Overview (Integration Templates)
- Mike Deskis
What are Integration Templates?
Integration Templates are essentially interactive dialogs designed to generate the integration code (XML Domain Specific Language) based on guided responses from the user. Each of them is a predefined piece of code that allows us to efficiently and effectively configure an IntegrationManager instance to perform specific actions with 3rd party systems.
Why do we use Integration Templates?
The concept of data integration patterns will highlight the multitude of options that are available for building the data migration pipeline for our projects. Even a relatively simple set of requirements for the process of data integration can be a complex task with many possible variations and options. It will tend to generate a large amount of code that needs to be debugged and maintained.
From a data integration perspective, Pricefx pricing solutions data requirements tend to follow a prescribed set of patterns and these patterns have been codified into the Integration Templates.
Do Integration Templates resolve all integration issues?
The short answer is No, however; actual use within Pricefx projects has shown that the vast majority of data integration needs can be accomplished using integration templates. In discussion with integration engineers within Pricefx, it does appear that 80-90% of your integration needs can be accomplished using one or more of these templates.
What value do they provide to the integration process?
We already know how complex and code-intensive data integration can be for any project. The true value of Pricefx Integration Templates is their ability to generate precise and error-free XML DSL code to perform the integration activities to support a specific integration pattern. This will save an integration project countless hours in their development process and allow them to maintain their code much easier.
Typical integration scenarios they solve
Integration scenarios can be typically categorized into inbound and outbound processes. Within these categories, they are designed to work with a standard data format (primarily CSV) for the import or export processes or they can integrate directly into industry-standard applications (SAP, Salesforce, etc).
Integration Templates can be used for these scenarios:
Export Pricefx tables (product, customer, etc)
Export Pricelist and Live Price Grids
Export Quotes to Salesforce, SAP or MS Dynamics
Export Pricefx objects ((products, quotes, etc) to IDoc format
Import into Pricefx Master tables (Product, Customer, etc)
Import Quotes in CSV format
Import Price List items
Import from 3rd party systems (SAP, Salesforce, etc)