Boomi RESTful API to Anaplan using certificate

jczimbal

The Anaplan connector in Boomi is currently in it's 1st version. It currently does not allow Anaplan users to a certificate to connect with, instead forcing the use of IDs/PSWDs, which means that every 60-90 days the password will need to be changed. There is hope! - - - - Using Boomi's generic HTTP connector to access Anaplan's RESTful API can be accomplished. It does take some effort, but i hope the following article will be helpful. PLEASE REMEMBER using this method means HEADER is uses the 'Authorization' KEY with the BASE64 encoded value of the ID and Certificate. See section 4 below

High-level steps needed to ensure a successful:

1. Create an Anaplan certificate.
2. Convert certificate from DER format to PEM format  → This site helps explain the differences (https://support.ssl.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/19/0/der-vs-crt-vs-cer-vs-pem-certificates-and-how-to-convert-them)
3. Encode the certificate to BASE64
4. Configure Boomi or other applications with encoded ID & certificate

1.) Create an Anaplan certificate.

Certificate is created in Anaplan. Any administrators has the ability to create a certificate.

A.) Depending on the screen click on either your initials or the blue down arrow next to your name. Take a look at the screen shots below:

 

 

B.) Once in the next screen click on the Certificate tab

C.) If not certificates have been created the screen will look like this:

 

D.) Click on the button 'Create new Certificate'. Once clicked a pop-up screen will appear asking to view or save the newly created certificate. Click on the radio button to 'SAVE' and click the button 'OK'

 

E.) After the certificate has been created, the certificate dashboard screen will be updated with the new certificate.

 

 

2. Convert certificate from DER format to PEM format

(Per Anaplan support. OpenSSL is suggested to convert the certificate)

**Another topic will be created on how to install OpenSSL

To open the application OpenSSL, please review the screen shot below:

 

Once opened OpenSSL will look like this, as it is a command line program:

 

In order to convert the certificate, it MUST be copied to the bin folder. (Note i will not be explaining how to use the command in other directories)

In my example, the bin folder is located here: C:\OpenSSL-Win64\bin

A.) The conversion script: x509 -inform der -in certificate-100699999999999999999999999999999999514.cer -out certtest.pem

Before & After the execution this is what you will see:

 

 

B.) After the conversion script is run, you execute this script: x509 -text -in certtest.pem (Where certtest.pem is the name you provided when converting the DER formatted certification). This will display the converted script.

Example of what would be displayed. Please note there is a lot more data being displayed, but I will not show all the data.

Another view:

 

 3. Encode the certificate & ID to BASE64

(Per Anaplan support, this site < https://www.base64encode.org/ > is suggested to encode the certificate and ID)

A.) Copy all the data shown below, including all the BEGIN CERTIFICATE and END CERTIFICATE data. This data can be found by opening OpenSSL and using this command: x509 -text -in certtest.pem (Where certtest.pem is the name you provided when converting the DER formatted certification)

 

B.) Per instructions from the Anaplan support team:

1. Use a Base-64 encoder (e.g. https://www.base64encode.org/ ) to encrypt the CN and PEM string, separated by a colon. For example, paste this in:
   your.name@company.com:-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
   CERTCONTENTS
   -----END CERTIFICATE-----

 

4. Configure Boomi or other applications with encoded ID & certificate

 

Before you can paste any values into Boomi, the entire relevant string needs to be made.

This value (AnaplanCertificate ENCRYPTEDSTRING) needs to be used in Boomi, and sent via the HTTP header to the Anaplan API.

AnaplanCertificate is the prefix and the ENCRYPTEDSTRING represents the data encoded by the base 64 website. That Entire string needs to be pasted after AnaplanCertificate as seen below.

 

Once this value is created, it can be tested in Postman (an Open source 3rd party API testing tool) as in the screen shot below. REMEMBER THERE IS NO AUTHENTICATION!!!

 

 

In Boomi it will look like this. Once this value is created, it can be used in Boomi in a number of ways. In the example below I inserted the value as a parameter. Please see the screen below. REMEMBER THERE IS NO AUTHENTICATION!!!

An successful test will look something like this, but that all depends on what your Boomi flow looks like.

 

jerrywu

John,

I've recorded a demo of filtering on a composite hierarchy that may be helpful in your situation.   

jczimbal

Jerry - thanks for the video, it was a big help. I just added booleans for the intermediate levels (dimensioned at the intermediate levels) and then incorporated the booleans into the filtered line items. 'IF 'L3 Dummy check' THEN 0 ELSE 3' for the level 3 value and 'IF 'L2 Dummy check' THEN 0 ELSE 2' for the level 2 value.