Getting started with the iAuditor API

The iAuditor API allows you to automate workflows, gain insights across your entire organization, and push data into business applications like Power BI or Tableau.

Although there are several ways to integrate iAuditor data into your own business platforms, this article outlines 3 core channels for using the iAuditor API and how you can set them up.

1. Custom integrations
   Offers a wide range of potentials to integrate to and from iAuditor
2. Integration "connector" tools
   Provides easy-to-use interfaces for connecting iAuditor to other platforms
3. Software Development Kit
   Supplies pre-built tools to export iAuditor data

Requirements

• Premium iAuditor User Account - learn how to upgrade your free account here
• iAuditor API Token
• Prior knowledge for custom integrations:
  • Cloud API
  • API client (e.g. Postman)
  • API request and response basics
  • JSON format basics

1. Custom integrations

There are several use cases for why custom integrations are most useful in building a workflow that is specific to your team or company.
Below are some common use cases that can be implemented using the iAuditor API:

Starting inspections automatically with pre-filled information

This can be handy if a supervisor wants an inspection to start automatically and be assigned to a team member to conduct at a particular time or on a recurring schedule. To save time, reduce human error and increase consistency, any responses that are known at the time the inspection is started can be automatically pre-filled. Such responses could include an equipment serial number, the full name of the person intended to complete the inspection, the inspection site or anything else relevant to the task at hand.
Please see our documentation on how you can set this up.

Exporting inspection reports

For organizations with a large number of inspections, repeating these endpoint requests can help avoid errors and save time. If you have Report Preferences associated to your inspections, they too can be applied in the process.
Please see our documentation on how you can set this up, and note that this is a multi-request process involving initiation, polling, and retrieving.

Listing users and groups

Managing large organizations can be very taxing, particularly if you need to stay up to date on who is in your team and which groups they are in. The users and groups endpoints allow administrators (users with the Admin permission) to manage users and teams, as well as update their details in bulk (including account active or inactive status). Typically, companies choose to set up connections with services like Active Directory or JumpCloud.
Please see our documentation on how you can set this up.

2. Integration "connector" tools

Although you can build custom integrations using the iAuditor API, many customers may choose to use API integration tools to bridge the gap between iAuditor and other system. Integration tools tend to offer easy to use interfaces and have click-based templates.
The most common API integration tools used for iAuditor are Zapier and Power Automate (previously Microsoft Flow), but direct integration to analytical tools such as Tableau are also available.

Below are some of the common use cases you can setup yourself or following our support articles:

Zapier

1. Export inspections automatically
   One of the most common automations you can setup is the process of exporting inspection reports. Zapier offers integration that can automatically export your organization's completed inspection reports and upload them to a cloud drive, even to be sorted by folders. Please see our support article for step by step instructions.
2. Export inspection data to an online spreadsheet
   Zapier can help to populate question responses from your inspections to online spreadsheets automatically, so that information will always be up to date every time you view the spreadsheet. Please see our support article for step by step instructions.
3. Trigger an email from a failed response
   As managers or supervisors, sometimes the only relevant notification you may need is when there is a failed response that has been given in an inspection. By filtering completed inspections using Python code in Zapier, emails can be sent automatically only when an inspection contains one or more responses designated by the template author to be “failed response”. Please see our support article for step by step instructions.

Power Automate (previously Microsoft Flow)

1. Export inspections automatically
   Power Automate as a more advanced integration tool, can also automate the process of exporting inspections. Unlike Zapier, which can only export completed inspections moving forward, Power Automate can actually be setup to export existing inspections, with options to include archived or incomplete ones, or filter for inspections from certain owners. This can be very useful if you need to perform a "data dump" of your organization's reports in PDF or Word format. Please see our support article for step by step instructions.
   
   IMPORTANT NOTE

   We are in the process of updating our Power Automate report export actions to the new reporting format, current exports using Power Automate will be in our classic PDF/Word format, which is visually different to what you may see when exporting in other methods. If you wish to export the new report formats using Power Automate, you can refer to our API documentation for inspection export and setup HTTP action.

2. Update SharePoint list items with inspection data
   SharePoint is a web application that integrates with Microsoft Office. As it not only serves as a document management and storage system, but is also highly configurable, thus is widely used amongst organizations for various purposes. Power Automate offers the automation to populate SharePoint lists with inspection data, so that organizations can always stay up to date with the latest details from their frontline teams. Please see our support article for step by step instructions.
3. Start an inspection with new SharePoint item
   SharePoint lists can be a powerful method of collectively storing data in a central location, and can cater for a range of different data types across a number of different use cases such as asset management, contact lists, issue tracking and many more. Using the iAuditor integration with Power Automate, you can automatically start and pre-populate an inspection with information from new list items. Please see our support article for step by step instructions.
4. Power Automate Expressions
   On top of the rich actions Power Automate offers, it also accommodates for advanced data collection using workflow definition language, or expressions. The primary actions that utilizes expressions include:
   Data Operations – Filter Array, which can help reduce the number of objects in an array to a subset that matches the criteria you provide.
   Data Operations – Compose, which can help save time from manually entering data, as it pulls them from specific items within inspections.
   Please see our support article for more information.

3. Software Development Kit (SDK)

To help customers interact with their inspection data more directly, we have open source SDKs that can be used for various purposes. Our most popular SDK runs on the Python coding language, but we also offer the same functions in Javascript.

If you wish to just export inspection data, the SDK includes an exporter that helps to:

1. Export inspection data to the following formats:
   - CSV
   - PDF
   - Docx
   - Media
   - Web Report Links
   - JSON
   - SQL
2. Export actions

See here for instructions on installing the iAuditor Exporter Tool.

For more information regarding the iAuditor API functionality, please contact our customer support team.