Customizing custom connector datasource path evaluation for credentials

[namsor]

Hi! New to PowerBI connector development. 

We have a working prototype for appending gender to any table with firstName, lastName - based on an external API. We need to set the parameters as mandatory for the UI to prompt a nice form asking for a firstName, lastName to connect. But if we do so, then the API Key credential is based on a datasource path that includes the firstName/lastName (ex. /John/Smith) so we'd need to re-enter credentials if we want to infer gender from -say- /Andrea/Rossini. 

To make it work, we've put all parameters as optional and so it works. But there's an annoying error when we try to connect with default parameters as null. Is there a way to circumvent this? 

https://github.com/namsor/namsor-powerbi-connector/issues/2

Ideally we'd like to get rid of that 'Unable to Connect' error to make it simpler

https://github.com/namsor/namsor-powerbi-connector/wiki/PowerBI-Gender-API-Connector

Other than that, we've managed to get a connector working taking data as input and producing outputs in a matter of a few days. The framework is great! 

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I am also starting building a custom connector to retreive data from an API. Did you manage to figure out how to handle user input?

Kind Regards