Canvas is simple to use, but it is good to know a few before diving in it can be a good idea to get to know some of the key concepts involved, mainly .
Here we will describe three central concepts for Canvas: apps, blocks, and workflows.
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In short:
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Applications
Canvas simplifies interaction with APIs by letting you register applications.
When you register a new application on a user account you will be asked to provide the necessary API credentials (usernames, passwords, API keys, etc) for the app. These details are then stored safely in the user account, and can be used by the integrations (“workflows”) that you create.
If you have worked with APIs before, you will know that it can be challenging to manually handle API authentication, safe storage of API credentials, refreshing of session tokens, OAuth, API changes, etc.
Canvas simplifies all this by handling authentication and querying for you.In Canvas, you do not normally query external APIs directly. Instead you
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would query the app
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you registered. The app API on Canvas works as a middle layer, simplifying and unifying the process of working with several external APIs.
For example, if you register Azure AD as an app on an account, then you will be able to set up integrations towards Azure AD using the stored credentials. Instead of querying the Azure AD API directly, you can query the app you registered, without having to manage aspects such as authentication, etc.
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