Simultaneous OutSystems Integration to Different Instances of a System in the Context of a Single Environment

For a REST integration in OutSystems to be implemented, the typical way is to use the platform's in-built capabilities: according to best practices, integration is being created within a dedicated module, with a single hard-coded target system base URL. However, a problem arises if the same Connector module should be used with different target systems’ instances (having different base URLs) simultaneously from one OutSystems Environment. This paper proposes a minimalistic model for integration in the case of a typical token-based authentication, but a similar approach could be applied to other authentication methods. The proposed solution could be implemented not only right from the start of a project, but also in a setting where a typical existing OutSystems integration to a single instance of an external system is already in place and functioning (e.g. in production). The foundation of the solution lies in achieving a persistent mapping between an authentication token and a given target URL. This would allow for the URL to be defined at runtime, instead of the basic traditional design-time static approach, thus circumventing the platform’s limitations. Example implementation has been included as part of a Connector released on the OutSystems open-source market (Forge): https://www.outsystems.com/forge/component-overview/11958/xpressdox-connector