# External Data Sources (e.g. CRM) atfinity allows you to connect external instance data sources so users can copy values from those directly. To connect an external data source, follow these steps: 1. **Specify your Data Source under Administration -> Data Sources**\ First, name the data source for a certain ontology and create it. Then specify the urls where atfinity should send *list* and *retrieve* requests. A list request should return a selection of instances where users can copy values from. A retrieve request returns values for a single instance. 2. **Specify the data source for an ontology**\ Open any ontology under configuration -> ontologies. Under "External Data Source" mention the source you have just created. ## Requirements on your API ### List Request #### URL atfinity will append `?q=QUERY` to the url specified for the list request and make a GET request to this url. So specifying `https://api.yourcrm.com/api/search_person` would make a request to`https://api.yourcrm.com/api/search_person?q=QUERY`, where QUERY will be replaced with a url-encoded version of the user entered query. #### Request Header | Key | Value | | ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `Content-Type` | `application/json`� | | `From` | The email of the user making the request | | `atfinity-Ontology` | The key of the ontology atfinity expects to get data for | | *Custom* | Your specified *key* and *value* from Administration -> Data Sources | #### Response atfinity expects to receive JSON looking like this. The `name` will be displayed to the user and the `identifier` will be used for the retrieve request. The `details` part needs to be provided only if "Enable Detail Column" is set to "Yes". All three can be arbitrary strings. ``` { "data": [ { "identifier": "10098", "name": "Thorben Croisé", "details": "Located in Zurich, Engineering Department" }, { "identifier": "10099b", "name": "Alexander Balzer", "details": "Located in Zurich, Business Department" } ], "meta": { "pagination": { "count": 2, "page": 1, "pages": 1 } } } ``` #### Pagination atfinity handles pagination of the returned instance list if necessary. At a time, usually only 20 entries will be displayed. In the `meta.pagination` part of the response atfinity expects those values: | Key | Value | | ------- | -------------------------------- | | `count` | The total count of all instances | | `page` | The currently displayed tuest | | `pages` | The total count of all pages | When used navigate to the next page, these extra query parameters will be included in the request: | Parameter | Value | | ----------- | --------------------------------------------- | | `page` | The requested page | | `page_size` | The page size, usually this stays fixed at 20 | {% hint style="info" %} If you would not like to handle pagination, you could just always return less than `page_size` (usually 20) elements and fix `page` and `pages` to 1. {% endhint %} ### Retrieve Request #### URL atfinity will append the value of `IDENTIFIER` acquired in the list request to the url and make a GET request to this url. So specifying `https://api.yourcrm.com/api/person/` would make a request to`https://api.yourcrm.com/api/person/IDENTIFIER` . #### Request Header | Key | Value | | ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `Content-Type` | `application/json`� | | `From` | The email of the user making the request | | `atfinity-Ontology` | The key of the ontology atfinity expects to get data for | | *Custom* | Your specified *key* and *value* from Administration -> Data Sources | #### Response atfinity expects to receive JSON looking like this. All the values within `data` will be tried to match to information keys of the ontology of the instance this request has been made for. ``` { "data": { "cid": "1", "first_name": "Thorben", "last_name": "Croisé" } } ``` #### Serialisation Provided values need to be serialised in the same manner as values provided via our [API](https://api-docs.atfinity.io). For most types using the default JSON format serialisation is just enough, so e.g. `{"firstname": "string"}`, `{"number_of_children": 2}`, `{"weight": 73.4}` or `{"has_been_screened": true}`. * **Text, Number, Boolean**: Default JSON format * **Enum**: Provide the key of the chosen value as a string, e.g. `germany` * **Multi Enum**: Provide the ticked possible values in an array (either json encoded or not), like this: `["inherited", "real_estate_sale"]` * **Unit, Unit per Item**: Provide a dictionary with three entries like so: `{"decimal_value": 1000, "item": null, "unit": "chf"}` ### Errors Errors resulting from atfinity sending you values that you cannot or do not want to process should be handled mostly via HTTP Status Codes. atfinity will try to give users nice message for the following status codes:
CodeDescription
401 UNAUTHORIZEDIf the request from atfinity was not authorised for any reason, e.g. the provided API-KEY was invalid or the user in the FROM header is not allowed to make the request.
404 NOT FOUNDIf the provided URL is not valid on your server. Do not use this if no results are returned in a search
5xx SERVER ERRORReturn this if your server encounters an error
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