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FinancialForce

The Financial Force connector lets you perform insert, delete, update, and read operations on a Financial Force database.

Before you begin

Before using the FinancialForce connector, do the following tasks:

• In your Google Cloud project:
  • Ensure that network connectivity is set up. For information about network patterns, see Network connectivity.
  • Grant the roles/connectors.admin IAM role to the user configuring the connector.
  • Grant the following IAM roles to the service account that you want to use for the connector:
    • roles/secretmanager.viewer
    • roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor

    A service account is a special type of Google account intended to represent a non-human user that needs to authenticate and be authorized to access data in Google APIs. If you don't have a service account, you must create a service account. For more information, see Creating a service account.

  • Enable the following services:
    • secretmanager.googleapis.com (Secret Manager API)
    • connectors.googleapis.com (Connectors API)

    To understand how to enable services, see Enabling services.

  If these services or permissions have not been enabled for your project previously, you are prompted to enable them when configuring the connector.

Configure the connector

Configuring the connector requires you to create a connection to your data source (backend system). A connection is specific to a data source. It means that if you have many data sources, you must create a separate connection for each data source. To create a connection, do the following steps:

1. In the Cloud console, go to the Integration Connectors > Connections page and then select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Go to the Connections page

2. Click + Create new to open the Create Connection page.
3. In the Location section, choose the location for the connection.
   1. Region: Select a location from the drop-down list.

      Supported regions for connectors include:

      For the list of all the supported regions, see Locations.

   2. Click Next.
4. In the Connection Details section, complete the following:
   1. Connector: Select FinancialForce from the drop down list of available Connectors.
   2. Connector version: Select the Connector version from the drop down list of available versions.
   3. In the Connection Name field, enter a name for the Connection instance.

      Connection names must meet the following criteria:

      • Connection names can use letters, numbers, or hyphens.
      • Letters must be lower-case.
      • Connection names must begin with a letter and end with a letter or number.
      • Connection names cannot exceed 49 characters.
   4. Optionally, enter a Description for the connection instance.
   5. Optionally, enable Cloud logging, and then select a log level. By default, the log level is set to Error.
   6. Service Account: Select a service account that has the required roles.
   7. Optionally, configure the Connection node settings:
      • Minimum number of nodes: Enter the minimum number of connection nodes.
      • Maximum number of nodes: Enter the maximum number of connection nodes.

      A node is a unit (or replica) of a connection that processes transactions. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection and conversely, fewer nodes are required to process fewer transactions. To understand how the nodes affect your connector pricing, see Pricing for connection nodes. If you don't enter any values, by default the minimum nodes are set to 2 (for better availability) and the maximum nodes are set to 50.

   Note: You can customize the connection node values only if you are a Pay-as-you-go customer.
   8. Security Token: The security token used to authenticate access to the FinancialForce account.
   9. API Version: The version of the FinancialForce API used.The FinancialForce API version used by default is 40.0.
   10. All Or None: A boolean indicating if you would like all inserts, updates, or deletes to fail in a request if even a single record fails.
   11. Archive Mode: Boolean indicating whether to include deleted and archived records with a standard SELECT query.
   12. Bulk API Concurrency Mode: The concurrency mode for processing bulk rows with BULK API v1.
   13. Bulk API Version: The version of the bulk API to use for processing queries.
   14. Bulk Polling Interval: The time interval in milliseconds between requests that check the availability of the bulk query response. The default value is 500 ms.
   15. Bulk Query Timeout: The timeout in minutes for which the provider will wait for a bulk query response. The default value is 25 minutes.
   16. Continue On Alter Exception: Whether you want to continue after a ALTER statement has failed.
   17. Filter Scope: Optional scope to limit the records returned from queries.
   18. Include Metadata Description: Set this property to a value other than NONE if you want to retrieve the descriptions for columns, tables or both of them from the Metadata API.
   19. Server Side Aggregation: A boolean determining if server side aggregation should be used.
   20. Session Timeout: The time in minutes for which a FinancialForce login session is reused.
   21. Skip Formula Fields: Set to true if formula fields should be skipped when listing columns.
   22. Use Display Names: Boolean determining if the display names for the columns should be used instead of the API names.
   23. Use Sandbox: A boolean determining if the connection should be made to a FinancialForce sandbox account.
   24. User Defined Views: A filepath pointing to the JSON configuration file containing your custom views.
   25. Wait For Bulk Results: Whether to wait for bulk results when using the asynchronous API. Only active when UseBulkAPI is true.
   26. Use proxy: Select this checkbox to configure a proxy server for the connection and configure the following values:
   • Proxy Auth Scheme: Select the authentication type to authenticate with the proxy server. The following authentication types are supported:
     • Basic: Basic HTTP authentication.
     • Digest: Digest HTTP authentication.
   • Proxy User: A user name to be used to authenticate with the proxy server.
   • Proxy Password: The Secret manager secret of the user's password.
   • Proxy SSL Type: The SSL type to use when connecting to the proxy server. The following authentication types are supported:
     • Auto: Default setting. If the URL is an HTTPS URL, then the Tunnel option is used. If the URL is an HTTP URL, then the NEVER option is used.
     • Always: The connection is always SSL enabled.
     • Never: The connection is not SSL enabled.
     • Tunnel: The connection is through a tunneling proxy. The proxy server opens a connection to the remote host and traffic flows back and forth through the proxy.
   • In the Proxy Server section, enter details of the proxy server.
     1. Click + Add destination.
     2. Select a Destination Type.
        • Host address: Specify the hostname or IP address of the destination.

          If you want to establish a private connection to your backend system, do the following:

          • Create a PSC service attachment.
          • Create an endpoint attachment and then enter the details of the endpoint attachment in the Host address field.
   27. Optionally, click + Add label to add a label to the Connection in the form of a key/value pair.
   28. Click Next.
5. In the Destinations section, enter details of the remote host (backend system) you want to connect to.
   1. Destination Type: Select a Destination Type.
      • Select Host address from the list to specify the hostname or IP address of the destination.
      • If you want to establish a private connection to your backend systems, select Endpoint attachment from the list, and then select the required endpoint attachment from the Endpoint Attachment list.
        Note: To understand how to create an endpoint attachment, see PSC service attachment and endpoint attachment. After you have created the endpoint attachment, it will be visible in the Endpoint Attachment list.

      If you want to establish a public connection to your backend systems with additional security, you can consider configuring static outbound IP addresses for your connections, and then configure your firewall rules to allowlist only the specific static IP addresses.

      To enter additional destinations, click +ADD DESTINATION.

   2. Click Next.
6. In the Authentication section, enter the authentication details.
   1. Select an Authentication type and enter the relevant details.

      The following authentication types are supported by the FinancialForce connection:

      • Username and password

   To understand how to configure these authentication types, see Configure authentication.

   2. Click Next.
7. Review: Review your connection and authentication details.
8. Click Create.

Configure authentication

Enter the details based on the authentication you want to use.

• Username and password
  • Username: Username for connector
  • Password: Secret Manager Secret containing the password associated with the connector.

Entities, operations, and actions

All the Integration Connectors provide a layer of abstraction for the objects of the connected application. You can access an application's objects only through this abstraction. The abstraction is exposed to you as entities, operations, and actions.

Note: You can view the entities, operations, and actions of a connector in the Connectors task.

• Entity: An entity can be thought of as an object, or a collection of properties, in the connected application or service. The definition of an entity differs from a connector to a connector. For example, in a database connector, tables are the entities, in a file server connector, folders are the entities, and in a messaging system connector, queues are the entities.

  However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support or have any entities, in which case the Entities list will be empty.

• Operation: An operation is the activity that you can perform on an entity. You can perform any of the following operations on an entity:
  • List
  • Get
  • Create
  • Update
  • Delete

  Selecting an entity from the available list, generates a list of operations available for the entity. For a detailed description of the operations, see the Connectors task's entity operations. However, if a connector doesn't support any of the entity operations, such unsupported operations aren't listed in the Operations list.

• Action: An action is a first class function that is made available to the integration through the connector interface. An action lets you make changes to an entity or entities, and vary from connector to connector. Normally, an action will have some input parameters, and an output parameter. However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support any action, in which case the Actions list will be empty.

Note: All entities and actions will have a schema associated with them. For example, an action schema will have the parameter details such as; the parameter names, and its corresponding data type. The schema (metadata) for entities and actions is fetched by the connection at runtime from your backend. If there are any updates to the schema, such updates won't be automatically reflected in your existing connections; you must manually refresh the schema. To refresh the schema for a connection, open the Connection details page of the connection, and then click Refresh connection schema.

Use terraform to create connections

You can use the Terraform resource to create a new connection.

To learn how to apply or remove a Terraform configuration, see Basic Terraform commands.

To view a sample terraform template for connection creation, see sample template.

When creating this connection by using Terraform, you must set the following variables in your Terraform configuration file:

Parameter name	Data type	Required	Description
security_token	SECRET	False	The security token used to authenticate access to the FinancialForce account.
apiversion	STRING	False	The version of the FinancialForce API used.The FinancialForce API version used by default is 40.0.
all_or_none	BOOLEAN	False	A boolean indicating if you would like all inserts, updates, or deletes to fail in a request if even a single record fails.
archive_mode	BOOLEAN	False	Boolean indicating whether to include deleted and archived records with a standard SELECT query.
bulk_apiconcurrency_mode	ENUM	False	The concurrency mode for processing bulk rows with BULK API v1. Supported values are: Serial, Parallel
bulk_apiversion	ENUM	False	The version of the bulk API to use for processing queries. Supported values are: v1, v2
bulk_polling_interval	STRING	False	The time interval in milliseconds between requests that check the availability of the bulk query response. The default value is 500 ms.
bulk_query_timeout	STRING	False	The timeout in minutes for which the provider will wait for a bulk query response. The default value is 25 minutes.
continue_on_alter_exception	BOOLEAN	False	Whether you want to continue after a ALTER statement has failed.
filter_scope	ENUM	False	Optional scope to limit the records returned from queries. Supported values are: None, Delegated, Everything, Mine, MineAndMyGroups, My_Territory, My_Team_Territory, Team
include_metadata_description	ENUM	False	Set this property to a value other than NONE if you want to retrieve the descriptions for columns, tables or both of them from the Metadata API. Supported values are: NONE, Columns, Tables, TablesAndColumns
server_side_aggregation	BOOLEAN	False	A boolean determining if server side aggregation should be used.
session_timeout	STRING	False	The time in minutes for which a FinancialForce login session is reused.
skip_formula_fields	BOOLEAN	False	Set to true if formula fields should be skipped when listing columns.
use_display_names	BOOLEAN	False	Boolean determining if the display names for the columns should be used instead of the API names.
use_sandbox	BOOLEAN	True	A boolean determining if the connection should be made to a FinancialForce sandbox account.
user_defined_views	STRING	False	A filepath pointing to the JSON configuration file containing your custom views.
wait_for_bulk_results	BOOLEAN	False	Whether to wait for bulk results when using the asynchronous API. Only active when UseBulkAPI is true.
proxy_enabled	BOOLEAN	False	Select this checkbox to configure a proxy server for the connection.
proxy_auth_scheme	ENUM	False	The authentication type to use to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy. Supported values are: BASIC, DIGEST, NONE
proxy_user	STRING	False	A user name to be used to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy.
proxy_password	SECRET	False	A password to be used to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy.
proxy_ssltype	ENUM	False	The SSL type to use when connecting to the ProxyServer proxy. Supported values are: AUTO, ALWAYS, NEVER, TUNNEL

Use the FinancialForce connection in an integration

After you create the connection, it becomes available in both Apigee Integration and Application Integration. You can use the connection in an integration through the Connectors task.

• To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Apigee Integration, see Connectors task.
• To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Application Integration, see Connectors task.

Get help from the Google Cloud community

You can post your questions and discuss this connector in the Google Cloud community at Cloud Forums.

What's next

• Understand how to suspend and resume a connection.
• Understand how to monitor connector usage.
• Understand how to view connector logs.