Contributing your connector to Workato

Join thousands of customers and partners on the Workato platform who use our robust connector SDK by sharing your connectors with the community. We've created the Workato community as a way for all our users to come together and solve the problem of integrations together, and also allowing ISV partners to get their applications discovered by Workato's ecosystem of engaged IT administrators and automation builders.

There are two ways to publish your connector to Workato:

1. Publishing your connector to the Community
   • This option is the easiest way to get started and getting your connector in front of the Workato ecosystem! Imagine this as an open-source way of sharing your connector, where users install a copy of your connector code for their personal use and can make changes to it.
2. Publishing your connector as a Partner Connector
   • This option gives you the greatest control and distribution of your connector as it appears natively in all user workspaces without any installation needed. Because Partner Connectors have greater visibility, Workato reviews them prior to publishing.

TIP

If you're an app developer looking to build a connector but don't have access to Workato, join us as a Workato technology partner today. Workato's low code platform can make integrations a breeze for your customers, thereby driving engagement and reducing churn. As a technology partner, you'll get priority access to support and training to build on the Workato platform so you can get your connector up and running quickly. Sign up here today (opens new window)

Publishing your connector on the community

Workato's Community is an open source way to share your connectors. There are low barriers to entry to sharing your connector and all users can browse, find and install the connectors you have listed.

Benefits

• Gain exposure on the Workato platform as an experienced Workato systems integrator by listing connectors you have built. Our active community of integrators are always on the lookout for consultants with in-depth knowledge of specific apps and integrations to help them with them. You can share your connectors and also direct interested users to your website to learn more about your app or services!
• List a connector to your own app on Workato and allow your customers a way to easily implement integrations from your app to the thousands of other applications on Workato. Drive engagement and reduce churn for your app when your customers can integrate it with their tech stack easily using Workato.

How do you list your connector?

Listing your connector couldn't be easier. All users have the ability to list connectors directly from the share tab in your connector SDK console. Here are some steps you need to do before listing your connector.

1

If you're an existing Workato user, you should be all set to get started on building and publishing your connector. If not, please join our technology program here (opens new window) and our team will be in touch to get you started.

2

Take some time to read our extensive documentation on the Workato connector SDK. This gives you a good foundation on how to build a connector. You should also check out our advanced connector guidelines and best practices. These guides are incredibly important to improve usability for integrators on Workato. Good connectors naturally get more usage and stickiness with users.

3

After building your connector, do remember to test it yourself. You should do tests on a recipe level as well. Besides testing, you should also change the logo of your connector to a logo that matches the app this connector is built for. Remember to provide an informative description for your connector under the Share tab.

4

Once you are ready, head over to the Share tab on your connector's SDK console page. Ensure you've shared the correct version of your connector as this is what will be used for your listing on the community. When you list your connector, you'll be prompted to enter in the name of the app this connector is built for. Enter in the exact case sensitive name of the app only. This is essential and your listing will be rejected otherwise.

5

Configure your community profile (opens new window) in your account settings. This profile represents you or your company in the Workato community. Be sure to add your contact email and company website if applicable. This allows Workato members to contact you directly.

6

Decide if you want to share your connector publicly or direct interested parties to your website. You can do this by clicking the toggle to "Prevent direct installation". If you do so, you'll be prompted to provide a landing page. This should be a landing page that provides more information about the connector and your company!

7

Wait up to 3 business days for your connector to be approved, an email will be sent to you informing you of the approval. If there are changes required, you will be notified on the email provided in your community profile found in your workspace settings.

Creating community recipes for your connector

Community recipes allow you to showcase the functionality of your connector through recipes that anyone can find and install for use immediately. They drive usage and improve how fast people understand how to use your connector.

When designing community recipes for your connector, be sure to keep the recipe simple and understandable - these are templates that users can extend further, rather than full fledged production recipes. When users choose to install your community recipes, we will prompt them to install your community connector as part of the process.

To publish a community recipe utilizing community connectors, you will need to ensure that all custom connectors in the recipe are published to the community by you and that the recipe has at least 1 successful job. To share a recipe to the community, go to that recipe's page => settings => sharing.

After sharing community recipes, users will be able to find your recipes when browsing either community recipes or community connectors.

Best practices - Listing a community connector

1. Scrubbing out any sensitive information from your connector code

When building your connector, you may have hardcoded sensitive information such as OAuth client IDs and secrets or API keys. Remember to scrub these values out before listing your connector on the community. These credentials will be compromised if other users install your connector. Instead of hardcoding sensitive data, sensitive data should be collected as input fields from users.

2. Removing any code that may compromise data

Safety is a key priority in the Workato community. We conduct checks on connectors published to ensure that data sent to the connector is being handled in a safe and responsible manner. In cases where you may have sent payloads or responses from the API to a requestb.in (opens new window) for checking, make sure to scrub those out.

2. Selecting the right app for your connector

When you list your connector, we ask you for the app which this connector has been built for. Be sure to enter in the proper name for this app so that all Workato users can find it easily without confusion. If you're building a connector to an app which cannot be found in the dropdown, we'll need some time to verify this app before your listing is approved. Be sure to enter in the application name properly to speed up the verification process.

3. Identifying proper categories and using the right logo

Using the right logo for your connector instills trust in users when they browse it. While conducting their own due diligence and research on your connector, these data points are crucial in helping potential users decide whether they want to install your connector.

4. Prepare appropriate content to help your users understand how to use your connector

You're welcome to place links in your actions and triggers to documentation you might host elsewhere for your connector. If you're preventing users from installing your connector direct from the community, you should also build a landing page that highlights how users can reach out to you to install your connector. A lightweight page is sufficient.

5. Fill up your community profile

You should fill up your community profile so users who see your listing on the community understand who you are. You can change your name and avatar on the community as well as provide contact emails and websites so Workato users can reach out to you easily.

6. Provide community recipes so everyone knows how to use your connector

Community recipes are the easiest way to help users understand how to use the connector you have built. Use recipes to help users get started with your connector.

Publishing your connector as a Partner Connector

Partner connectors are connectors built by Workato's trusted partners and distributed out of the box to all Workato without any need for users to install it. Publishing a Partner connector gives you the ultimate control and visibility for your connectors but it comes with stricter checks and balances to ensure your connector follows our best practices. Your initial connector code and subsequent versions will require code reviews by Workato engineers.

The Partner connector program is currently invitation only and we plan to extend this capability in the coming months to more partners. Priority will be given to partners who are also owners of the APIs behind the connectors they have built as well as those who have gained significant traction in terms of installs when publishing their connector to the community. In the interim, please consider listing your connector on our community.