR

    Ed



    ------------------------------
    Ed Meiners
    Lead Consultant MDIM
    Wessanen Nederland Holding BV
    Amsterdam
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    Original Message