Blog, published April 11, 2022 by Justin Hill

Enhance Domino Volt Apps with HCL Link v1.1.3 Integration

HCL Volt just got better with the coming of HCL Link 1.1.3. As you already know, Volt was designed to offer you a great tool for your low-code-development, while Link comes to lend a hand with all the integrations you might need.

HCL Link is:

A market leading data integration and transformation capability included in HCL Domino Volt
It runs on Windows, Linux and Docker
It can easily build connections to a myriad of data sources
It exposes services within Domino Volt so developers can easily integrate them into their apps.

HCL Link improves HCL Domino Volt because:

It offers an easy way to add to the Domino Volt Service Catalog
You get a no-code approach to integration
It manages the connection authorization
It let’s HCL Domino Volt developers build higher value apps
It greatly expands integration possibilities
It adds visibility into the use of services
It has the ability to do complex / multi step things

Here are some typical Use Cases

Read
Get info about employees
Information on customers and partners
Information on products
Spreadsheets on shared drives
Customer orders, entitlements
Location info
Write / Update
Updating a problem ticket
Updating a CRM record
Workflow approval notifies external system
Update commerce site
Messaging – linking from event to Unica or other marketing software.

Who works with HCL Link vs Volt

Diagram showing Domino Volt and HCL Link, with app developers on left, link connections on right. Mentions SAP, JDBC, Salesforce, Excel.

With Link you are creating a link server and the person that uses that server directly to build what is called connections and actions is probably going to be somebody in the IT department. It would need to be a person familiar with the data sources which you are integrating, it would be safe to assume that there will be fewer Link devs than HCL Domino Volt ones.

Requirements and Getting Setup

Install on:
Windows
Linux
Docker (install /build Docker images on Linux)
Can be on the same server or different from HCL Domino Volt
Be mindful of port conflicts if they are on the same server
Installing Link with https will require cert to be imported to Domino for HCL Domino Volt to see Link services
Settings in VoltConfig.nsf to set
The HCL Link server URL
HCL Link credentials

HCL Link Clients

Text-based image detailing HCL Software's features: Link Widget, Full Link Client, Swagger Page, Admin. Displays screenshots and usage info.

Building Connections and Actions

Connection – defines a data source and how to connect to it. e.g., Salesforce
Action – what you do with the Connection. e.g., Add Account, Get Account Details.

Comparison of HCL Link and Domino Volt interfaces. Left shows Salesforce actions; right shows service catalog options with similar actions.

The webinar offered a great demo so make sure to watch it and check out HCL Link in action.

Building Connectors

Consider the numerous steps involved with getting XLS data off a Google drive for use in HCL Domino Volt.

Flowchart depicting data processing from Google Drive to JSON via API and XLS Adapter. Arrows indicate steps: File Name, File ID, Raw, Delimited, JSON Content.

Here are the key aspects of HCL Link:

Link is included with HCL Domino Volt
You can build Connections / Actions to many different data sources
Connections / Actions are exposed in Domino Volt’s Service Catalog
The new version of Link v1.1.3 allows Domino Volt customers to take advantage of the product’s full data transformation capabilities
You can build Connectors for multi step integration
Connectors are exposed just like Adapters for creating new Connections and Actions.

If you need any help with HCL Domino Volt or HCL Link, just drop us an email and we will do our best to assist you with your low code development journey.

Filed under hcl leap