I’m new to flow. We’re getting setup for a 30 day trial right now. In the meantime I’ve been reading docs and watching some of the flow videos on YouTube.
One thing that is not clear to me is how (or even if) the flow client can talk to local REST endpoints, since it seems that the flow is running on a server. So I have two scenarios that I am curious about:
If I have a REST server running locally on the same computer that is running the flow client in the browser, can that flow client talk to the local REST API - such as http://localhost:9100
If I have a REST server running locally on the same network as the computer that is running the flow client in the browser, can that flow client talk to the REST API - such as http://192.168.1.100:9100
I’m guessing the answer is no, unless the REST connector has a way of denoting that it needs to run from the client instead of the server.
I’m glad to see you’re exploring Flow and joining our community!
In a Workflow, machine steps are executed by a connector. Some connectors are integrated with the Flow server, while others are available as a Service. The latter is particularly useful for cloud-hosted servers needing to connect to on-premise applications in secure networks. You can find more details in the Flow help : Overview | Flow Classic Help | Flow Help (novacuraflow.com)
For Flow Classic, client-server communication occurs each time a machine step is executed. Therefore, for your scenario, the Flow Server must have access to the REST API, wherever it’s hosted. This means that in Case 1, the REST API needs to be hosted on the same server as the Flow server. In Case 2, it will work as long as the Flow server can reach the IP address on your network.
In Flow Connect it’s a different story, there you can choose to run a REST call directly from the Client or via “Server” dependent on your requirements. Flow connect is our new Cloud native product line that has just launched.
