Connectors

A connector keeps a workspace up to date from a tool you already use. Each connector is one source, one login and the one workspace it keeps in sync. Aplas only reads from the source; it never changes anything there.

LeanIX and Confluence are the sources you can connect today.

Connectors sits in the studio nav, and every v2 organization has it on every plan. You can also reach it from Import data (Keeping a workspace in sync with LeanIX or Confluence?) and from a new workspace's first screen (Coming from LeanIX or Confluence?).

Who can do what

Before you start

You need two things from LeanIX (for Confluence, see Confluence):

• Your LeanIX address. Copy it from your browser's address bar while you're signed in to LeanIX — any page will do.
• An API token from a LeanIX technical user with the Viewer role. Viewer is enough because Aplas only reads.

To make the token:

1. In LeanIX, open Administration, then Technical Users.
2. Create a technical user named Aplas.
3. Give it the Viewer role.
4. Copy the API token LeanIX shows you. LeanIX shows it once.

LeanIX's own guide is Technical users.

Setting up a connector

Choose Connectors, then New. Setup takes three steps, and nothing is added to your workspace until the last one.

Step 1 — Where from? Choose LeanIX or Confluence. The steps below are LeanIX's; Confluence asks for a little more at step 2 — see Confluence.

Step 2 — Log in to LeanIX. Paste Your LeanIX address and the LeanIX API token. If you know when the token ends, add it as the Token end date — Aplas reminds you two weeks before, so syncing doesn't stop. If your organization has more than one workspace, choose the one to keep in sync; with one workspace, everything comes into it.

Then Check login and continue. If LeanIX refuses, the reason shows under the field it concerns:

LeanIX refused this token. Check it's current and has the Viewer role, then paste it again.
That isn't a LeanIX address. Copy the address from your browser while you're in LeanIX.

Step 3 — What will come in. Aplas reads your LeanIX workspace and shows what a sync would do before anything is written:

• New — assets that will be created
• Already in your inventory — kept up to date — assets you already have, which the connector takes over instead of duplicating
• Not added — your plan is full — new assets past your plan's allowance (see Your plan's allowance)

Each LeanIX fact sheet type is listed with the asset type it becomes and a switch to bring it in or leave it out. Bring in N assets confirms and starts the first sync; Finish later keeps the connector as Not started so you can come back to it.

Where LeanIX lands

In a new workspace, each fact sheet type becomes its own asset type:

A LeanIX workspace uses either projects or transformations, so those types start switched off — switch on the one yours holds. The lifecycle becomes the asset's status, with each dated phase kept as a date field. An interface's data flow direction is kept as the integration's Direction. Fields and relations an asset type needs are added to the workspace on the first sync.

An asset already in your inventory is matched when it has the same type and the same name as a fact sheet, ignoring case, and is the only one that does. It is kept, and kept up to date — not copied.

What couldn't be placed

Anything the rules have no home for — a custom LeanIX field, a tag group, a relation, a type Aplas doesn't recognise — is listed under Left out for now, with a count. Each item defaults to Leave it out. You can give it a home instead: a new field built from the LeanIX field (a LeanIX list keeps its options and colours), an existing field, or a new asset type.

You can place several items, then choose Update preview once: the counts are worked out again from what was already read, without reading the source again. Read LeanIX again reads it afresh.

Confluence

A Confluence connector keeps a workspace in sync with one Confluence space. Each label on the space's pages is a kind of asset, each labelled page becomes one asset, and the rows of the page's properties table become its fields.

Before you start

• Your Confluence space address. Open the space in your browser and copy the address — any page in the space will do.
• An Atlassian account that can see the space, and its email. Aplas sees what this account sees.
• An Atlassian API token for that account — a classic token, not one with scopes.

To make the token:

1. Sign in to Atlassian as that account, then open Account settings → Security → API tokens.
2. Choose Create API token — the classic kind, not one with scopes.
3. Name it Aplas and choose when it expires. Atlassian tokens last a year at most, so add the date as the Token end date in step 2 and Aplas reminds you two weeks before.
4. Copy the token Atlassian shows you. Atlassian shows it once.

Atlassian's own guide is Manage API tokens for your Atlassian account.

Setting it up

At step 2, Log in to Confluence, paste Your Confluence space address, the Atlassian account email and the Atlassian API token, then Check login and continue. If Confluence refuses, the reason shows under the field it concerns:

Confluence refused this login. Check the email, and that the token is a current classic API token, then paste it again.
We couldn't find that Confluence space. Check the space address, and that this account can see the space.

Step 3 lists each label with the number of pages that carry it. A label that names one of your asset types — application for Applications, say — comes in as that type; any other label is listed under Left out for now for you to place as a new type or an existing one. A page with two labels you bring in becomes one asset.

What a page brings in

• The page title is the asset's name, and the page itself — without its properties table — is the description.
• Each row of the properties table is a field, named by the row's first cell. A page's Page Properties table is used when it has one; otherwise its tables are read row by row, and where a key appears twice, the first row counts. A row holding a status lozenge becomes a choice with the lozenge's colours; a date, a date; people, their email addresses. Rows that match a field the asset type already has land there; the rest are listed under Left out for now.
• A link back to the page (Confluence page) and the page's labels (Confluence labels) are kept on each asset whose type a label names.
• Links between pages — a row that links to another labelled page, or names it by its id — become relations once you say what kind of relation they are. A row that names a page Aplas doesn't read is listed, so nothing goes missing unseen.

When something changes in Confluence

If one sync would remove more than half of what the connector brought in, Aplas removes nothing and says so — usually because pages lost their labels or the account lost access to the space.

How a connector keeps in sync

A connector syncs every 15 minutes, and whenever someone chooses Sync now. The 15-minute syncs read what changed in LeanIX since the last one. Sync now, and a Daily check once a day, read everything.

An unchanged fact sheet writes nothing, so a quiet LeanIX workspace leaves no trail of empty changes.

LeanIX owns the fields it fills. In the asset panel they carry a lock, and the panel says Fields with a lock are kept in sync from LeanIX — change them there. Every other field on the asset is yours, and a sync never touches it. The panel also shows Synced from LeanIX · Open in LeanIX, which takes you to the fact sheet.

Relations you draw survive. A sync adds and removes only the relations it created itself.

When something changes in LeanIX:

If one sync would remove more than half of what the connector brought in, Aplas removes nothing and says so. That usually means the token lost access to part of LeanIX, not that your estate shrank.

Recent changes groups a connector's work by sync, under the connector's name — LeanIX synced 12 assets — rather than listing each asset.

Your plan's allowance

A sync follows the same plan rules as an import, whether it runs on its own or you choose Sync now. Updates to assets you already have always arrive. New assets beyond your plan's allowance wait under Not added — your plan is full, and come in on a later sync once the workspace has room — change the plan, or remove assets you no longer need.

Keeping an eye on it

Each connector's card says where it stands — for example Last sync 12 minutes ago · next in 3 minutes — with a status:

A connector needs attention when LeanIX or Confluence refuses the login, when the token has expired or ends within two weeks, or when the last sync couldn't finish. A failed sync tries again at the next one.

History lists every sync — First sync, Automatic, Sync now or Daily check — and what it did. It also holds Changes from LeanIX (archived and no-longer-there fact sheets) and Needs your attention (new assets waiting for room in your plan, and anything not brought in).

Emails. Your organization's owners and admins are emailed when a connector stops syncing, and when its token's end date is two weeks away. The email links straight to the connector.

Changing or removing a connector

Settings holds the connector's name, the source's address and the login. The token is never shown again — only its last four characters — and replacing it means pasting a new one (for Confluence, with the account's email), which is checked with the source before it is saved. The workspace is fixed: to keep another workspace in sync, set up another connector.

Remove stops the connector and deletes its login. The assets, fields and relations it brought in stay, and you can edit them freely.

Moving from v1

When your organization moves from v1 to v2, its LeanIX connector comes with it, token included, so nobody has to make a new one. It brings in the same fact sheet types it did in v1, keeps your assets as they are rather than duplicating them, and shows Carried over from v1 with its LeanIX token. Sync now to check it matches what's here. A connector that was disabled in v1 arrives paused.

A Confluence connector moves across too, with its email and token. Two v1 connectors reading the same space with the same login become one connector that reads both labels. Its v1 field mappings come with it, and pages are matched to the assets v1 brought in, so nothing is duplicated; a page v1 left out because a required row was missing stays out. If its login can't be checked during the move, the connector arrives needing attention, and the migration report lists its v1 mappings so they can be set again once the login is replaced.

GitHub and ServiceNow connectors do not move across.

Security

• The token is encrypted when you save it and is never shown again, to anyone. Aplas uses it only to read from the source.
• No AI is involved. What comes in is decided by the connector's rules and by the choices you make in the review — nothing is sent to an AI model, at setup or during a sync.