Working with Connections

A Connection is named, encrypted object that contains all of the information necessary to create an authenticated connection with a particular third-party application, including (for example) username, password, hostname, and port. Rather than manually authenticating against a third-party application each time you create a Process Definition that talks to that application, you can create a Connection once and then simply select it anywhere you need to.

Connections also provide a centralized place to update authentication credentials when such updates are necessary. If you need to change a password, for example, you need only change it once rather than having to change it for each Process Definition that connects to the third-party application.

Note: Connections can also be used by command-line system tools such as jevent.

The Connection Management Extension lets you do the following:

  • Create and manage Connections.

  • Create and automatically configure Process Servers and Queues for Connections. When you create a Connection, you generally have an option to select a Default Queue, and to assign to that Queue to a default Process Server (which may require specific type of Service). If you allow the Connections Management Extension to create the default Queue and Process Server while you are creating the Connection, the Connection Management Extension will automatically create a Service of the required type and name it ServiceFor<ProcessDefinitionType>. If you do not create the default Queue and Process Server at this time, you may need to manually create them later.

Prerequisites

Contents of the Extension

Object Type Name
Application GLOBAL.Redwood.REDWOOD.ConnectionManager
Extension Point REDWOOD.Redwood_ConnectionManager
Library REDWOOD.Redwood_ConnectionManagerLib

Setup

To set up the Connections Management Extension, locate it in the Catalog and install it.

Locating Connections

To locate and update Connections, navigate to Custom > Connections.