Introduction
Unit4 Extension Kit is a low-code platform for building, customizing and connecting business apps.
This guide helps you get started with building custom flows using Extension Kit. It's also a step-by-step guide to learn about the main features of Extension Kit.
- Learn the Extension Kit basic concepts
- What can I do with Extension Kit?
- Log in to your Extension Kit account
- An Extension Kit example: Welcoming employee automation
- Where to find more information
1. Learn the Extension Kit concepts
Extension Kit Flows (Flows)
A Flow consists of a Trigger (an optional filter on the data contained in the Trigger event) and a sequence of one or more actions. When a Trigger event is received the Flow is initiated, and based on any filter present the Flow’s Actions are executed in the order defined in the Flow.
For more information, see Adding flows.
Trigger
A Trigger is a step within the Extension kit flow that’s responsible, based on external input, for generating events which will initiate flows.
See Triggers for more information about the supported triggers.
Actions
An Action is a step within the Extension Kit flow that accepts an input process the data and returns some output back to the same flow.
See Actions for more information about the supported actions.
Wanda
Wanda is the Unit4 digital assistant that helps you take care of your most routine Unit4 ERP tasks. Wanda works with Microsoft Teams, Skype and Slack. For more information, see the Wanda implementation guide.
Users and Roles
There are three different roles:
| Role | Read flows | Troubleshoot | Create | Edit | Add Users | Manage rights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reader | X | X | ||||
| Contributor | X | X | X | X | ||
| Owner | X | X | X | X | X | X |
2.What can I do with Extension Kit?
Extension Kit lets you extend the Unit4 ecosystem with new capabilities through new apps. The range of use cases it can cover is broad and will grow as we add more functionality to the application. It can be classified into four main categories:
- Automate repetitive work
- Move information between applications and services
- Create custom chatbots
- Automatically send notifications
You can build a flow from scratch
Our low-code capabilities let you quickly build flows that meet your needs without writing code.
You can work with experts to build a custom flow
If you need help building or designing an Extension Kit flow, or you do not have the resources to do it in-house, then you can contact Unit4 Professional Services or any of Unit4’s technology partners. They will deliver your requirements and can help you extend the Unit4 functionality with custom add-ons.
3. Log in to your Extension Kit account
You can access the Extension Kit portal upon request. When a new customer environment is connected to Extension Kit, a customer email account is required. This user will be the owner of the portal, and has the ability to invite new users in as users.
IDS authentication
Authentication happens through Unit4 Identity Services (IDS). This means that a user needs to be registered in the system to be able to gain access.
URL
Unit4 Extension Kit is a multitenant service, and as such the customer’s environment name or tenant must be specified when accessing the portal. The URL structure looks like this:
https://root/tenant/TenantName
Where TenantName must be replaced with the short name identifier of the customer environment.
Extension Kit Portal
In the Extension Kit portal, you can:
- Read flows
- Add flows
- Edit flows
- Check the flow history and troubleshoot
- Define parameters
- Create and manage users
- Upload SSL certificates
- Define SFTP connections
- Inspect the usage statistics
4. An Extension Kit Example: Welcoming employee automation
Plan your flow
Before you start the development work, you must: - Identify the business processes that you’d like to extend, automate or integrate. - Outline the data that each process is based on.
Welcome message flow
You are an HR worker that sends a welcome email to each new employee with a warm welcome message, useful information and links.
The process usually looks like this:
- The HR employee introduces the User information in Unit4 ERP.
- The HR employee creates and sends an email with new employee data using a template.
We would like to automate the second task with Extension Kit so that the HR employee does not need to enter the information twice., thus saving some time and avoiding making errors.
The workflow of my automation now looks like this:
- The HR employee introduces the User information in Unit4 ERP.
- Extension Kit reacts to the new employee’s recorded data.
- Extension Kit sends an email to the new employee with dynamic content.
Creating the Extension Kit flow
- Log in to your Extension Kit portal.
- Click New flow. You are taken to the flow design screen.
Enter a name for your Flow: “Welcome Message Flow”. You have now created a flow. However, the flow does not have any components yet, so you need to start by configuring the trigger and defining the actions. Select Message Hub Event. Subscribe to Employee changes entering the:
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Source system | U4erp / u4bw |
| Message type | Document |
| Name | employee |
| Version | 1.0 |
Now your flow has created a subscription to the Employee event published by ERP. Every change performed to an employee document (creation, modification, deletion) will trigger this event.
The content of the employee document that triggered the flow in step0 will be available in the subsequent actions by using the tag: {{step0}}. Each document will have the same structure:
-
Properties: Message header properties
-
Body: enterprise document definition. A list of Enterprise Documents and its corresponding properties can be found here.
-
Content-type: The receiver uses this value to understand what is in the body.
-
Click Filter to define the conditions thatl make your flow run. In this case we only want to run the flow when the employee is a new (added) record (not modified or deleted).
-
Click the Action icon and select email sender:
-
To email: {{step0.Body.contactPoints[0].eMail}}
We will select the email address that has been registered as the first address in the employee document as shown above.
-
Reply to:
-
Subject: {{step0.Body.personName}}, welcome to Unit4! In this case we will use the new employeename.
-
Body format: HTML
-
Body:
<h1 style=”color: #5e9ca0;”>Welcome to Unit4!</h1>
<p>Welcome to the team, {{step0.Body.personName}}!</p>
<p>Our company is growing and changing every day and we’re thrilled to have you along
for the ride. </p>
<h2 style=”color: #2e6c80;”>Some useful links:</h2>
<ol style=”list-style: none; font-size: 14px; line-height: 32px; font-weight: bold;”>
<li style=”clear: both;”><img style=”float: left;” src=”https://html-online.com/img/01-interactiveconnection.
png” alt=”interactive connection” width=”45” />MS Teams HR channel</li>
<li style=”clear: both;”><img style=”float: left;” src=”https://html-online.com/img/03-docs-to-html.
png” alt=”Word to html” width=”45” /> Employee Portal</li>
<li style=”clear: both;”><img style=”float: left;” src=”https://html-online.com/img/04-replace.png”
alt=”replace text” width=”45” /> Documentation site</li>
<li style=”clear: both;”><img style=”float: left;” src=”https://html-online.com/img/05-gibberish.png”
alt=”gibberish” width=”45” />Community4U</li>
</ol>
5. Where to find more information
For more information go to: