SOAP authentication

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Introduction

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a messaging protocol for exchanging structured information in a web environment. SOAP authentication is used specifically for authenticating SOAP-based web services.

How it works

The Patchworks Connector Builder incorporates token-based authentication for SOAP. When requests are made, user credentials (provided when the connector instance was created) are passed for authentication and a token is returned - tokens are incorporated into SOAP messages.

Your authentication setup will typically include variables for user credentials (e.g. username and password) and a response_authentication_token_key (or similar) which tells Patchworks where to find a token in authentication response SOAP messages. For example:

 

In this example, notice that a `response_authentication_token_key` field value is defined as part of the setup (because it never changes). As such we don't need to display this as a field for users to complete, so it's NOT `required`, `configurable`, or `advanced`.

{% hint style="warning" %} If the field you define as the location for tokens contains anything more than just the token, you'll need a POST authentication request script to strip out the token. For an example, we recommend installing the Peoplevox connector from the Patchworks marketplace and checking the setup. {% endhint %}

User experience of SOAP authentication

When a Patchworks user adds an instance of a connector and chooses to authenticate with SOAP authentication, they will see something similar to the example below:

 

Required variables will vary, depending on the API but in general there will be at least fields for users to enter their credentials.

SOAP-based authentication examples

It can be useful to compare how existing connectors have been configured for SOAP-based authentication. Some examples are linked below:

 

 

You can install any of these for comparison.

Related information

• Configuring token-based authentication