Connecting Optible to Any System
Optible is not limited to the platforms listed under Settings > Integrations. If your system can send data out or accept data in through an API, Optible can work with it. This article explains why, and what is involved.
Optible does not need your data in a particular shape
Most integrations fail at the first step: the two systems describe an application differently. One nests the applicant's details inside an organisation record, another keeps sixty flat custom fields, another holds everything in a folder of documents.
Optible reads all of them. Whatever structure your data arrives in, Optible unpacks it and matches each value to the right question on your Optible form. Nesting, naming and field order are yours to decide.
So if your system sends the applicant's contact details buried inside an organisation record, each value still lands where you expect:
| What your system sends | Where it lands in Optible |
|---|---|
| Organisation > Legal name | Your "Legal entity name" question |
| Organisation > Contact > Email | The applicant's email address |
| Project budget | Your "Total project budget" question |
No change to your system, and no fixed template to match.
Fields you have not set up still come through
If your data includes a field that has no matching question in Optible yet, Optible creates the question and keeps the value rather than discarding it. You can rename or retype that question afterwards and the link to your system holds.
In practice this means you do not have to map your whole form before the first application arrives. Send the data, see what came through, then tidy the questions you care about.
Results go back in the shape your system expects
Writing results back is the same idea in reverse. For each value you want returned, you choose the field in your system that receives it and the shape that field expects. Optible converts the value before sending it.
| The field expects | What Optible sends |
|---|---|
| Text | A single line of text. Multiple values are joined into one. |
| A number | A clean figure. Currency symbols, commas and stray words are removed, so "AUD 100,000" arrives as 100000. |
| A choice or picklist | A list of options, even when there is only one to send. |
| A document | The generated application document, uploaded through your platform's file API. |
This is why an unfamiliar field is rarely a problem. A system that wants a picklist where another wants plain text is a setting on the mapping, not a change to the integration.
What you can send back
An answer from the application form
Whether an eligibility or scoring criterion passed
Whether a required document passed validation
A value Optible read out of an uploaded document
Assessor comments, and Optible's own commentary
The generated application report
A link back to the application in Optible
A fixed value you type, for tagging records that came from Optible
Each one can be set to write on the events that matter to you, such as a stage change, a completed assessment, or a processed document.
Two ways to connect your own system
Send applications to Optible. If your system, form tool or middleware can send data to a web address when an application is submitted, Optible can receive it today. We provide the address, you send your data in your own format.
Let Optible talk to your API. If your platform holds the applications and prefers to be read rather than to push, Optible connects to your API on a schedule and writes results back the same way. This is how the Salesforce, SmartyGrants and Box integrations work, and the same approach applies to other platforms.
What we need to scope it
Your platform's API documentation, or a sample of the data you would send
How access is authorised, for example an API key or an OAuth app
Which fields you want assessed, and which results you want written back
What should trigger a write-back, such as a decision or a stage change
Talk to us
To scope an integration with your own system, email support@optible.ai with the detail above and we will tell you what is involved.