Integrating self-service portals with Nexthink

Self-service portal integration flow

The integration follows the scheme below:

The self-service widget controls the UI provided to employees and determines which remediation options are offered to employees.
Nexthink provides outbound connectors to push data from the Nexthink platform to self-service portals:
- Use Data Exporters to export large amounts of user data and information about user devices.
- Use webhooks to send events, in real-time, to the self-service portal—e.g., alerts, remote action execution results or other punctual events.
The Nexthink platform provides APIs that the self-service widget uses to display information or trigger actions. Through the APIs, the self-service portal:
- Retrieves employee data from Nexthink using the NQL API.
- Triggers remediation with the Remote Actions API or Workflows API.

The need	Integration approach
Identify employee or device context Retrieve properties from user or device objects, including their Nexthink identifiers.	Data Export - Cache device or user object data required for identification—e.g., username, device name and type, last seen date and other information—on a systematic schedule. Use this approach to enrich the CMDB system used by the self-service widget solution. NQL API - Retrieve user or device object data for a specific username or device identifier. Nexthink only recommends this approach for smaller organizations, i.e., situations where the widget is only displayed on demand, or when combined with caching on the server side. Otherwise, API usage limits may be exceeded.
Display device health information for a given device For a given device or user object, retrieve information related to a device and its rating, to provide information to employees.	NQL API - Retrieve detailed information about an employee device, including device health metrics, application metrics or any other data collected by the Nexthink platform. Leverage custom fields and ratings defined in Nexthink. Optional: Data Export - Cache device health information for larger environments and when real-time data is not required. This approach helps in complying with API usage limits.
Remediate user device issues Trigger an automatic remediation based on diagnostics. Trigger an automatic remediation based on a user-specific request.	Remote Actions API - Trigger the execution of a remote action on an employee device. Workflows API - Trigger the execution of a workflow on an employee device. NQL API - Retrieve the results of a remote action or workflow execution. Webhook - Get notified when the system has completed a remote action or workflow execution.

The need

Integration approach

Identify employee or device context

Retrieve properties from user or device objects, including their Nexthink identifiers.

Data Export - Cache device or user object data required for identification—e.g., username, device name and type, last seen date and other information—on a systematic schedule. Use this approach to enrich the CMDB system used by the self-service widget solution.
NQL API - Retrieve user or device object data for a specific username or device identifier. Nexthink only recommends this approach for smaller organizations, i.e., situations where the widget is only displayed on demand, or when combined with caching on the server side. Otherwise, API usage limits may be exceeded.

Display device health information for a given device

For a given device or user object, retrieve information related to a device and its rating, to provide information to employees.

NQL API - Retrieve detailed information about an employee device, including device health metrics, application metrics or any other data collected by the Nexthink platform. Leverage custom fields and ratings defined in Nexthink.

Optional: Data Export - Cache device health information for larger environments and when real-time data is not required. This approach helps in complying with API usage limits.

Remediate user device issues

Trigger an automatic remediation based on diagnostics.

Trigger an automatic remediation based on a user-specific request.

Remote Actions API - Trigger the execution of a remote action on an employee device.
Workflows API - Trigger the execution of a workflow on an employee device.
NQL API - Retrieve the results of a remote action or workflow execution.
Webhook - Get notified when the system has completed a remote action or workflow execution.

Prerequisites

The following are the preliminary steps required for your Nexthink environment:

Planning

Verify that your API usage complies with Nexthink API usage limits. Refer to the Nexthink developer portal documentation for more information.
Understand how to match users between your self-service portal solution and Nexthink. If Nexthink Collector is active on an employee device, it collects the username, SID and UPN. If the Connector for Microsoft Entra ID is active in your Nexthink instance, you can use additional data for mapping, including user email.

Credentials

The system requires credentials to secure calls from your self-service portal solution to your Nexthink tenant and outbound connections from the Nexthink platform for Data Exporters and Webhooks.

Configure API credentials. Refer to the API credentials documentation for more information. Ensure that you have the following permissions activated:
1. NQL API
2. Remote Actions API
3. Workflows API, if you plan to use Workflows and have a Nexthink Flow license
Configure outgoing connector credentials to use outbound integrations. Refer to the Connector credentials documentation for more information.

Preparing content

Configure and activate the Nexthink content that your self-service portal integration relies on:

Preconfigure NQL queries within the Nexthink user interface so the NQL API can call them. Refer to the Remediating device issues with self-service portal documentation for more information. Typically, required queries include:
1. Query to retrieve devices and their basic information for a given user.
2. Query to retrieve on-demand diagnostic information for a given user or device.
3. Query to retrieve the status and outputs of a remote action or a workflow.
Create, configure and activate remote actions or workflows with the trigger type API. Nexthink Library offers a large set of remote actions and workflows for various use cases.