Benefits

To learn more about connections, see Connections and Credentials.

Connection and credential aliases

Integration Hub uses aliases to manage connection information and credentials when integrating with external systems. Using an alias eliminates the need to configure multiple credentials and connection information profiles when using multiple environments. Integration Hub only requires an alias, which then resolves to use the correct credentials and connection information during runtime.

With connection and credential aliases, you can also create additional aliases or connections called child aliases. Child aliases enable you to create multiple connections within the same application integration. For more information, see Create a Connection and Credential alias.

Flow-level connection selection

You can choose a connection for a flow or subflow directly from the flow's main page. When you select a new connection, it overrides any preconfigured connection for that flow. To choose a connection, select the More Actions menu icon (), and select the Configure connections option. This option opens the Configure Connections window, where you can select the connections for your flow. The Configure Connections window displays:

• All the aliases used in the flow.
• The icon and name for each alias.
• A list of the configured connections for each alias. The default connection is listed first. Other connections are listed alphabetically.
• An information icon for each alias. Selecting the icon opens the Connection & Credential Aliases record for the default connection shown in the list.
• A Manage Connections option that opens the connections dashboard.
• Options to Cancel connection selection or Update your connection choice.

Each alias has one entry in the Configure Connections window, regardless of how many actions or subflows may use that alias. When you select a connection at the flow level, the new connection applies to all the actions and subflows using that alias. For example, if a flow has several actions that use a Slack service, changing the connection for the Slack service changes the connection for all the Slack service actions within the flow.

You can see which parts of a flow a connection change affects by matching the alias icons in the flow to the ones in the Configure Connections window. An action that impacts a Slack service has a Slack icon next to the action in the flow. The Slack icon also appears next to the alias name in the Configure Connections window.

The Configure Connections window is automatically updated whenever you add or delete a flow component that has connections. When you add an action or subflow to a flow, the Configure Connections window displays the connections for the action or subflow that you just added. If you remove an action or subflow, the connection information is removed from the Configure Connections window.

You can choose whether to display the Configure connections option with the sn_flow_designer.connections_override_enabled system property. Setting the property to true displays the Configure connections option, while setting it to false hides it. If you delete the system property or it doesn't exist, the Configure connections option is displayed by default.

View which connection your flow ran with by examining the Step Configuration section of the flow's execution details. The connection alias listed in the CONFIGURATION column is the alias that the flow was originally designed to run with. The alias listed in the RUNTIME VALUE column is the one that the flow actually ran with.

Action-level connection selection

You can select connections for individual integration actions within a flow. This functionality is useful if a flow must interact with multiple configurations of the same provider. For example, downloading a file from one configuration of a file storage provider then uploading the file to a different configuration of the same file storage provider.

Integration actions have one or more connection fields in the Action Properties section where you can edit or configure a connection. In the following example, the Create Remote Incident action has a connection field called ServiceNow Connection. The default connection hasn’t been configured yet, so a Connection not configured message appears below the connection field. This message appears whenever the connection for the selected alias is not configured

Use the gear icon () to create or configure an alias.

• For connections using a configuration template, the gear icon opens a window where you can create or configure a connection.
• For connections without a configuration template, the gear icon opens the platform form for creating a connection and credential alias.

Use the plus icon () to add a new child connection alias. Use the pencil icon (, not shown in the image) to edit the selected connection.

Dynamic inputs

You can select connections for flows and subflows containing actions with dynamic inputs. When a connection override is specified at the flow level, the dynamic action uses the flow-level override. For example, in a flow with a data-gathering action, the action uses the flow's override connection for the data-gathering step rather than the action's default connection. If an override is specified at the action level, the dynamic action uses the action-level override.

Multiple overrides within a flow

Flow promotion

When you move a flow to a production instance, the alias information is transferred with it, but the underlying connection information is not. An alias functions as a type of container for connections. The container moves with the flow, but the specific connection information doesn't. Any connections associated with the alias become unconfigured and must be reconfigured before you can use them in the new environment.