Using triggers or actions to perform CRUD operation in the third-party apps require an authorized or authenticated connection while creating a journey. Establishing a connection is a process of granting permission to Quickwork in order to perform certain tasks in third-party apps on your behalf.

All the third-party apps that Quickwork supports two types of connection mechanism:

1. Authorization: This means to authorize the supported services of the apps with a set of permissions through Google Sign In. Once signed in successfully, the user needs to allow the set of scopes intended to perform the activity in the journey on your behalf. Majorly, Quickwork Journey Builder supports third-party apps with OAuth_2 authorization.

2. Authentication: This means to confirm the user identity by providing a valid set of credentials of the apps to be connected. The credentials could be username, password, client ID, client secret, private key, public key, and so on. These values are unique for each third-party app and the steps to get them are mentioned in the connection window.

Establishing an authorized connection

Let's look at an example where we will create a connection for Google Tasks.

To get started, choose the Google Tasks app under the Trigger field. Then, select the New Task trigger from the drop-down menu under the Trigger Event field. You will get a drop-down field where you need to enter the connection name and link the account with Quickwork:

The My first Google Tasks account will be the default name however, you can enter the connection name of your choice. Then, click the Link an account button. A window will pop up containing the list of Gmail accounts you hold. Refer to the following image:

Choose a Google account with which you want to continue creating a connection. You'll be taken to the next connection window where Quickwork Automation requires permission to access your Google account's information:

Click the Allow button and grant access. Your connection is now created successfully and Quickwork will perform the task in this account on your behalf.

Establishing an authenticated connection

Refer to the following example of PDF Otter to understand the authenticated connection mechanism:

The PDF Otter app requires API key to establish the connection. Selecting the action, specifying the connection name, and clicking the Link an account button opens the Connection window. The steps to get the key are mentioned below the input fields. Following the steps precisely will lead to the required credentials using which the connection gets established successfully.

Using an existing connection

All the established connections get saved in the Connections tab. The newly created connections are considered as existing connections hereafter for other journeys throughout the account. Whenever you try building other journeys with a pre-connected app, say Gmail, you'll get a list of existing Gmail connections in the drop-down menu. You can simply pick the connection of your choice. It is illustrated here:

If you don't want to use existing connections and wish to create another new connection for Gmail (or any apps), click the Create new connection button, specify the name of the second new connection and then click Link an account:

Suppose you have an existing connection for the dedicated app but mistakenly you have clicked the Create new connection button. You can simply revert by using a switch button. Click on the Select a existing connection button and select the existing connection from the drop-down menu:

Common connection for a single service

It is important to note that once you have created a connection for an app, Quickwork Journey Builder uses the same connection for all the actions and triggers of that app. You do not need to create a new connection for different actions or triggers of the same app.

Global accessibility

A connection created for a particular journey in a folder is accessible to all the journeys of all the folders in your account.

Quickwork has a complete helpdesk guide that contains documents related to app connections, famous technical How To's and general FAQs related to the product. Click here to visit the full-fledged Helpdesk site.