Overview of the custom connector lifecycle

  • 12 minutes

Before you start creating custom connectors, you need to know all the details for each of the steps involved in the custom connector lifecycle. The following diagram shows all the tasks involved in creating and using custom connectors.

Build and secure your API

A custom connector is a wrapper around a REST API that lets an underlying service communicate with Power Apps, Power Automate, or Azure Logic Apps. Make sure that you have a fully functioning API before you start creating custom connectors.

You can use any language and platform for your API, as long as it's made available as a REST API or SOAP API. Here are a few examples:

A custom line-of-business API that's deployed to your network. You can connect to the API if it's available over the public internet, or you can connect to it through a gateway (currently available in Power Automate and Power Apps).

For Microsoft technologies, we recommend one of these platforms:

To secure your API and connectors, you can use one of these standard authentication methods (Microsoft Entra ID is recommended):

You can set up Microsoft Entra ID authentication for your API in the Azure portal so you don't have to implement authentication through code. If needed, you can require and enforce authentication through your API's code. For more information about Microsoft Entra ID for custom connectors, see Secure your API and connector with Microsoft Entra ID.

Describe the API and define the custom connector

After you have an API, the next step to consider is how to describe the API's interface and its operations so that Power Apps, Power Automate, and Azure Logic Apps can communicate with the API. After you determine how to describe the API, you can create the connector, which then registers it with the appropriate services.

Use one of the following approaches to describe your API:

OpenAPI definitions use a different format, but are language-agnostic, machine-readable documents that describe your API's operations and parameters. You can generate these documents from various tools, based on the language and platform used by your API. Behind the scenes, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Logic Apps use OpenAPI to define connectors.

Use the custom connector

You can use your custom connector the same way that you use any built-in connectors. You create the connection to the API and call any operations provided by the API the same way that you call operations for built-in connectors.

Connectors created in Power Apps or Power Automate can be used in both services, but connectors created in Azure Logic Apps can't be used directly in other services. However, a connector can be easily recreated using the same OpenAPI definition used to create the Azure Logic Apps connector.

For more information about using custom connectors from Power Apps, Power Automate, and Azure Logic Apps:

Share the custom connector

Connectors can be shared with other users in your organization the same way you share resources in Power Apps, Power Automate, and Logic Apps. Sharing is optional but you might have scenarios where you need to share the connector with other users. For more information, see Share a custom connector in your organization.

Certify the custom connector

If you want to share the connector with all users in Power Apps, Power Automate, and Logic Apps, you can submit the connector for Microsoft certification. During this process, Microsoft reviews the connector, checks for technical and content compliance, and validates functionality. For more information, see Submit your connector for Microsoft certification.