Advanced REST Client
Description
Advanced REST Client calls RESTful web services from within a workflow, extending the standard REST Client step with additional capabilities such as authenticated proxy support, SSL certificate validation bypass, request timeouts, form-data uploads, GraphQL queries, and the ability to read HTTP response headers. Use this step when your automation needs to interact with external APIs — for example, submitting data to a cloud service, retrieving records from a web application, or triggering a remote process. It supports all standard HTTP methods and lets you test API connectivity directly from the configuration dialog.
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Process Studio variables, parameters, and field names must never be same as the Parameter Key, irrespective of case (upper case or lower case).
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Apache HttpClient URL Validation Rule for Invalid Percent Sequences: Apache HttpClient strictly validates URLs according to RFC 3986 (Uniform Resource Identifier) specification.
Rule: A percent-encoded character must follow the pattern %XX where XX are exactly two hexadecimal digits (0-9, A-F, a-f).
Valid hex digits: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F a b c d e f
URL: https://dev354764.service-now.com/api/now/table/incident?sysparm_query=short_descriptionLIKEReport%Success@2025 #Final$In above URL, there a sequence “%Su”
Problem with %Success:
- The sequence %Su is parsed as an attempted percent-encoding.
- S and u are NOT valid hexadecimal digits.
- Apache HttpClient throws URISyntaxException: Illegal character or validation error
Example:
Input Valid? Reason %20 Yes 2 and 0 are hex digits (represents space) %2F Yes 2 and F are hex digits (represents /) %Success No S is not a hex digit %25Success Yes %25 decodes to %, result is %Success Reference: RFC 3986, Section 2.1 - Percent-Encoding A percent-encoded octet is encoded as a character triplet, consisting of the percent character "%" followed by the two hexadecimal digits representing that octet's numeric value.
Configurations
| Field Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Step name | Specify the name of the step as it appears in the workflow workspace. This name has to be unique in a single workflow. |
| HTTP Method | Specify the HTTP method with which the step will interact with a resource. Available HTTP methods are: GET, PUT, DELETE, POST, HEAD, OPTIONS, or PATCH. |
| URL | Specify the path to a REST client resource (HTTP URL). |
| Settings Tab: | Enter basic connection information for accessing a resource. |
| General: | |
| Request timeout in seconds | The time to establish the connection with the remote host. |
| SSL Configuration: | Provide authentication details for accessing a resource that requires SSL certificate authentication. |
| Ignore SSL certificate verification | Enable this checkbox to ignore SSL certificate verification while making HTTPS connection. (This strategy ignores trust store certificate checking, making it insecure and only to be used where it makes sense!!) |
| Trust store file | Specify trust store file path in case of HTTPS connection. |
| Browse | Click Browse button to select trust store file from local machine. |
| Trust store password | Specify trust store password in case of HTTPS connection |
| Key store file | Specify the key store file path (in PKCS#12 format after you’ve combined your certificate and private key) It contains your client’s certificate and private key. Key store file is used for mutual TLS authentication to prove the client’s identity to the server. Please note that this is an optional field. |
| Browse | Click Browse to select key store file from local machine. |
| Key store password | Specify key store password. Please note that this is an optional field. |
| Proxy Configuration: | |
| Use System Proxy | Enable checkbox to allow REST client to use the Process Studio's default proxy configurations. In case of AE agent, it will use agent's proxy configurations. |
| Proxy Type | Select Proxy server type (HTTP/HTTPS) |
| Proxy Host | Specify the name/IP of a proxy host, if proxy authentication is required |
| Proxy Port | Specify the port number of a proxy host, if proxy authentication is required |
| Proxy Username | In case of authenticated proxy server, provide username |
| Proxy Password | In case of authenticated proxy server, provide password |
| Proxy Exceptions (Non- Proxy Hosts) | Specify the Proxy Exceptions, that is, non-proxy hosts. The Proxy Exceptions (Non-Proxy Hosts) can hold semicolon- separated hostnames, IP addresses, and domain names that must not be accessed through the proxy server. When a client requests access to a resource, the proxy server checks the hostname or IP address against the semicolon separated non- proxy hosts. If there is a match, the proxy server forwards the request directly to the target server without going through the proxy. For example, if the Proxy Exceptions (Non-Proxy Hosts) set to "localhost;127.0.0.1;*.mydomain.com", then requests to the localhost, 127.0.0.1 and any server under the mydomain.com domain will be accessed directly without going through the proxy server. It will be considered when the “Use System Proxy” checkbox is unchecked and proxy details (at least Proxy Host and Proxy Port) are provided into the plugin. |
| Parameters Tab: | This tab contains table with three columns to provide request (URL) parameters |
| Parameter Key | Specify the Request parameter keys to set value. |
| Parameter Value | Specify the Request parameter keys values. |
| Description | Specify a description for the parameter. |
| Authorization Tab: | Enter authorization details for a resource in the Authorization tab. |
| HTTP Authorization: | |
| Type | Select Request Authentication (No Authentication, Basic Authentication, Bearer Token, and OAuth 2.0). |
| Username | In case of Basic Authentication provide username |
| Password | In case of Basic Authentication provide password |
| Headers(0) Tab: | This tab contains table with four columns to provide request headers |
| Header Key | Specify request header key |
| Header Value | Specify request header value |
| Header Value Field | Define the content of any HTTP headers using an existing field. Populate the list of fields by clicking the Get fields button. |
| Description | Specify a description for header |
| Request Body Tab: | Request Body tab has a group of radio buttons as follows: |
| Request Body: | |
| none | In case where request does not have a request body |
| raw | Specify raw Request Body as Text, HTML, XML, JSON or XML. You could insert fields in the raw body from the navigator by double clicking the field. Else, use template support in request body to substitute fields and environment variables/parameters in appropriate placeholders (?{fieldname}, ${environment variable}). |
| form-data | Enter Request body in tabular format in a form. Use form-data to send non-ASCII text or large binary data. |
| x-www-form-urlencoded | Enter Request body in tabular format in a form. Use x-www- form-urlencoded to send simple text/ASCII data. |
| read from file | In case where request body to be read from a file. |
| read from field | In case where request body text to be read from a field. |
| binary | In case where request body is to be read from a file. |
| GraphQL (Beta) | Specify GraphQL to execute the GraphQL query schema. Query: Specify a GraphQL query to read or fetch values or a mutation to write or post values. E.g. Query: students id fullName GraphQL Variables: GraphQL variables help to factor dynamic values out of the query and pass them as a separate dictionary. You could insert fields in the Query and GraphQL Variables from the navigator by double-clicking the field. Else, use template support in the request body to substitute fields and environment variables/parameters in appropriate placeholders Note: Please make sure, when substituting (field or environment variable) a string value we have to explicitly enclose that value in double quotes (""). Limitation: Subscription query are not supported by ARC GraphQL. |
| Form-data: | This tab contains table with five columns: |
| Key Type | Select form-data parameter key type (Text/File) from the dropdown list. |
| Key | Specify form-data parameter key. |
| Value | Specify form-data parameter value. |
| Value Field | Select a field containing form-data parameter. |
| Description | Specify a description for form-data parameter String. |
| x-www-form-urlencoded: | This tab contains table with three columns: |
| Key | Specify a parameter key. |
| Value | Specify a parameter value. |
| Description | Specify a description for parameter. |
| Read from file: | This tab contains table with five columns: |
| Content type for request body | Select content-type for request body dropdown. |
| File Path | Specify request body file path. |
| View Request Body Contents | Click this button to view request body file contents |
| Read from field: | This tab contains table with five columns: |
| Content type for request body | Select content-type for request body from dropdown |
| Field name | Specify request body raw text to be read from a field. |
| HTTP Response Tab: | This tab has Output fields. |
| Response Status | Specify the output field to hold the HTTP Response status (e.g 200 OK). The default field name is ArcRespStatus. |
| Response Time (milliseconds) | Specify the output field to hold the HTTP Response time in milliseconds. The default field name is ArcRespTime. |
| Response Headers (JSON) | Specify the output field to hold the HTTP Response headers in the JSON format. The default field name is ArcResponseHeaders. |
| Response Cookies (JSON) | Specify field name to set HTTP Response Cookies in JSON format. The default field name is ArcRespCookies. |
| Response Body | Specify the output field to hold the HTTP Response body text if any. The default field name is ArcRespBody. |
| Output File | Specify the output field to hold the file path for file received in the HTTP Response. The default field name is ArcRespOutputFile. |
| Add File to Result | Check this option to add HTTP Response output file to workflow result. |