Apify

Apify is the platform where developers build, deploy, and monitor web scraping and browser automation tools, providing scalable infrastructure and APIs for data extraction and automation workflows.

Power end-to-end data operations for your Apify API with Nexla. Our bi-directional Apify connector is purpose-built for Apify, making it simple to ingest data, sync it across systems, and deliver it anywhere — all with no coding required. Nexla turns API-sourced data into ready-to-use, reusable data products and makes it easy to send data to Apify or any other destination. With comprehensive monitoring, lineage tracking, and access controls, Nexla keeps your Apify workflows fast, secure, and fully governed.

Features

Type: API

SourceDestination

• Seamless API Integration: Connect to any endpoint as source or destination without coding, with automatic data product creation
• Visual Composition & Chaining: Build complex integrations using visual templates, chain API calls, and compose workflows with data validation and filtering
• API Proxy: Expose curated slices of your data securely with a secure and customizable API proxy that validates and transforms data on the fly
• Request optimization with intelligent batching, retry, and caching to minimize API calls and costs

Prerequisites

Before creating an Apify credential in Nexla, you need to obtain your API key from your Apify account. This credential authenticates Nexla with the Apify API and should be kept secure.

To obtain an Apify API key, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to your Apify account.

2. Navigate to Settings in your Apify account to access the settings page.

3. Locate the Integrations or API section in the settings menu. This section contains your API credentials and access tokens.

4. Generate or copy your API Key. The API key is a secret token that authenticates API requests and provides access to your Apify account data. The API key is sent in the Authorization header as a Bearer token for all API requests.

   Your API key provides full access to your Apify account data through the API. Keep your API key secure and do not share it publicly or commit it to version control systems. If you suspect your API key has been compromised, regenerate it immediately in your Apify account settings. For detailed information about Apify API authentication, see the Apify API documentation.

Authenticate

Credentials required

Field	Required	Secret	Description
API Key Value	Yes	Yes

Create a credential in Nexla

1. After selecting the data source/destination type, click the Add Credential tile to open the Add New Credential overlay.

New Credential Overlay – Apify

2. Enter a name for the credential in the Credential Name field and a short, meaningful description in the Credential Description field.

3. Enter your Apify API key in the API Key Value field. This key authenticates Nexla with the Apify API and should match the API key obtained from your Apify account settings. The API key is sent in the Authorization header as a Bearer token for all API requests.

   The API key provides full access to your Apify account data through the API. Keep your API key secure and do not share it publicly or commit it to version control systems. Apify uses the API key in the Authorization header as a Bearer token for authentication, which allows Nexla to make authenticated requests to your account.

4. Click the Save button at the bottom of the overlay. The newly added credential will now appear in a tile on the Authenticate screen during data source/destination creation.

Use as a data source

To create a new data flow, navigate to the Integrate section, and click the New Data Flow button. Select the Apify connector tile, then select the credential that will be used to connect to the Apify instance, and click Next; or, create a new Apify credential for use in this flow.

Endpoint templates

Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure data sources to ingest data from common Apify endpoints. Select the endpoint from which this source will fetch data from the Endpoint pulldown menu. Available endpoint templates are listed in the expandable boxes below.

Actors

This endpoint retrieves the list of all actors that you have created or used in your Apify account. Use this endpoint when you need to access actor information for monitoring, management, or integration with other systems.

• This endpoint uses offset-based pagination, automatically fetching additional pages as needed. By default, the endpoint retrieves up to 1000 actors per page, starting from offset 0.
• The endpoint will return all actors in your account, including actor names, IDs, versions, and other metadata.

This endpoint supports pagination through offset and limit parameters. Nexla automatically handles pagination to retrieve all available actors. For detailed information about retrieving actors, see the Apify API documentation.

Datasets

This endpoint lists all of your datasets in your Apify account. Use this endpoint when you need to access dataset information for data analysis, integration, or management purposes.

• This endpoint uses offset-based pagination, automatically fetching additional pages as needed. By default, the endpoint retrieves up to 1000 datasets per page, starting from offset 0.
• The endpoint will return all datasets in your account, including dataset names, IDs, item counts, and other metadata.

This endpoint supports pagination through offset and limit parameters. Nexla automatically handles pagination to retrieve all available datasets. For detailed information about retrieving datasets, see the Apify API documentation.

Once the selected endpoint template has been configured, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu to retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched. Sample data will be displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right, allowing you to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

Manual configuration

Apify data sources can also be manually configured to ingest data from any valid Apify API endpoint, including endpoints not covered by the pre-built templates, chained API calls, or custom request parameters. Select the Advanced tab at the top of the configuration screen, and follow the instructions in Connect to Any API to configure the API method, endpoint URL, date/time and lookup macros, path to data, metadata, and request headers.

Apify API endpoints typically follow the pattern https://api.apify.com/v2/{resource_type} for listing resources or https://api.apify.com/v2/{resource_type}/{resource_id} for retrieving specific resources. For a complete list of available Apify API endpoints, see the Apify API documentation.

Once all of the relevant settings have been configured, click the Create button in the upper right corner of the screen to save and create the new Apify data source. Nexla will now begin ingesting data from the configured endpoint and will organize any data that it finds into one or more Nexsets.

Use as a destination

Click the + icon on the Nexset that will be sent to the Apify destination, and select the Send to Destination option from the menu. Select the Apify connector from the list of available destination connectors, then select the credential that will be used to connect to the Apify organization, and click Next; or, create a new Apify credential for use in this flow.

Endpoint templates

Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure destinations to send data to common Apify endpoints. Select the endpoint to which data will be sent from the Endpoint pulldown menu. Then, click on the template in the list below to expand it, and follow the instructions to configure additional endpoint settings.

Create actor

This endpoint creates a new actor in your Apify account with settings specified in an Actor object passed as JSON in the POST payload. Use this endpoint when you need to create new actors from your Nexset data.

• The endpoint will send the Nexset data as JSON in the request body to create actors. Ensure your Nexset contains all required fields for actor creation, including actor name, description, and other actor settings.
• Each record in the Nexset will be sent as a separate API request to create a new actor in your Apify account.

The request body must contain valid JSON with all required fields for actor creation. For detailed information about required fields and data formats, see the Apify API documentation.

Create dataset

This endpoint creates a new dataset in your Apify account and returns its object. Use this endpoint when you need to create new datasets from your Nexset data.

• The endpoint will send the Nexset data as JSON in the request body to create datasets. Ensure your Nexset contains all required fields for dataset creation, including dataset name and other dataset settings.
• Each record in the Nexset will be sent as a separate API request to create a new dataset in your Apify account.

The request body must contain valid JSON with all required fields for dataset creation. For detailed information about required fields and data formats, see the Apify API documentation.

Manual configuration

Apify destinations can also be manually configured to send data to any valid Apify API endpoint. Select the Advanced tab at the top of the configuration screen, and follow the instructions in Connect to Any API to configure the API method, data format, endpoint URL, request headers, attribute exclusions, record batching, and response webhooks.

Apify API endpoints typically expect JSON format for request bodies and follow the pattern https://api.apify.com/v2/{resource_type} for creating resources. For update/upsert operations, include the ID of the object to be updated at the end of the URL.

Save & activate

Once all endpoint settings have been configured, click the Done button in the upper right corner of the screen to save and create the destination. To send the data to the configured Apify endpoint, open the destination resource menu, and select Activate.

The Nexset data will not be sent to the Apify endpoint until the destination is activated. Destinations can be activated immediately or at a later time, providing full control over data movement.