Create SharePoint-Connected Nintex Workflows

Nintex Workflow Cloud is a cloud-based platform where you can design workflows to automate simple or complex processes using drag-and-drop interactions — without writing any code. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to SharePoint data for business applications. This article shows how to create a virtual database for SharePoint in Connect AI and build a simple workflow from SharePoint data in Nintex.

CData Connect AI provides a pure, cloud-to-cloud interface for SharePoint, allowing you to build workflows from live SharePoint data in Nintex Workflow Cloud — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Nintex allows you to access data directly using SQL queries. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to SharePoint, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested SharePoint data.

Getting Started

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Configure SharePoint Connectivity for Nintex

Connectivity to SharePoint from Nintex is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with SharePoint data from Nintex, we start by creating and configuring a SharePoint connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "SharePoint" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SharePoint.

   Set the URL property to the base SharePoint site or to a sub-site. This allows you to query any lists and other SharePoint entities defined for the site or sub-site.

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SharePoint user credentials when using SharePoint On-Premise.

   If you are connecting to SharePoint Online, set the SharePointEdition to SHAREPOINTONLINE along with the User and Password connection string properties. For more details on connecting to SharePoint Online, see the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SharePoint Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
   
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to SharePoint data from Nintex Workflow Cloud.

Connect to SharePoint from Nintex

The steps below outline creating a new connection to SharePoint data from Nintex (via Connect AI).

1. Log into Nintex Workflow Cloud
2. In the Connections tab, click "Add new"
3. Select "Microsoft SQL Server" as the connector and click "Connect" 👁 Adding a new SQL Server Connection
   
4. In the SQL Server connection wizard, set the following properties:
   • Connection Name: Connect AI
   • Username: a Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Password: the Connect AI user's PAT
   • Database Host: tds.cdata.com:14333
   • Database Name: the SharePoint connection (a.g., SharePoint1)
   👁 Configuring the Connection to Connect AI
   
5. Click "Connect"
6. Configure the connection permissions and click "Save permissions" 👁 Configuring permissions and saving the Connection
   

Create a Simple SharePoint Workflow

With the connection to CData Connect AI configured, we are ready to build a simple workflow to access SharePoint data. Start by clicking the "Create workflow" button.

Configure the Start Event Action

1. Click the start event task and select the "Form" event
2. Click "Design form"
3. Drag a "Text - Long" element onto the Form and click the element to configure it
   • Set "Title" to "Enter SQL query"
   • Set "Required" to true
4. Drag a "Text - Short" element onto the Form and click the element to configure it
   • Set "Title" to "Enter desired result column"
   • Set "Required" to true

👁 Designing the Start event Form

Configure an "Execute a Query" Action

1. Add an "Execute a query" action after the "Start event: Form" action and click to configure the action
2. Set "SQL Script" to the "Enter SQL Query" variable from the "Start event" action
3. Set "Column to retrieve" to the "Enter desired result column" variable from the "Start event" action
4. Set "Retrieved column" to a new variable (a.g., "values")

👁 Configuring the SQL Server query action

Configure a "Send an Email" Action

1. Add a "Send an email" action after the "Execute a query" action and click to configure the action
2. Set the "Recipient email address"
3. Set the "Subject"
4. Set the "Message body" to the variable created for the retrieved column

👁 Configuring the email action

Once you configure the actions, click "Save," name the Workflow, and click "Save" again. You now have a simple workflow that will query SharePoint using SQL and sand an email with the results.

To learn more about live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, check out the CData Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.