Invoking Informatica jobs from within Anaplan on a button click

Lins

Hello,

 

We have a bunch of Informatica Integration jobs that receive data from other systems like Salesforce and generate csv files to be loaded into Anaplan. We use Anplan Connect (Anaplan_Client.bat) to invoke the actions to load the files.

 

These jobs are scheduled via informatica and few of them are through Windows Scheduler.

 

We are looking at the possibility of being able to trigger these jobs from within Anaplan, like a Initiate button on the dashboard. Informatica can publish their jobs and provide an API that can be executed externally or we can have a powershell or Python script to invoke the informatica job. Is there a way of invoking this job/api or the script from within Anaplan?

 

I have seen the below post in Anaplan Community

 

https://community.anaplan.com/t5/Idea-Exchange/Trigger-API-from-Anaplan-native-solution/idi-p/46027

 

However, we are not clear where the TRUE/FALSE file generated by the export action is being downloaded to. Is there a way of saving the export file to a network drive without changing Chrome settings. We would like business users to be able to click the button on the dashboard to invoke the job. From my understanding, files for export actions gets downloaded to the local drive and that’s not very helpful here.

 

Please let us know if there is a way to achieve either of the below from within Anaplan at the click of a button on Anaplan dashboard:

 

• Invoke a published api from informatica
• Invoke a PowerShell Script from within Anaplan

 

 

Thanks!

RajeshB

Yes, we can trigger the Informatica job from Anaplan, Once we publish the Informatica task flow we can get a self-service API endpoint from the task flow properties page using that API endpoint we can trigger the job.

https://docs.informatica.com/integration-cloud/cloud-data-integration/current-version/taskflows/taskflows/running-a-taskflow-as-an-api.html

Using the below approach we can set up an Anaplan module to call the URL.
https://help.anaplan.com/d0ca5c2e-d07e-458a-b07a-3a4caae4a732-Create-links-from-data-in-a-module

Please let us know if any issues with the above process setup.

pyrypeura

Hi @Lins ,

 

While invoking scripts natively from Anaplan is not possible I have user Google Cloud Functions, AWS lambda and Azure Functions as solution for scripts that have had the need to be triggered from Anaplan. In these services you can create a scripts that can be triggered via clicking a link. I have done the scripts in these services and then published a link that triggers the scripts to Anaplan dashboard. It's not optimal and I would also prefer to have a button to do that triggering but does the job while the button option is not feasible.

 

Best regards,

Pyry Peura

Bedford Consulting

Lins

Thank you @pyrypeura . Would you able to provide more details around your solution. Thanks!

pyrypeura

@Lins ,

 

For example in one use case we had a python script that created forecasts for new products based on certain attributes of the product. In Anaplan we had a screen that had a form to setup attributes for products and other inputs for inputting details related to new product forecast. Then we had a python script in AWS lambda https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/ . This script read attributes of new products from Anaplan, calculated forecast for new products and wrote the forecast back to Anaplan using Anaplan API. Then a link that invoked this script was published to the screen so users could click that when they had a new product ready. 

 

Best Regards,

Pyry Peura

Lins

Thank you @pyrypeura , much appreciated

ManjunathKN

@RajeshBNice Idea!!!

Lins

Thank you @RajeshB

I will discuss this option with our Anaplan team.

Lins

Hi @RajeshB , I have another question.

When i try to invoke an informatica job from Anaplan, am asked to log in. I have my user (same as Anaplan login , SSO) set up in Informatica but am not logged in.

Are the users expected to be logged into Informatica to be able to run the job?

Thanks!

RajeshB

Hi Lins,

Yes, we need to be login into Informatica cloud services. are you facing an error like "401 Unauthorised", I have attached a screenshot for reference to avoid this please open any of the Informatica cloud service.

Without logging into Informatica if we trigger the API link then we need to pass authentication details like username/password.

Please check if the user has the "Data Integration Task Executor" role and the user should be added in the task flow level.

Lins

Thank you @RajeshB_*29334 for your response. Apologies for late response as I was away on leave.

I believe the login issues are now sorted with your suggestions. Furthermore, i believe once SSO login is enabled, this could become easier.

I have one final question. Once the user clicks on the link and the taskflow is invoked, a new window opens with the taskrunID. Is there a way to suppress the opening of new window? I was thinking of having a wrapper script which would track the run status and sent an email to the invoking user if the job was completed successfully or not. But I am not sure if that will suppress the opening of new window.

Thanks!