Kintone

The Kintone connector lets you perform insert, delete, update, and read operations on Kintone database.

Before you begin

Before using the Kintone connector, do the following tasks:

  • In your Google Cloud project:
    • 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.

      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 Kintone 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 63 characters.
    4. Optionally, enter a Description for the connection instance.
    5. Service Account: Select a service account that has the required roles.
    6. 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.

    7. Allow Special Characters: Determines whether or not to allow special characters. If true special characters will not be replaced.
    8. Check For Subtables In: A comma-separated list of Kintone apps to retrieve subtables from.
    9. Guest Space Id: Restrict query results to a guest space.
    10. Number Map To Double: Determines whether or not to change the datatype of number fields from decimal to double.
    11. Subtable Separator Character: The character used for dividing tables from subtables in the format tablename + char + subtable.
    12. Use Code For Field Name: Determines whether to use Label or Code for Field Name.
    13. Use Cursor: Boolean determining if cursors should be used to retrieve records.
    14. User Defined Views: A filepath pointing to the JSON configuration file containing your custom views.
    15. 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:

    16. Optionally, click + ADD LABEL to add a label to the Connection in the form of a key/value pair.
    17. 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.
      1. In the Host address field, specify the hostname or IP address of the destination.
        1. If you want to establish a private connection to your backend systems, follow these steps:
          1. Create a PSC service attachment.
          2. Create an endpoint attachment and then enter the details of the endpoint attachment in the Host address field.
        2. 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 Kintone connection:

      • Username and password
      • Anonymous

      2. 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.
    • Basic Auth Password: The additional password required for domains using basic authentication.
    • Basic Auth User: The additional username required for domains using basic authentication.
  • Anonymous

    If you want to use anonymous login, select Not Available.

    • API Token: Secret Manager Secret containing the API Token for authentication.
    • App Id: The AppId used along with the APIToken for authentication.

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.

  • 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:

    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. However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support any action, in which case the Actions list will be empty.

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
allow_special_characters BOOLEAN False Determines whether or not to allow special characters. If true special characters will not be replaced.
check_for_subtables_in STRING True A comma-separated list of Kintone apps to retrieve subtables from.
guest_space_id STRING False Restrict query results to a guest space.
number_map_to_double BOOLEAN False Determines whether or not to change the datatype of number fields from decimal to double.
subtable_separator_character STRING True The character used for dividing tables from subtables in the format tablename + char + subtable.
use_code_for_field_name BOOLEAN False Determines whether to use Label or Code for Field Name.
use_cursor BOOLEAN False Boolean determining if cursors should be used to retrieve records.
user_defined_views STRING False A filepath pointing to the JSON configuration file containing your custom views.
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 Kintone 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.

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