Upload a document to Infor IDM using Infor ION

You will find many posts/videos about this topic, but I intend to guide you step-by-step with more information to comprehend and also refer to this faster in your future need. You can comment on any improvements, bugs, and thoughts to get me motivated.  

This post is based on an actual requirement from my current project with Infor M3 13.4. I’m explaining the general concept aiding with my actual requirement in the project.

The Context

A User or any application in an on-premise environment needs to archive files with Infor IDM. As you are aware we can use Infor Enterprise Connector to establish a secure connection between the two environments. Explaining Enterprise Connector is out of this post and you can find more information here.  

In the actual scenario, after archiving

1. The users want to search the archived files related to the SBU/DIVI, the Business Process (User, Application, process, etc.), and the upload date. 
2. Purge files after a predefined retention time. 

We can facilitate these requirements using Infor IDM very easily.

Prerequisites in Infor IDM. 

Document Types

Note: To create a Document Type in IDM you need to be in the IDM-Administrator role. 

For this example, I created a Document Type with the following information.  For more information refer to the Infor IDM Guide.

Tab	Field	Value
	Display Name/Name	BDX_FR_FILE
	Document title	Filename
	Rest of the Fields	Keet Default values
Attributes	SBU
	Display Name	SBU
	Data Type	String
	Max. Length	3
	Other	Single-value, Required
	UploadDate
	Display Name	UploadDate
	Data Type	Date
	Other	Single-value, Required
ACL	Public (for this example)

ION IDM API

We have the Infor ION APIs suite to integrate with Infor IDM.  The suite has a bunch of Apis but for this example, we are using only Add item API. The body parameter in the API is used to send the document types information along with the file name and file content (as bast64 string). 

The Solution

We will be creating Infor ION Document Flow to 

1. Read the file from the location.
2. Enrich the BOD with the necessary information for Infor IDM.
3. Call the Infor IDM Items (to Add an item).

Login to the ION Desk. 

Configure the file location and the document (BOD)

1. Create a File Template.
1. Go to Connect-> File Template -> Add
2. Add the following Information.

Field	Value	Remark
Name	BDX_FR_FILE_SOURCE
File Type	Binary	Fields Format Type, Document ID Filed Name and Raw Data Field Name will automatically fill and will be added to the BOD.
File Name Attribute	FileName	Will be added to the BOD.
File Extension Attribute	FileExtension	Will be added to the BOD.
File Path	FilePath	Will be added to the BOD.
Document	FRRAWDATA	Give any meaningful name. A custom BOD will be created using this name.

3. Save the Information.
4. Select GENERATE METADATA. This is will create the required Custom BOD to use in the rest of the data flow.
5. Click Yes, in the popup to accept that we are sure to generate the document with provided Document ID.
2. Create a connection point to the File folder (refer to the context diagram above), using Enterprise Connector (EC). 
1. Go to Connect-> Connection Points -> Add -> File 
2. Add the following information. 

Tab/ Group	Field	Value	Remark
	Name	BDX_FRFileLocation
	Location	Related Enterprise Location	Please check with your System Admin to get the EC data.
Connection Tab	Transfer Protocol	Shared Folder
		Provide necessary information Host Name, User name, and Password fields
Document Tab	Add a Scenario	Click on the + icon
	Scenario	Select Read a File from a folder
Document Tab / File Format Template & Document Settings	File Format Template	BDX_FR_FILE_SOURCE	Select the File Template to create in Step 1.
	Document Noun		Automatically selected.
	Document Verb	Select Sync
Document Tab / Read File Settings	Create non-existing folder(s)	Tick On
	Read Location	FR_File_In	Substitute your actual folder paths without the hostname only the shared folder path. For sub-folders separate with “/” as an e.g. FR_File_In/FR_File_Error.
	Error Location	FR_File_In/FR_File_Error
	Archive Location	FR_File_In/FR_File_Arc
	File Name pattern	.csv	Specify any pattern you need. To accept all the files in the read location you can set this as *.*.

3. Keep the rest of the settings as it is. 
4. Click on TEST. If all is good, subfolders will be created in the shared location.

Your final settings should look similar to the following screenshot. 

Configure the Infor IDM API Connection 

1. Go to Connect -> Connection Points-> Add -> API.
2. Name it BDX_FR_IDM.
3. In the Connection, tab import the legit service account.
1. Please contact your System Admin to get the Service Account file, which contains the Access Key, Secret Key, Description, and User Name.
4. Go to the Documents Tab and click on the + icon to add ION API.
5. Select Send to API option in the Scenario section as we need to post data.
6. Select the Input Document tab.
7. From the Document dropdown select Sync.FRRAWDATA.
8. Select the ION API tab, enter IDM_FR_UPD as API Call Name
9. Click on the Select button.
10. In the Search ION API Operation dialog select Document Management as Product.
11. Then search and select Add an Item (POST, IDM/api/items)
12. Click OK to close the popup
    
    
13. Click on the Request Body tab.
14. Tick on in the Map input document to API request check box.
15. From the Format dropdown select application/xml. Because we using Sync.FRRAWDATA BOD.
16. In the Body EXAMPLE text box add this API Payload.  Tip: You can get the payload from Infor IDM API Suite. 
17. Then save all the changes we made. 
18. You can test the API by pasting the below Sync.FRRAWDATA BOD   into the Message Content of the Test ION API Call popup.

Create the Document Flow

We are going to create a very simple Document flow as follows.

1. Go to Connect -> Data Flows -> Document Flow.
2. Name it BDX_FR_IDM_UPD.
3. Drag and drop the File activity to the canvas and change properties as follows.

   Property	Value	Remark
   Name	FRSourceFile
   File Connector	BDX_FRFileLocation	Hit the New button to create a new file connector and the Details button to review the settings of the selected connector.

4. Select the File Icon after the File connector we just created and add the document by selecting FRRAWDATA from the Add Documents popup.
5. Before calling the IDM API, we have to combine the two attributes FileName and FileExtenstion of FRRAWDATA element in the Sync.FRRAWDATA. Drag and drop the Script Activity after the File, to enrich the BOD. Alternatively, you can use the Mapping activity where the Script is not available. I will discuss it in Appendix 2.
6. Change the Script Activity Properties as follows.

   Tab	Property	Value	Remark
   Properties	Name	ChangeFileName_IDM
   	Script	Change_File_Name_IDM	Refer to the Script section below for creation.
   Document Mapping	Input Document	Sync.FRRAWDATA
   	Output Document	Sync.FRRAWDATA	Click on the Magnifier Glass icon in the Output Document column and select.
   Input Parameters	Name	input_var_1
   	Input	Input Document Content
   Output	Document Script Parameter	output_var_1
   	Header Script Parameter	From Input Document

7. Drag and drop API Activity after the Script.
8. Change the properties as follows.

   Property	Value	Remark
   Name	IDM_AddFile
   Select ION API Connector	BDX_FR_IDM

9. Activate the Document Flow.
10. Integration is ready to test.

Appendix 1

Sync.FRRAWDATA BOD structure

The BOD structure generated from Infor ION is as follows.

Tip: Note the FRRAWDATA (line number 19) complex element in the BOD. It generated the attributes and subelements as we instructed when creating the file template.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

<SyncFRRAWDATA releaseID="9.2"> <ApplicationArea> <Sender> <LogicalID> </LogicalID> <ComponentID>External</ComponentID> <ConfirmationCode>OnError</ConfirmationCode> </Sender> <CreationDateTime>2022-12-25T10:09:11.997Z</CreationDateTime> <BODID> </BODID> </ApplicationArea> <DataArea> <Sync> <AccountingEntityID/> <LocationID/> <ActionCriteria> <ActionExpression actionCode="Replace"/> </ActionCriteria> </Sync> <FRRAWDATA FileName="File name" FileExtension="csv" FilePath="FR_File_In"> <DocumentID>RD-954584925-1670321351981</DocumentID> <RawData>UmVhZCBwb3N0cyBmcm9tIGh0dHBzOi8vd2FybmFqaXRoLmJsb2dzcG90LmNvbS8gYW5kIGh0dHBzOi8vd2FybmFqaXRoLndvcmRwcmVzcy5jb20v<RawData> </FRRAWDATA> </DataArea> </SyncFRRAWDATA>

Infor IDM Api payload

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

<item xmlns="http://infor.com/daf"> <attrs> <attr> <name>SBU</name> <value>SBU1</value> </attr> <attr> <name>UpdalodDate</name> <value><IonApiRef>SyncFRRAWDATA/ApplicationArea/CreationDateTime</IonApiRef></value> </attr> </attrs> <resrs> <res> <filename><IonApiRef>SyncFRRAWDATA/DataArea/FRRAWDATA/@FileName</IonApiRef></filename> <base64><IonApiRef>SyncFRRAWDATA/DataArea/FRRAWDATA/RawData</IonApiRef></base64> </res> </resrs> <acl> <name>Public</name> </acl> <entityName>BDX_FR_FILE</entityName> </item>

Tip: 

• Line numbers 2 to11: There are two <attr> occurrences because we defined two mandatory attributes in the IDM Document Type.
• <IonAPiRef> is used to map the respective BOD element or attribute.
• Line Number 21: <entityName> is the name of the IDM Document Type.

Appendix 2

Steps to create the Python script

1. Go to Scripting - > Scripts -> Add.
2. Change the Name to Change_File_Name_IDM.
3. Add the following script.

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

   from xml.etree import ElementTree as etree tree = etree.fromstring(input_var_1) for node in tree.getiterator(): if node.tag == 'FRRAWDATA': fn = node.attrib.get('FileName') fe = node.attrib.get('FileExtension') n_fn = fn +'.'+ fe node.attrib['FileName'] =n_fn root = tree #print (etree.tostring(root,encoding='UTF-8', method='xml', short_empty_elements=True)) decoded = etree.tostring(root,encoding='UTF-8', method='xml', short_empty_elements=True) output_var_1 = decoded

4. In the Property section, under the Input and Output select Edit. In the popup add the variable below. Click Update to close the popup. 

   Direction	Variable Name	Data Type
   Input Variables	input_var_1	String
   Output Variables	ouput_var_1	String

   
   
   
   
   
5. And test the script by copying the same Sync.FRRAWDATA into the input_var_1. If all is well, you can see now FileName attribute includes the file extension. 
6. Then go back to the Script home dashboard and approve the script. 
   

Using Mapping Activity instead of Script

1. Go to Connect -> Mappings -> Add -> Graphical Mapping.
2. Name the map Map_IDMFileNameChange.
3. Select Sync.FRRAWDATA for both Source and Target.
4. In the Modeler tab, drag Sync.FRRAWDATA element from the source and drop it onto the Sync.FRRAWDATA in the target. Then mapper will connect other elements. 
   
   
   
   
5. Go to the XSLT Editor. Remove the highlighted code line. When you try to change it, the editor will ask you want to switch to editing mode. Click on Yes.
   
   
   
   
6. Paste the below code into the removed line. Note line number 12 which concatenates both file name and extension.

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

   <xsl:copy-of select="/*:SyncFRRAWDATA/*:ApplicationArea" copy-namespaces="no"/> <xsl:if test="/*:SyncFRRAWDATA/*:DataArea"> <xsl:element name="DataArea"> <xsl:copy-of select="/*:SyncFRRAWDATA/*:DataArea/*:Sync" copy-namespaces="no"/> <xsl:element name="FRRAWDATA"> <xsl:if test="/*:SyncFRRAWDATA/*:DataArea/*:FRRAWDATA/@FileExtension"> <xsl:attribute name="FileExtension"> <xsl:value-of select="/*:SyncFRRAWDATA/*:DataArea/*:FRRAWDATA/@FileExtension"/> </xsl:attribute> </xsl:if> <xsl:attribute name="FileName"> <xsl:value-of select="fn:concat(/*:SyncFRRAWDATA/*:DataArea/*:FRRAWDATA/@FileName,'.',/*:SyncFRRAWDATA/*:DataArea/*:FRRAWDATA/@FileExtension)"/> </xsl:attribute> <xsl:if test="/*:SyncFRRAWDATA/*:DataArea/*:FRRAWDATA/@FilePath"> <xsl:attribute name="FilePath"> <xsl:value-of select="/*:SyncFRRAWDATA/*:DataArea/*:FRRAWDATA/@FilePath"/> </xsl:attribute> </xsl:if> <xsl:if test="/*:SyncFRRAWDATA/*:DataArea/*:FRRAWDATA/*:DocumentID"> <xsl:element name="DocumentID"> <xsl:value-of select="/*:SyncFRRAWDATA/*:DataArea/*:FRRAWDATA/*:DocumentID/text()"/> </xsl:element> </xsl:if> <xsl:if test="/*:SyncFRRAWDATA/*:DataArea/*:FRRAWDATA/*:RawData"> <xsl:element name="RawData"> <xsl:value-of select="/*:SyncFRRAWDATA/*:DataArea/*:FRRAWDATA/*:RawData/text()"/> </xsl:element> </xsl:if> </xsl:element> <xsl:value-of select="/*:SyncFRRAWDATA/*:DataArea/text()"/> </xsl:element> </xsl:if>

7. Click on Validate to check errors. 
8. Test the XSLT to make sure we can see the File name with the extension. 
   
   
   
   

How to configure Postman to call Infor ION API

In this post, I'm going to explain the step-by-step approach to configuring the popular development tool Postman to test/execute Infor ION API. Even though this is straightforward, better to have a document to do quickly whenever you need it, to save time. 

As you know Infor ION APIs use OAuth2.0 (The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework) for authorization and Bearer Tokens which are the predominant type of access token.

Configuration from the Infor ION API

Create Postman as Authorized Apps in Infor ION.

Note: To complete the below steps you must be in the IONAPI-Administrator security role.

1. Goto Infor ION API -> Authorized Apps
2. Click on  + icon on the left top (Add New App)




Give it a name, description select type as "Backend Service", then Save 



3. After save, we can see additional information like, Client ID, Secret, Associated Events etc. 
4. Click on the Download Credentials button (next to the Secret text box).
5. In the Download Credentials Dialog, toggle on the Create Service Account.
6. Select a user from the Full Name text box. This is required because we are configuring this as Backend service and need impersonation. Or You will get Illegal impersonation attempt (error: 163) error. 





7. A file will be created(eg. PostmanClient.ionapi) and downloaded to your local Download folder. After you download, store these credentials securely. 

If you open the file, can see it is a JSON file and contains several properties.  Infor API Admin guide defines those properties as follows;

  

Property	Description
ti	Tenant identifier
cn	Application name
ci	ClientID that must be passed to the Authorization
cs	ServerClient Secret to pass to the Authorization Server
iu	Base URL for calling the ION API Gateway for this tenant/environment
pu	Base URL for calling the authorization server for this tenant/environment
oa	Path to append to "pu" to create the Authorization URL
ot	Path to append to "pu" to create the Access Token URL
or	Path to append to "pu" to revoke a previously obtained token
SAAK	Service Account Access Key
SASK	Service Account Secret Key

Configuration in Postman

1. On the Authorization tab in the Postman, select Type as OAuth 2.0





2. On the right-hand side , under the Configure New Token-> Configuration Options, enter parameter values as below.  

Token Name	Name it as you want
Grand Type	Password Credentials
Access Token URL	value of "pu"+"ot" from the .ionapi file
Client ID	value of "ci" from the .ionapi file
Client Secret	value of "cs" from the .ionapi file
Username	value of "saak" from the .ionapi file
Password	value of "sask" from the .ionapi file
Scope	[blank]
Client Authentication	Send as Basic Auth header



3. Click on the Get New Access Token button. 
4. You will the success mesage like this.

5. In the next window, click on the Use Token
6. Now Postman client is ready to call Infor ION API.