Call API

28 Jun 2024
5 Minutes to read

Call API

Updated on 28 Jun 2024
5 Minutes to read

Article summary

Did you find this summary helpful?

Thank you for your feedback

Call API

API stands for application programming interface. It is a set of protocols and tools that allow the Apex Platform to interact with other third-party applications. This can include anything from retrieving or transferring data to third-party applications, managing or controlling software.

Here are the key Business Benefits of using Call API feature:

Automation and Efficiency: Call APIs enable automation of communication processes. Businesses and organizations can schedule and trigger calls automatically based on specific events or time-sensitive tasks. This reduces manual effort and increases operational efficiency.
Personalized Customer Engagement: Call APIs can be integrated into customer relationship management (CRM) systems to initiate personalized calls to customers. This personalized approach enhances customer engagement, leading to better customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Real-time Notifications: Applications can use call APIs to send real-time notifications to users via phone calls. This is especially useful for urgent alerts, appointment reminders, or time-sensitive information delivery.
Cost-Effectiveness: By automating communication processes through call APIs, businesses can reduce costs associated with manual calling and handling customer queries. This cost-effectiveness is particularly beneficial for large-scale operations.
Integration Capabilities: Call APIs can be easily integrated into existing software applications, websites, or mobile apps. This seamless integration ensures that businesses can leverage the power of voice communication without overhauling their entire infrastructure.

To use the Call API feature, under the Actions menu, select the Call API option and perform the following steps:

1. Under the Actions menu, select Call API and click Add API.

Figure: Add API

Add API Configuration page is displayed.

2. Enter the API Name and the mandatory details. Refer the table below to see the description of the fields.

Figure: Add API configuration

Field	Description
Name	Enter a name for the API.
Action Type	Select from the drop-down menu the Action Type to be specified. Inbound: Select this option if you want the flow of data to be initiated from external (third party) system. Outbound: Select this option if you want flow of data to be initiated from Summit platform to an external third-party application.
API	Select from a pre-configured list of APIs for the action that you want to perform.
Request Body	When you need to send data from a client (for example, a browser) to your API, you send it as a request body. A request body is data sent by the client to your API. An API request body is normally used with the POST, PUT and PATCH methods when you are creating or updating resources.
Response	A response body is the data your API sends to the client. Choose the Response to be in sent using the available Display Type. (Example: JSON or Text)
Column Mapping
Column Mapping	Under Column Mapping, the left column will contain fields in the table selected in the General section. The middle column will contain details accessed by the API and will be auto populated with the information from Get Response submission.
Unique	Note Activate the Unique Switch if you want to make sure that the field value entered should be a distinct unique value.

Let's explore the following use-case.

Use Case

Solution

Sam, an application designer wants to create a business rule to automatically generate a Microsoft ticket whenever there is a Microsoft-related outage to streamline the IT workflow.

Sam can create a business rule which checks whether there are any keywords such as "Microsoft," "Azure," "Office 365," in the Description of the Incident. If this condition is matched, then he can choose the Call API option to automatically generate and log a Microsoft Ticket in the Microsoft portal whenever there is a Microsoft related Incident. This saves Sam a lot of time and manual effort in separately creating a Microsoft ticket every time there is a Microsoft related outage.

To call an API which automatically generates a Microsoft ticket, perform the following steps:

1. Log in to the Summit Platform > Under Design Studio, Select Module as Incident.

2. Navigate to Designers > Business Rule Designer > Select the Domain and Sub Domain prior to adding the Business Rule.

Business Rule List Page is displayed.

Figure: Business Rule List Page

3. Click New to create new business rule > Enter the mandatory details and click Next.

Add Business Rule page is displayed, requesting for input into the General properties tab.

Figure: General Properties

Enter the mandatory details as required.

For more information, refer to Define Characteristics.

4. Choose the Trigger Type as Created > Process Business Rule in After and then click Next.

Figure: Trigger Type

Here we are using the Created option as we want the rule to trigger only during the time of creation of an Incident.

The After option is selected as we want the rule to process immediately after the Incident is created and don't want any other users to make any changes on the incident before the rule is executed.

5. In the Conditions Tab, choose to Run the rule Based on Condition > click Add Filter Set.

Here we will define the condition based on which the business rule will trigger.

The condition we will specify here is that the Description contains keywords such as "Microsoft," "Azure," "Office 365,".

6. Add the Condition and click Next.

7. Under the Actions menu, select Call API and click Add API.

Enter the API Name as Microsoft API and the Action Type as Outbound. Select the preconfigured API under API and enter the mandatory details.

Figure: Add API

Based on the API selected, you can select whether you want to Get API Request or Get Response and select the relevant Columns to be mapped.

For more information refer to the Field Description table below:

Field	Description
Name	Enter a name for the API.
Action Type	Select from the drop-down menu the Action Type to be specified. Inbound: Select this option if you want the flow of data to be initiated from external (third party) system. Outbound: Select this option if you want flow of data to be initiated from Summit platform to an external third-party application.
API	Select from a pre-configured list of APIs for the action that you want to perform.
Request Body	When you need to send data from a client (for example, a browser) to your API, you send it as a request body. A request body is data sent by the client to your API. An API request body is normally used with the POST, PUT and PATCH methods when you are creating or updating resources.
Response	A response body is the data your API sends to the client. Choose the Response to be in sent using the available Display Type. (Example: JSON or Text)
Column Mapping
Column Mapping	Under Column Mapping, the left column will contain fields in the table selected in the General section. The middle column will contain details accessed by the API and will be auto populated with the information from Get Response submission.
Unique	Note Activate the Unique Switch if you want to make sure that the field value entered should be a distinct unique value.

8. Click Save and then click Next.

A Summary of the Call API configuration will be displayed as shown below:

Figure: Summary

Field	Description
Designed	Select Designed to save the business rule for the selected Tenant.
Publish	Select Published to save the business rule to go live.

9. Select the desired option to Publish the business rule and click Submit.

You will get a prompt stating " Business Rule created successfully."

Was this article helpful?

What's Next

Display Message

Table of contents