Rapidflows Integration with External Systems Whitepaper (English) Version 2.02/18/Feb

Transcription

1 Rapidflows Integration with External Systems Whitepaper (English) Version 2.02/18/Feb

2 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Overview 3 Dynamic Integration via customizable behavior/script 3 Direct API call (Interop) 4 Webservice call 4 Stored proc API calls 5 Integration via plug-ins 7 Ready-made plugins 7 Plugins made on custom request 8 2

3 Overview The Rapidflows product is an enterprise product used by banks, insurance companies and other large organizations. It is hence a common requirement that Rapidflows be able to communicate and share data with external back-end (and frontend) systems. There are generally two types of integration to consider - dynamic integration via customizable behavior/script and dynamic integration via plugins. Rapidflows supports both types of integration, and for each type of integration supports several methods of integration. The following summarizes the integration capabilities of Rapidflows in brief: Dynamic integration via customizable behavior/script o Direct API call (Interop) o Webservice call o Stored proc API calls (T-SQL for Microsoft SQL Server databases, PL/SQL for Oracle databases) Integration via plugins o Ready-made plugins o Plugins made on custom request Sharing of data via import/export Dynamic Integration via customizable behavior/script It is possible to have Rapidflows integrate with an external system to push or pull data dynamically to and from a form or a workflow. One of Rapidflows' features is the ability to specify dynamic behavior (via VB.NET script) to extend form and workflows behavior. Rapidflow's behavior/scripting engine provides several functions that allow the developer to push and pull data using several methods. The following section lists the methods available and how they work. 3

4 Direct API call (Interop) If the target back-end system provides an API (Application Programmer Interface) in the form of a callable DLL library, Rapidflows can make direct calls to the DLL library to invoke certain functionality. The following diagram describes such a scenario: An API call is straightforward and looks something like this : scribe.loaddll("sharepointconnector.dll") returnedarray = scribe.invokecall("getdocuments",args) API calls can be used to do the following, for example: Dynamically reading data from an external system for display in a form Additionally updating an external system when a form is saved Updating an external system at the end of a workflow after approval Populating the list of a drop down using data from an external system (for eg - list of customer names from an external database) Webservice call The new generation of web-based systems frequently expose their functionality via webservice interfaces. Rapidflows support the invoking of external functionality via webservice calls. The main benefit of going through web-service calls is that the invoking of external functionality can now cross operating system and hardware boundaries. For instance, it is possible to invoke functionality in a Java-based application from Rapidflows (a.net platform). 4

5 Rapidflows provides basic wizards to generate webservice calls so that you do not have to write any script. Stored proc API calls Stored procedure calls is yet another way of communicating with an external application. In rare cases where the external application do not provide an API nor a webservice interface to invoke its functionality (a closed system), it may be desirable to directly access the stored procedure layer of the underlying application database. 5

6 Some external applications provide a loose API in the form of stored procedure calls. For instance, Oracle Business Apps provide stored procedure calls that can be called externally to create an invoice, sales order and so on. 6

7 Integration via plug-ins Although it is possible for a Rapidflows developer to dynamically build behavior inside Rapidflows to integrate with the external applications (as mentioned above), Zukami also offers ready-made plugins for several popular software suites. To learn more about the Rapidflows Plugin framework, please visit the following page: Ready-made plugins Plugins minimize the work of the developer by not having to write script to achieve integration behavior. Simply through configuration, it is possible to achieve complex integration. Zukami currently offers plugins for the following systems: Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 SAP Faxcore Redmap DSD Oracle database Microsoft SQL Server database 7

8 Plugins made on custom request If for instance, you need to frequently integrate to a particular software from Rapidflows, instead of writing script all the time, you can also choose to let Zukami custom-build a plugin for the particular software you are using. Once a plug-in is created, you will be able to easily achieve integration via drag and drop and configuration settings instead of using script. Custom-built plug-ins are charged based on professional services, and typically take 4-5 mandays (depending on the complexity of the integration). For a quote, please contact your Rapidflows dealer. 8

9 Sharing of data via import/export The last topic on integration deals with the import and export of data into and out from the Rapidflows system. Each view provides the ability to export into CSV (Excel readable) and XML formats. It is also possible to import data into the Rapidflows system by batch. This can be done by establishing a "pickup" folder where you can simply drop CSV files into the folder to import data into a Rapidflows form (and optionally launch a workflow). 9

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