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Designing an External System Integration
To connect any flow to an external system without using code, use MuleSoft for Flow: Integration connectors in the flow. When no connector exists, you can use the HTTP Callout action to make direct API calls to external systems without using code. You can also set your flow to run whenever a change happens in an external system. To do this, choose the External System Change-Triggered flow type when you create the flow. For legacy systems without APIs, you can use MuleSoft RPA processes published on Anypoint Platform as external services in your flow. For documents and unstructured data, use MuleSoft for Flow: IDP to extract information from PDFs, images, and forms.
Required Editions
| View supported editions. |
| This feature requires the MuleSoft for Flow: Integration add-on. Professional Edition requires the API access add-on. To purchase, contact your Salesforce account executive. |
| MuleSoft for Flow: Integration features used with Agentforce require the Foundations or Agentforce 1 edition. To purchase these editions, contact your Salesforce account executive. |
Connect with a MuleSoft for Flow: Integration Connector
MuleSoft for Flow: Integration connectors integrate external systems with flows, enabling seamless communication, interoperability, and data exchange. Integrating siloed data using connectors improves workflow, enhances efficiency, and provides a more connected experience for users.
You can access pre-built templates for specific MuleSoft for Flow: Integration connectors. Use these templates to setup flows quickly with pre-configured logic and field mappings for your connector. You can use templates and then make your own connections. This approach makes it faster to set up connections while still letting you change the integration to fit your needs.
You can reference a MuleSoft for Flow: Integration connector in two ways within your flow. To initiate a flow based on external system changes, use an External System Change-Triggered flow. This flow type uses the connector to poll the external system for matching triggers at your specified interval. Alternatively, add the connector's action to a new or existing flow to any new or existing flow to push changes to an external system.
MuleSoft for Flow: Integration connectors are designed to maintain their currency through a structured update process. Automatic updates are applied for minor and patch versions, which helps make sure that integrations remain secure and compliant. To maintain control and stability, manually upgrade your major versions. As they become available, new connector versions appear in Show advanced options, where you can select specific action or trigger versions.
For more information about supported triggers and actions, refer to Third-Party Connectors and view the respective connector reference.
For an overview of how to set up MuleSoft for Flow: Integration and to create automated connections between systems, refer to Get Started with MuleSoft for Flow: Integration.
Connect by API without a MuleSoft for Flow: Integration Connector
If there isn’t a connector available for your external system, and your system has an API, you have several connection options. For simple connections using HTTP protocols, you can use the HTTP Callout action in your flow for direct API integration. The HTTP Callout action in Flow Builder connects your flow to the outside system directly using External Services. You don't need to write code, work with a developer, or use a middleware tool. However, you must have the API documentation for the endpoint you’re calling.
For more complex connections using different protocols, you can build your connection in Setup and then create an action in API Catalog, which makes it available in flows, Agentforce, and other Salesforce products.
Connect to a System without an API
When external systems don't have APIs or connectors available, you can build MuleSoft RPA processes to interact with desktop and web applications, and then invoke these processes from your flow. With MuleSoft RPA, your flow can:
- Launch and interact with a web browser and web-based applications
- Open and control desktop applications
- Extract data from applications that don't have API access
- Automate form filling and data entry across multiple systems
Unlike MuleSoft for Flow: Integration connectors that use APIs, MuleSoft RPA processes mimic human interactions with applications. This makes them useful to get data from older systems or applications that don't have modern integration features.
Process Documents with MuleSoft for Flow: IDP
When traditional APIs aren't available or when data is stuck in documents, use MuleSoft for Flow: IDP for document processing. To customize your document processing settings and extract structured data from unstructured documents such as PDFs, images, and forms, use document processing features in Flow Builder.
Document processing uses AI models to understand the structure of the document and get important information. Use it for processing invoices, forms, contracts, and other business documents that don't have accessible APIs.
Choose Your Integration Method
Select the appropriate integration method based on your external system's capabilities:
- MuleSoft for Flow: Integration Connectors–Use when a connector is available and you need real-time connectivity.
- HTTP Callout Action–Use in a flow for simple connections to APIs that use an HTTP protocol.
- API Catalog–For complicated integrations that you plan to use throughout your Salesforce org, set up your integration once and then use it in Flow Builder and other Salesforce features.
- External System Change-Triggered Flows–Use when you need to poll for changes in systems with APIs
- MuleSoft RPA–Use to interact with desktop or web applications when APIs aren't available.
- Document Processing–Use when your data is in digital or scanned documents (PDFs, images, forms).
Examples
With a connection to an external system, examples of the tasks your flow can do include:
- Update the related Contact in Salesforce when a contact is updated in NetSuite
- Update the data in QuickBooks Online when an Order is updated in Salesforce
- Create an issue in Jira when a Case is created in Salesforce and escalated to engineering
- Sync a Lead created in one Salesforce org to a Lead in another Salesforce org
- Extract customer data from a legacy desktop application and create Salesforce records
- Automate web form submission on external websites to capture lead information
- Automate data entry across multiple web-based systems
- Extract invoice data from PDFs and automatically create records in Salesforce
