Alteryx DCM usage within the Download Tool (for generic API authentication)

[markspivey]

I'm working on updating an existing set of projects where I need to use the Download Tool in Alteryx to access various APIs, and wanted to securely store the credentials in DCM, rather than having them sit insecurely within the Download Tool itself. We can use access to the Okta API as an example, whereby the Okta API requires an API key which is typically passed in the HTTP headers as part of an API GET request. My goal is to securely store the API key and manage it through the Data Connection Manager (DCM).

I've set up DCM and understand how it can store and manage credentials like username/password pairs and specific methods for AWS and Azure services. However, I'm having trouble understanding how to use it for storing and managing generic API keys or credentials, which don't fit into these pre-existing categories.

In my Okta example, the Download Tool needs to be configured under the Headers tab to push a Name and Value for authentication purposes, which for Okta looks like this:

Name: Authorization

Value: SSWS {apiKey}

Raw: Authorization: SSWS {apiKey}

My issue is figuring out how to store this API key in the DCM and how then to reference that secret/variable in the Download Tool. Has anyone used DCM for storing generic API credentials specifically for use within the Download Tool for API access?

[montynasser]

yes, followed your instructions as per your original post and fixed my error (i created an empty string for the Download tool input anchor but it converted to a bool which caused the error) however, it seems that the download tool is not performing the post, the results from the download are just null for the DownloadData and DownloadHeaders but no error message is thrown. using Alteryx Designer 2024.1.1.209. Tried packet sniffer and doesn't look like it is connecting. In the payload i also set the username and password manually to validate whether it was a DCM configuration issue but still the same.

I have a simple test wf but seems it's not working correctly.  I created another WF which performs the connecting without using DCM and it works as expected. 

[montynasser]

Solved my issue.  In the Download input anchor I had an empty field (URLIn), I put '/' in that field and it worked. I then went back to my DCM and put a '/' at the end of the URL and then removed the input anchor value (URLIn) and it didn't work. so it seems that the input anchor needed a value for it to trigger.  I tried '&' at the end but that failed as well as a comma which also failed.