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Nintex Workflow 2013 > Administration and Configuration
Managing External Start settings
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* This topic applies to Nintex Workflow Enterprise Edition only

This topic describes External Start for Nintex Workflow 2013 and associated administrative tasks. 

Requirements​​

External Start requires a Nintex Workflow 2013 license enabled for the following items. 
  • Enterprise Edition
  • Nintex Live

In addition, internet connectivity is required and the Windows service Nintex Workflow Start Service must be running. To make sure this service is running, on the Central Administration Home page, click System Settings, and then click Manage services on server. Ensure that the status for the service Nintex Workflow Start Service is Started.​

How External Start works​

External Start allows you to initiate site workflows from outside of SharePoint by providing you the ability to generate endpoint URLs pointing to the workflows. Each endpoint URL stores the workflow infomation along with its start variables of supported data types (if any). Endpoint URLs reference run.nintex.io. Example endpoint URL: https://run.nintex.io/x-start/weuyj1TkGD​

For example, you could use an external service (integration partner) such as Zapier or Azuqua to monitor Salesforce for new customers and initiate a Nintex workflow to create customer-specific SharePoint sites. You could configure this service to map Salesforce data from another service to Nintex workflow variables for use in the workflow. You could also create your own code to reference the endpoint URLs. When the endpoint URL is called, the associated workflow is initiated. 

To use External Start, an administrator must enable External Start using Central Administration. For variable mapping, a workflow designer configures start variables of supported data types. The workflow designer publishes the site workflow and generates one or more External Start endpoint URLs for this workflow. Nintex stores the generated endpoint URLs and their associated security keys. The workflow designer configures an external service or manual code to reference the External Start endpoint URL and associated security key. When the service or code calls the endpoint URL, the associated workflow is initiated when required conditions exist (such as new Salesforce customers). Once the service or code is set up and monitoring, nothing more needs to be done.​

Instructions

This section describes how to enable or disable External Start and how to view usage of External Start endpoint URLs.

To enable External Start
  1. Ensure that the Nintex Workflow 2013 license meets requirements.
  2. On the Central Administration Home page, click Nintex Workflow Management. 
  3. On the Nintex Workflow Management page, click Live settings.
  4. On the Nintex Live Workflow Settings page, ensure that the following options are enabled:
    • Enable Nintex Live for Nintex Workflow
    • Enable External Start

To disable External Start
  1. On the Central Administration Home page, click Nintex Workflow Management.
  2. On the Nintex Workflow Management page, click Live settings.
  3. To the right of Enable External Start, click Disable.

To view External Start usage
  1. On the Central Administration Home page, click Nintex Workflow Management​.
  2. On the Nintex Workflow Management page, click External start URLs.
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Related topics:
External Start URLs page
Using External Start