How to connect Insightly with SharePoint

This "how-to-connect" documentation will explain the initial configuration of an example connection from Insightly to a SharePoint Online List in Office 365. We will be synchronizing data stored in Insightly.

This guide presupposes that you have installed the Layer2 Cloud Connector and that you are familiar with its basic functionality. The Layer2 Cloud Connector User Documentation will provide you with all necessary information.

Contents

1. Configuring Insightly

2. Configuring the Layer2 Cloud Connector

2.1 Creating a new connection

2.2 Configuring the Data Entity 1

2.3 Configuring the Data Entity 2

2.4 Running your connection

3. Hints and known issues

3.1 Connection direction

3.2 Data model

1. Configuring Insightly

Go to your Insightly account and open your User Settings.

Copy the API KEY value under User Settings / API KEY:

This value must be base64 encoded. You can do it online for example here.

2. Configuring the Layer2 Cloud Connector

2.1. Creating a new connection

Create a new connection by using the Create New Connection option in the Actions pane (right-hand side). The new connection will appear at the bottom of the Connection Manager List (left-hand side). Click on your newly created connection to open the connection configuration settings.

Choose a meaningful name for your connection and replace the current "New Connection" Connection Title with it.

Connections to Insightly can be uni-directional only. An initial connection should always be uni-directional to assure that both data entities are identical. Therefore, choose Left to Right as Direction.

2.2. Configuring the Data Entity 1

We will now set up our Data Entities. Go to the data entity “Data Entity 1” to open the configuration settings.

Choose a Data Entity Title. It is recommended to give your entities meaningful names to maintain an overview when you decide to set up multiple connections.

Select the Data Provider for JSON from the data provider list. You can search for JSON by typing into the selection box.

For the Connection String, we need the information mentioned in step 1. You can copy the below connection string and adjust it to match your gathered information. Use the Verify Connection String option to evaluate if the provided connection string is valid.

URI=https://api.insightly.com/v3.0/Contacts;CustomHeaders=Authorization:Basic yourapikeybase64encoded;FlattenArrays=1;	

• "URI=https://api.insightly.com/v3.0/yourendpoint;" this property defines to which endpoint we are connecting to. You can find all endpoints in the Insightly API here. We are using the Contacts endpoint.
• "CustomHeaders=Authorization: Basic yourapikeybase64encoded;" this property must be set to the API KEY base64 encoded.
• "FlattenArrays=1;" this property can be used to flatten the elements of nested arrays into columns of their own. It is an optional parameter that delivers the best results for us if set to 1.

The Select Statement text box is used to define specific data queries. We will be gathering data from our Contacts endpoint JSON answer. You can copy the below select statement and adjust it to match your needs. Save your changes by using the right-hand pane option Save Changes.

SELECT * FROM json

To check if all necessary columns are received, you can use the Preview Data option on the right-hand pane which will provide you with a pop-up window showing your sample data from your Insightly entity.

2.3. Configuring the Data Entity 2

We are going to send the data to a custom SharePoint Online list. It's required that you set up this list prior to the next steps. Your list should contain matching columns according to your source entity.

Use the left-hand pane to switch to the data entity "Data Entity 2". We will be using the Layer2 SharePoint Provider for this setup. 

For more information about the SharePoint provider visit:

https://www.layer2solutions.com/support/cloud-connector-faqs/layer2-csom-sharepoint-ado-net-provider.

You can copy the below Connection String which contains the minimum of required properties to connect to your custom SharePoint Online list.

URL=https://your_custom_sharepoint_list_url/AllItems.aspx;Authentication=Office365;User=User@domain.com;

• "URL=https://your_custom_sharepoint_url/AllItems.aspx;" this property defines the URL of your custom list that will be addressed.
• "Authentication=Office365;" this property will determine the authentication method used. Office365 is the default authentication method to access Microsoft Office365 / SharePoint Online. This method will not work in case of federation, e.g. ADFS. For further authentication method, you can consult the provider specifications linked above.
• "User=User@domain.com;" this property should describe the user you wish to connect to SharePoint to. 

Enter the password that belongs to the user account used in the connection string into the Password field. Save your changes by using the right-hand pane option Save Changes.

In the next step, we will configure our mapping settings. Click on the Mappings option on the left-hand pane. If your fields from SharePoint are named identical to the fields from your source system, the Enable Auto Mapping option will match those columns. Disabling this option allows you to match your columns as needed. We enabled auto-mapping in our setup. Save your changes by using the right-hand pane option Save Changes.

2.4. Running your connection

To run your connection switch back to the main connection configuration node and use the Run Now Button located on the bottom of the setup page. The Run Synchronization Toolbox will also display the synchronization process. 

Below is a data preview of the information we have accessed in our source entity:

This will be the result in our SharePoint Online list after our initial successful synchronization:

See section 3.1 for further information.

3. Hints and known issues

3.1. Connection direction

As far as tested, this connection supports uni-directional only.

3.2. Data model

To see all the available endpoints, visit the Insightly API here.

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