SendGrid

The SendGrid connector lets you perform insert, delete, update, and read operations on SendGrid dataset.

Before you begin

Before using the SendGrid 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.

Set up authentication using API key

1. Go to to Settings and select API Keys.
2. Click Create API Key
3. Enter a name for your API key
4. Select from Full Access, Restricted Access, or Billing Access options
5. Select Restricted Access, or Billing Access, and select the specific permissions for each category.
6. Click Create and View.
7. Copy the APi key and save it for later use.

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 SendGrid 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. Optionally, click + ADD LABEL to add a label to the Connection in the form of a key/value pair.
   9. Click NEXT.
5. In the Authentication section, enter the authentication details. For more information, see Configure authentication. |
6. Click NEXT.
7. Review: Review your connection and authentication details.
8. Click Create.

Configure authentication

API key authentication

• API key: Select the Secret Manager secret of the API key.
• Secret version: Select the secret version.

Connection configuration samples

This section lists the sample values for the various fields that you configure when creating the SendGrid connection.

Web connection type

Field name	Details
Location	us-central1
Connector	Sendgrid
Connector version	1
Connection Name	sendgrid-google-cloud-conn
Service Account	SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com
Minimum number of nodes	2
Maximum number of nodes	50
API Key	API_KEY
Secret Version	1

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.

System limitations

The SendGrid connector can process 8 transaction per second, per node, and throttles any transactions beyond this limit. By default, Integration Connectors allocates 2 nodes (for better availability) for a connection.

For information on the limits applicable to Integration Connectors, see Limits.

Note: The number of Integration Connectors nodes will autoscale dynamically based on your usage. However, if you want to reserve capacity for large volumes without waiting for autoscaling, you can adjust the minimum node value for a connection. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection. Conversely, fewer nodes are required if a connection processes fewer transactions. To configure the node values, do the following:

• If you are a pay-as-you-go customer, configure the minimum and maximum node value in the edit connection page.
• If you are a subscription based customer, contact support.

The maximum transactions that a node can handle depends on various factors. So, before adjusting the minimum nodes for better throughput, it is recommended you check if your backend systems are set up optimally to handle the required traffic.

Actions

This section lists some of the actions supported by the connector. To understand how to configure the actions, see Action examples.

Note: The results of all the actions will be available as a JSON response in the Connectors task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter after you run your integration.

SendMail action

This action Sends a mail along with attachment.

Input parameters of the SendMail action

Parameter name	Data type	Required	Description
Subject	String	Yes	The subject of the mail to be sent.
ContentValue	String	No	The content of the mail to be sent.
ContentType	String	No	The type of content to be sent. supported values are text/plain and text/html.
Content	String	Yes	The aggregate for Content object.
SendAt	String	No	The date and time when you want your email to be delivered. Scheduling more than 72 hours in advance is forbidden.
FromEmail	String	Yes	The email address of the sender.
FromName	String	No	The name of the sender.
ToEmail	String	No	Email address to send the mail to.
ToName	String	No	Email's respective names to send the mail to.
To	String	No	The aggregate for To recipients.
ToCCEmail	String	No	Email address of the recipients who will receive a copy of your email.
ToCCName	String	No	Name of the recipients who will receive a copy of your email.
ToBCCName	String	No	Name of the recipients who will receive a blind carbon copy of your email.
ToBCC	String	No	The aggregate for ToBCC recipients.
ReplyToEmail	String	No	The email address of the person to whom you are replying to.
ReplyToName	String	No	The name of the person to whom you are replying to.
AttachmentPaths	String	No	Path of the file to attach to the mail to be sent.
TemplateId	String	Yes	The Id of the template that you may want to send.
DynamicTemplateData	String	No	The data of the dynamic template.
Personalizations	String	Yes	An array of messages and their metadata. Each object within personalizations can be thought of as an envelope - it defines who should receive an individual message and how that message should be handled.

Output parameters of the SendMail action

This action returns confirmation message whether or not the mail was sent successfully of the SendMail.

Action examples

This section describes how to perform some of the actions in this connector.

Example - Send an email

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the SendMail action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
       "FromName": "Name",
       "FromEmail": "[e-mail]",
       "Subject": "[{\"value\": \"cymbalgroup.com\",\"type\": \"text/plain\"}]",
       "TemplateId": "d-c4bc730a0b094a3a9d9cabb7347b5edc",
       "Personalizations": "[{\"subject\": \"Test Subject3\",\"send_at\": 1698659820,\"from\": {\"name\": \"hi\",\"email\": \"email@gmail\"},\"to\":      
       [{\"email\": \"[e-mail]\",\"name\": \"test\"}\n ]}]",
       "Content": "[{\"value\": \"[e-mail]\",\"type\": \"text/plain\"}]"
   }

This action returns confirmation message of the SendMail. If the action is successful, the task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"Success": "True"
}]

Entity operation examples

This section shows how to perform some of the entity operations in this connector.

Example - List all contacts

This example lists all the contacts in the NMCContacts entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select NMCContacts from the Entity list.
3. Select the List operation, and then click Done.
4. Optionally, in Task Input section of the Connectors task, you can filter your result set by specifying a filter clause. For example, City='Bangalore'. You can also specify multiple filter conditions by using the logic operators. For example, City='Bangalore' and region='asia-south2'.

Example - Get a record

This example gets a record with the specified ID from the NMCSegments entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select NMCSegments from the Entity list.
3. Select the Get operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click EntityId and then enter 0d44bb3f-d28e-4bcf-aba2-c77be831ad46 in the Default Value field.

   Here, 0d44bb3f-d28e-4bcf-aba2-c77be831ad46 is a primary key value in the NMCSegments entity.

Example - Create a record

This example creates a record in the NMCSenders entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select NMCSenders from the Entity list.
3. Select the Create operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "Nickname": "Test",
   "FromEmail": "[e-mail]",
   "FromName": "testuser",   
   "ReplytoEmail": "[e-mail]",  
   "Address": "NA", 
   "City": "NA", 
   "Country": "India"}

   If the integration is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload field will have a value similar to the following:

   {
   "Id": 5360940.0
   }

Example - Create a record

This example creates a record in the NMCLists entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select NMCLists from the Entity list.
3. Select the Create operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "Name": "TEST_CON_LIST1699262238224",
   "ContactCount": 3.0}

   If the integration is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload field will have a value similar to the following:

   {
   "Id": "d927f128-b718-447a-affe-417f1a8b3abd"}

Example - Update a record

This example updates a record in the NMCSenders entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select NMCSenders from the Entity list.
3. Select the Update operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "Nickname": "Test",
   "FromEmail": "[e-mail]",
   "FromName": "testuser",   
   "ReplytoEmail": "[e-mail]",  
   "Address": "NA", 
   "City": "NA", 
   "Country": "India"}

5. Click entityId, and then enter 5360940.0 in the Default Value field.

   If the integration is successful, your connector task's connectorOutputPayload field will have a value similar to the following:

   {
   "Id":"5360940.0"
   }

Example - Delete a record

This example deletes the record with the specified ID in the NMCSegments entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select NMCSegments from the Entity list.
3. Select the Delete operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click entityId and then enter c58b9151-7279-428a-bac2-12b4bf2b48b0 in the Default Value field.

Note: If your entity has a composite primary key, you can specify a filter clause.

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

Use the SendGrid 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.