How to use IBM App Connect with Anaplan

Anaplan offers cloud-based modelling and planning solutions for sales, operations, and finance that help users collaborate for better decisions, align operations, and run processes on a single platform.

Availability:
  • App Connect Enterprise as a Service connector
  • A local connector in a Designer instance of IBM App Connect in containers (Continuous Delivery release)Local connector in containers (Continuous Delivery release) 12.0.5.0-r4 or later
  • A local connector in a Designer instance of IBM App Connect in containers (Support Cycle 2)Local connector in containers (Long Term Support Cycle-2 release)

Supported product and API versions

To find out which product and API versions this connector supports, see Detailed System Requirements on the IBM Support page.

Connecting to Anaplan

Complete the connection fields that you see in the App Connect Designer catalog page or flow editor. If necessary, work with your Anaplan administrator to obtain these values.

To connect App Connect to an Anaplan account, select your preferred authorization method from the following table:
Table 1. Authorization methods and their applicability
Authorization method Applicability
Use the application's website to sign in (OAUTH 2.0 AUTH CODE) App Connect Enterprise as a Service
Provide credentials for App Connect to use (BASIC OAUTH) App Connect Enterprise as a Service and App Connect in containers
Provide credentials for App Connect to use (BASIC) App Connect in containers and App Connect Enterprise as a Service
Then, specify values in the connection fields for your chosen authorization method:
Table 2. Connection fields for your chosen authorization method. Descriptions of the connection fields are given after this table.
Use the application's website to sign in (OAUTH 2.0 AUTH CODE) Provide credentials for App Connect to use (BASIC OAUTH) Provide credentials for App Connect to use (BASIC)
Tip: Authorize connection to Anaplan by signing in to your account.
 Access token Username
  Refresh token Password
  Client ID  
  Client secret  
Table 3. Description of the connection fields
Connection field Description
Access token The access token that is generated from the application client ID and client secret.
Refresh token The refresh token that is generated from the application client ID and client secret.
Client ID The unique identifier of your Anaplan client application. Get the client ID from your Anaplan account user interface.
Client secret The client secret of your Anaplan client application. Get the client secret from your Anaplan account user interface.
Username The user ID or email address of the registered Anaplan account.
Password The password for the specified username.
To obtain the connection values (Client ID, Client secret, Access token, and Refresh token) for Anaplan and to connect to App Connect, do the following steps:
  1. Log in to your Anaplan account.
  2. Generate a Client ID and Client secret:
    1. To create an OAuth 2.0 client, make sure that you are a Tenant security administrator.
    2. On the Administration page, go to Security > OAuth clients.
    3. If you are opening OAuth clients for the first time, click Enable OAuth.
    4. Click New.

      The Create OAuth 2.0 client dialog displays.

    5. Enter a Name for your new OAuth 2.0 client.
    6. Select an applicable grant Type from the menu.

      You can choose between Authorization code grant and Device grant as both these methods can be used to retrieve the access token.

      Note:
      • Authorization code grant displays the client authorization request in a web browser or mobile app. You can approve or reject this request. If approved, users are redirected back to the client with a temporary code. The client exchanges this code with an access token.
      • Device grant is a type of extension. It enables devices without browsers or limited input capability to exchange a prior device code with a fresh access token.
    7. Enter the Allowed callback URLs. For example, https://google.com.
    8. Click Create Client.

      The new client dialog box opens.

    9. Click Copy near the Client ID and Client secret to copy them and save them somewhere safe.
    10. Configure the token-related options based on your requirement, then click Save.
    11. For more information, see Create an OAuth 2.0 client in the Anaplan documentation.
  3. To generate an access token and a refresh token to use to interact with Anaplan on your behalf, use an application such as IBM API Connect Test and Monitor or Postman to submit a POST request. Complete the following steps:
    Note: The application, Postman was used in this example.
    1. Go to the following link from a web browser after you replace the client ID parameter. 
      https://us1a.app.anaplan.com/auth/authorize?response_type=code&redirect_uri=https://www.google.com&scope=openid%20profile%20email%20offline_access&client_id=<YOUR CLIENT_ID>

      A new link is generated.

    2. Copy the code generated from the link. For example:
      Example of a code generated from the link
    3. Start a new POST request.
    4. Click the Body tab and select x-www-form-urlencoded.
    5. Specify the following parameters:
      • Request URL: 
        https://us1a.app.anaplan.com/oauth/token
      • Request parameters:
        Key Value
        grant_type authorization_code
        client_id Set this parameter to the client ID that is generated.
        code Set this parameter to the code that is generated from the link in your web browser.
        client_secret Set this parameter to the client secret that is generated.
        redirect_uri Set this parameter to the redirect URI that is used. For example, https://www.google.com.
    6. Click Send. An access token and refresh token are returned in the response. Make a note of these values because you need to specify them as connection values when you create the account.

To connect to an Anaplan endpoint from the App Connect Designer Catalog page for the first time, expand Anaplan, then click Connect. For more information, see Managing accounts.

Tip:

Before you use the account that is created in App Connect in a flow, rename the account to something meaningful that helps you to identify it. To rename the account on the Catalog page, select the account, open its options menu (⋮), then click Rename Account.

General considerations

Before you use App Connect Designer with Anaplan, take note of the following considerations:

  • (General consideration) You can see lists of the trigger events and actions that are available on the Catalog page of the App Connect Designer.

    For some applications, the events and actions in the catalog depend on the environment and whether the connector supports configurable events and dynamic discovery of actions. If the application supports configurable events, you see a Show more configurable events link under the events list. If the application supports dynamic discovery of actions, you see a Show more link under the actions list.

  • (General consideration) If you are using multiple accounts for an application, the set of fields that is displayed when you select an action for that application can vary for different accounts. In the flow editor, some applications always provide a curated set of static fields for an action. Other applications use dynamic discovery to retrieve the set of fields that are configured on the instance that you are connected to. For example, if you have two accounts for two instances of an application, the first account might use settings that are ready for immediate use. However, the second account might be configured with extra custom fields.

Events and actions

Anaplan events

These events are for changes in this application that trigger a flow to start completing the actions in the flow.

Note: Events are not available for changes in this application. You can trigger a flow in other ways, such as at a scheduled interval or at specific dates and times.

Anaplan actions

Your flow completes these actions on this application.

Actions
Execute action
Cell data
Update cell data
Export definition
Execute export
Files
Upload file content
Download file content
Import definition
Execute import data to model
Large volume read
Download page for list
Download page for view
Execute large volume read for list
Execute large volume read for view
List items
Retrieve list item
Create multiple list items
Update multiple list items
Delete multiple list items
Processes
Execute process
Views
Retrieve cell data for a view

More items are available after you connect App Connect to Anaplan.

Important: If the asynchronous operations (Execute action/Execute export/Execute import data to model/Execute process/Execute large volume read for list/Execute large volume read for view) do not get completed within the defined time set (30 minutes) in the connector, the operation aborts with a proper error message. For example:
Example of an error message

Examples

Dashboard tile for a template that uses Anaplan

Use templates to quickly create flows for Anaplan

Learn how to use App Connect templates to quickly create flows that complete actions on Anaplan. For example, open the Templates gallery, and then search for Anaplan.

Learn more

Dashboard tile for a template that uses Anaplan
Anaplan flow in detailed view

Use IBM® App Connect to build flows that integrate with Anaplan.

Read the blog in the IBM Community to learn how to retrieve a file from Box and update the content in Anaplan, then import the data into a model in Anaplan. Click Read the blog to go to the blog.

Read the blog