Connections | Zoho QEngine Help

Connections

1. Overview

Connections are used to establish authentication between Zoho QEngine and other third-party services. You can think of connections as a way to log in to any Zoho or third-party service. If you're already logged in (connected) to a particular service, you can always access your data stored in those services. Once a connection is created and connected, you can use it to perform authentication during API testing, which ensures that data is accessed securely.

2. Navigation to connection page

You can access the connections page from the following three places:

From the home page
  1. Navigate to the home page.
  2. Click on the connections icon {} in the top-right corner.


From variables page

When creating connection-type variables, you have the option to navigate to the Connections page. To do so:
  1. Navigate to Settings > Variables.



  2. Select Connections in Type.



  3. In the Value dropdown, click Create New.

From API testing

While creating API test cases, you have the option to navigate to the Connections page, enhancing accessibility. The following are the steps:
  1. Navigate to Authentication. From the Type dropdown, select Connection.
  2. In the Value field, click Create New.


Now that you've navigated to the connections page, let's see how to create a new connection.

3. Create Connection

Perform the following steps to configure connections for your services:

In the Connections page, click Create Connection.


  1. Pick your Service
    Services are the connectors using which you can create your connections.

  2. To create a new service, provide the following information:
    1. Service Name: This is the display name of the service that you want to create. Display name can contain up to 50 characters.
    2. Service Link Name : Link name of the service to uniquely identify the service.
    Notes
    Note: The service link name:
    1. Must start with a lower case letter
    2. Can only contain lower case letters, numbers, and underscores (_)
    3. Can contain up to 50 characters
    1. Authentication Type : Choose from the following authentication types:

      Type
      Description
      Fields
      API Key
      This auth type requires you to specify the params for establishing a connection with the required service. In the next step, you will need to supply values for these params. For example, if you specify authtoken as param, the next step would be to provide your account's authtoken to establish a successful connection.

      Upon choosing API Key as authentication type, you need to provide values to the following fields:

       

      Param Type:  This decides how the authentication parameters will be sent. Supported param types: Query string, Form Data, and Header

      Parameter Key: Name of the key (as specified in the API documentation of the required service) against which the parameter needs to be sent

      Parameter Display Name: Display name for the parameter. This name will prompted when you connect to the service

       

      Note :

      • You can add as many parameters as required.

      • Parameter could be any type of key that is required for authentication, such as api-key, user-key, authtoken, or apitoken.

      Basic Authentication
      This auth type requires you to specify the username and password in the next step, which will be encrypted with a base64 algorithm automatically and passed as a header in the format: basic <encrypted_username>:<encrypted_password>
      N/A
      OAuth 1
      This auth type requires you to specify the required parameters to perform an OAuth 1 authentication.

      Upon choosing OAuth 1 as the authentication type, you need to provide values to the following fields:

      Consumer Key: Issued by the service provider

      Consumer Secret: Used to authorize your application

      Request Token URL: URL to fetch the request token as specified in the API documentation of the required service

       

      Authorize URL: As specified in the API documentation of the required service

      Access Token URL : URL to fetch the access token as specified in the API documentation of the required service
      OAuth 2
      This auth type requires you to specify the required parameters to perform an OAuth 2 authentication.

      Upon choosing OAuth 2 as the authentication type, you need to provide values to the following fields:

       

      Grant type: The required service uses to perform authorization. You can choose from the supported grant types: Authorization Code and Client Credentials

       

      Client Id: Issued by the service provider

      Client Secret: Used to authorize your application

      Authorize URL: As specified in the API documentation of the required service

      Access Token URL: URL to fetch the access token as specified in the API documentation of the required service

      Refresh Token URL: URL to fetch the request token as specified in the API documentation of the required service

      Param Type: This decides how the authentication parameters will be sent. Supported param types: Query string and Header

      Note : When registering a Zoho client, the callback URL or the Authorized Redirect URIs should be specified as:

      US domain : https://deluge.zoho.com/delugeauth/callback

      EU domain : https://dre.zoho.eu/delugeauth/callback

      IN domain : https://dre.zoho.in/delugeauth/callback

    Private API Setup

    To authenticate connection for your private networks, enable the PrivateAPI feature, as shown below: 

    1. Toggle the PrivateAPI switch on to authenticate connections with your private network. 
    2. In the dropdown that appears, select the required agent that is linked with the private network.



    Now, click Create Service.

  3. Connection Details
    1. Under Connection Details, provide the following information:

      1. Connection Name: Display name of your connection
      2. Connection Link Name: Link names must be unique
      Note: The link name that you provide must satisfy the following conditions:
        1. Must start with a lower case letter
        2. Can only contain lower case letters, numbers, and underscores (_)
        3. Can contain up to 50 characters
    2. Click Create and Connect.

    3. A User Permissions dialog will pop up, provide your authentication credentials (if any, depending on the authentication type), and click Connect.

    4. A Connection Summary dialog will pop up. Upon successful authorization, the connection will be created and listed in your connections page.

    5. Hover over the connection to edit, revoke, or delete it. The following table lists the editable and non-editable custom service fields:

Authentication Type
Editable fields
Non-editable fields
Basic
Service name

Authentication type

Service link name
API Key

Service name

Param type

New parameters can be added

Existing parameters can be edited but cannot be deleted

Authentication type

Service link name
OAuth 1

Service name

Param type

Consumer ID

Consumer secret

Authorize URL

Access token URL

Refresh token URL

Authentication type

Service link name
OAuth 2

Service name

Param type

Client ID

Client secret

Authorize URL

Access token URL

Refresh token URL

Authentication type

Grant type

Service link name

Notes
Note: When a connection is edited, it is revoked by default and has to be reconnected.

4. Related Links

  1. API Testing