How-To Integrate Foxtrot & Nintex Workflow Cloud

The Nintex Workflow Cloud solution is an advanced cloud-based workflow and process automation platform offering powerful, easy-to-use system integration capabilities. By combining Foxtrot and Nintex Workflow Cloud, you will be able to perform optimal automation across both desktop-based and cloud-based systems. In this article, we will take a closer look at how to get started integrating Foxtrot and Nintex Workflow Cloud, in other words, how to:

Start a Nintex Workflow from a Foxtrot project via the REST action

Please note that it is also possible to use Nintex Workflow Cloud to start a Foxtrot project. For example, you could have the Nintex Workflow Cloud send an email to an inbox used in a Foxtrot project to trigger a process. To learn more about how to use the email functionality in Foxtrot, see this article.

It is important to note that there are, of course, many other ways of integrating the two automation platforms, possibly smarter and more efficient ways. This article aims to help you get started and explore the opportunities integrating Foxtrot and Nintex Workflow Cloud.

Before getting started, you will have to have a Foxtrot Enterprise at your disposal, you can order a free trial license here, and you will have to have access to a Nintex Workflow Cloud account, you can order a free trial here.

For this article, we will make a very simple workflow and project. The article does not intend to showcase what you can do in Foxtrot or Nintex Workflow Cloud, the sole purpose is to help you get started integrating the two platforms. After understanding the concept of integrating the two systems, you can start to use it in actual processes and relevant flows.

Create a simple Nintex workflow

First, let us make a very simple workflow in Nintex Workflow Cloud. Click to create a new workflow in your account.

Now, it is time to set up the first test workflow. As mentioned in the beginning of the article, the thing we will explore is how to start a Nintex Workflow Cloud workflow using the REST action in Foxtrot, but it is definitely also possible to integrate the two platforms the other way.

Imagine you have a process that is initiated via Foxtrot, this could be on a scheduled basis, triggered by an event on the machine that Foxtrot is running on, for example, that a new file is placed in a given folder, or it could simply be a user manually starting the project. The project could then perform certain steps such as opening the ERP system like an SAP to extract some information, now, you could utilize the Nintex Workflow Cloud approval system to approve and process the data. This could be done by starting a workflow via Foxtrot sending the data extracted from SAP and pass it into an approval flow. That is a very simple example of using Foxtrot to extract data frpm a desktop-based application and pass the data to a workflow running in the cloud via Nintex Workflow Cloud.

So, in order to set up a workflow that can be initiated using this method, first, click to define the "Start event".

Select to use "Nintex" as the connector and "Component workflow" as the event.

Here, it is possible to define the start event variables. This will be the variables that we can pass in via Foxtrot using the REST action when starting the workflow. What variables you need to define here, of course, depends on your workflow and process. For the sake of simplicity and testability, let us simply set up some generic test variables like this.

Now you can press close to save the "Start event". Hereafter, we are ready to define what the workflow should do when triggered. Again, you play around setting up any sort of workflow you would like. For this example, let us simply make an approval step where we will include whatever data is passed in to the specified start event variables from Foxtrot. To do this, drag-and-drop the "Assign a task" to the plus icon.

Now, click on the step to edit it. Select the "Form based" option. First, we fill out a "Task name" like "Approval task". Next, we need to set the "Assignee email address". Here, let us use variable "test1" from the start event variables.

Next, in the "Subject" we just write "Foxtrot data for approval". In the "Message body", let us use variable "test2".

Now, we scroll back up as we now only need to design the form itself that will display the data for approval.

Again, you can design the form however you would like it to be. For this example, we just make a simple layout where we will display the two variables "test3" and "test4".

Just to make it a bit cooler, let us also add an image to the form.

We copy the URL from the Foxtrot Alliance logo from this support website (right-click and select copy URL address).

We are now down designing the form, so, click "Apply changes".

We are now done designing the Nintex Workflow Cloud workflow. It is now time to save and publish it. First, we make sure the save the workflow.

Now we publish the workflow.

Select to publish the workflow under "Development". For more details, read this.

Now, this page is very important as this will be the information we will use in Foxtrot to start the workflow. We recommend copy-pasting the values to a document for easier reference later.

You will need:

URL with token
Request body

Click to close the designer. It is now time to move to Foxtrot!

Start Nintex workflow from Foxtrot

Begin with a brand new Foxtrot project. Make sure that you have activated "Expert" experience level and can see the REST action under "Advanced".

Before making the actual project in Foxtrot, it is always a good idea to test the integration between Foxtrot and Nintex Workflow Cloud right away. Therefore, we will start with what will naturally be the last part of the Foxtrot project when we are done: setting up the REST action.

Now, it is super easy to set up the action. Simply copy-paste the relevant information from the Nintex Workflow Cloud from the moment of publishing the workflow. If you forgot to save the information, you can always retrieve it here.

Start by creating the following variables:

Request_Url
Request_Body
Request_Output
Request_Status

Hereafter, set the variables:

"Request_Url" = "URL with token" (from Nintex Workflow Cloud)
"Request_Body" = "Request body" (from Nintex Workflow Cloud)

Now, remember what we used the variables in the Nintex Workflow Cloud for. So, let us adjust the values of the variables for this first test, also, make sure the leave the last two parameters blank.

You can now simply make the REST action like this and you should be able to run the action, starting an instance of the workflow in Nintex Workflow Cloud.