Connections

Connections

Sigma uses connections to expand your Zoho Services’ third-party support. This is done with the help of OAuth 2.0 or any other basic authentication protocols. 

OAuth 2.0 

OAuth 2.0 is an industry standard, open source authorisation protocol which is used to gain partial access to a user’s account on an HTTP service. A well-known classical example of this is the sign in screen that requests for partial access to your personal account whenever you try to log in an application using your social media credentials such as Google, or Yahoo.
Say, you have created a tutorial video for your product and hosted on YouTube and you wish to be notified whenever somebody comments . You can write a function to fetch the comments from YouTube. Likewise, connections are used to connect Sigma to a third party app, YouTube in our case via OAuth 2.0 protocol. 

Users can either connect with an available service or configure a custom service.

Connect with an available service 

To make integration easier, we provide a set of services that are most frequently used by our customers. After configuring the basic details, users can establish a connection.  
  1. Navigate to Connections module, click  Add Connection.
  2. Under the  Pick Your Service   tab, select a third-party or internal Zoho service. 
  3. Create an account in the service that you chose, if you do not have one. 
  4. Configure the service details under the  Connection Details  section. 
  5. Click  Create and Connect. 
    1. The  Connection Summary   page displays the details of the connection. You can also edit the service details here. 
  6. Enter the required details, such as the Domain ID and user credentials, to establish the connection. Once the authentication is successful, the service will be ready to use.
  1. The scope of the connection varies with each service. 
  2. For authentication methods using the Basic Auth protocol, configuring the Actual Parameter and Parameter Display Name fields help with the verification process. While establishing the connection, a dialogue box prompts you to enter the configured parameter value. The integration will only be successful if the parameter values match. 
  3. For authentication methods using OAuth 2.0 protocol, a callback URL must be mentioned in the respective third-party service.  
  
    

Connect with a custom service  

In addition to the services provided, users can also connect with other third-party services. To establish a custom connection:     
  1. In the Connections page, click Add Connection. 
  2. Under the Custom Service tab, enter the service and connection details. 
  3. Service details: 
    1. Service Name: Enter the name of the service. 
    2. Authentication Type: Select the authentication method used by the third-party service.  
    3. Fill in the other details with respect to the chosen authentication type. 
  4. Connection Details: 
    1. Connection Name : Name your connection. 
  5. Click Create and Connect. 
    1. The Connection Summary page displays the details of the connection.  
  6. Once the authentication is successful, the service will be ready to use.
  1. The scope of the connection varies with each service. 
  2. For authentication methods using the Basic Auth protocol, configuring the Actual Parameter and Parameter Display Name fields help with the verification process. While establishing the connection, a dialogue box prompts you to enter the configured parameter value. The integration will only be successful if the parameter values match. 
  3. For authentication methods using OAuth 2.0 protocol, a callback URL must be mentioned in the respective third-party service. 

Revoke a connection 

If users no longer require an integration, they can revoke the connection.  
  1. In the  Connections  page, mouse over a connection. 
  2. Click  Revoke.  
  3. Upon revoking a connection, the authorization will also be revoked. However, the service will be available in the Connections  page and can be authorized any time.

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