Active Directory People Imports Using iPaaS

This how-to article will help clients with Active Directory and iPaaS walk through the process of using iPaaS for their people import process. The user must have the following settings enabled within the Security Role: Global Admin, Access to Flow-Building in iPaaS. 

Overview

Active Directory is a common platform for your organization's ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) needs. With iPaaS, you can supplement the out-of-the-box TeamDynamix People Import Utility to help with bringing in your records, or sync directly with your people API endpoint. This article outlines the process for each, as well as pros and cons.

Integrating your AD People Import Process with iPaaS

There are two main choices when it comes to using iPaaS for your People Import process from out of AD. They can both be seen outlined in this image below:

iPaaS Option A: Incorporating the People Import Utility

In the diagram above, iPaaS Option A is used primarily for the purposes of building out a CSV/XLSX file and then uses the People Import to do nightly record posting and updates.

While it may seem more intuitive to use iPaaS to work API endpoint to API endpoint for your organization's people import, there are significant advantages to incorporating TeamDynamix's People Import Utility in your process. Of note, the utility method is preferred when working with AD for the following reasons, outlined below:

Advantages:

• The people import utility auto-waits for any rate limits the process may encounter.
• The people import utility can auto-split the file if need be.
  • In a larger people import, if you have too many records in a single file and the file size is therefore too large, the People Import will parse the file for you rather than receiving an error and the process aborting.
  • Of note, other iPaaS clients have found this feature to be extremely helpful when working with larger batches of User records.
• The people import utility can also check if the file is readable as our server would read it, and if not, re-save the file so that it is compatible with our servers.
  • This can be enabled by an opt-in flag
  • There are other clients that have run into similar issues with CSV file sources being strangely generated.
• Finally, the people import utility also converts the received CSV or XLS file into an XLSX file, which the API endpoint expects.

iPaaS Option B: Working Directly with your People API Endpoint

Occasionally, customers need to have "realtime" add/change/deactivation for users users ahead of the once-per-day processing that the standard import allows. This is where iPaaS Option B comes in to play. However, there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to this approach:

Advantages:

• No waiting for nightly updates
• Great for working with a small number of overall changes

Disadvantages:

• Increased complexity in building the iPaaS flow
• The process must use the single user create and single user edit APIs instead of the bulk import API
  • As a result, this process is much less performant.
• The single user create and single user edit APIs are rate-limited to a maximum of 45 calls per 60 seconds.