Integration types
Next Matter can integrate with any system through integration steps, for example, to retrieve data and use it further in a process or to update data in a third-party system.
You can only connect integrations if you are a Next Matter admin.
Next Matter and an external application connect using HTTP requests. Each request is a step in Next Matter, called an integration step.
There are two types of integrations:
- No-code integrations: These integrations must be connected in the Next Matter portal in Automations library. When connected, you can select them directly as an Integration step, and in some cases, you might only need a few JSON details to configure the step.
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Custom integrations:
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Advanced: You will find them in the Next Matter portal in Automations library. These integrations require you to give the 3rd party tool access to Next Matter, share login credentials when you connect them, and provide the endpoint and JSON request body when you use them in workflows. You will find database integration in this category, too. These integrations require you to enter a few more data items such as port, username, and password, and database hostname to connect.
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Pro: These integrations require authorizing your API calls with 3rd party-generated credentials. It might be the API key or basic authorization. You can provide the authorization details when you configure the custom integration step in Next Matter alongside the endpoint URL and JSON request body. You can also make calls to Next Matter API. This will also require you to authenticate your call - this time with the Next Matter API key you can generate in Company > Next Matter API keys.
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Ensure you have permissions to generate authentication credentials in Next Matter and the external app. If not, your company admin should be able to provide those.
No-code integrations
Custom integrations
Test integrations
When you create an integration step, it’s a good idea to test the integration first before running the workflow instance.
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Click Test Integration.
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Use the generated test values or replace them with your own.
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Click Start Test and see if it gives you a correct response. If not, you can always reconfigure the step and retry it.
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When you get a positive result, click Done and work on the rest of the workflow.
Integration responses
Use the integration step response to troubleshoot failed steps or to extract specific variables (using JSONPath). To see the response body, click Show details.
Note that we only show responses up to 32KB. Larger responses are not shown, and an error “Response Body Size exceeded” is displayed. However, you can still use variables referencing the response details, or even the entire response.
Skip failed integration steps
When you configure an integration step, you can decide what to do if the connection fails. You can either:
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decide to skip the step and let the workflow continue
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pause the workflow at the step allowing the admin an option to skip or retry the step. A failed step will automatically send the admin and the tech lead notification to their Next Matter inbox.
View the original call body of a skipped integration step
When an integration step is skipped due to an error or by mistake, the step may appear greyed out, making it hard to investigate further. A potential improvement would be the ability to directly view the original call body for skipped steps. However, here’s a quick workaround:
Inspect the skipped step:
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Right-click on the greyed-out step in your browser.
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Select Inspect to open the developer tools.
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Remove the following class:
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When the class is removed, the full details of the skipped step (including the call body) should be visible. Use this information to manually re-trigger the API call.
Templates
Templates are ready-made custom integration steps that are displayed in your workflow.
To use a template, in your process click + Add step > Templates > 3rd party templates and pick a template you want to use.
When you have the template in your workflow, click Settings for every step it created and configure it. In most cases, you’ll need to enter the details in the placeholders in the Body of the step.
It might also happen that a placeholder can be replaced by a data reference of the data provided in one of the previous steps. To learn more about data references, see Data references.