Web Services and APIs Just aren't Enough

We've had a number of questions lately about how AppComm technology is different or better than Web services or APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). That's probably because we have been working on packaging Enterprise Enabler® various ways for low end, not-so-demanding point solutions. For example, if you want to access Salesforce.com from a WSS application, you could use the Salesforce.com AppComm with or without another AppComm, and in a few minutes configure a bi-directional ADO.net driver. When you want to get data from Salesforce.com, you just read from and write to the ADO.net object.

The AppComm technology assures simplicity beyond any API or Web service connectivity by leveraging, behind the scenes, all the knowledge of the APIs as well as any necessary coding, scripting and deciphering. The data is simply provided for selection and mapping, eliminating the hard-coding and difficult maintenance necessary when programming to APIs and Web services directly.

Well, that's the whole point! The fundamental philosophy behind Agile Integration Software http://agileintegrationsoftware.blogspot.com/2010/05/characteristics-of-agile-integration.html design hinges on encapsulating absolutely the most intelligence possible behind the scenes so that the tough, complex, or tedious work is only done once. If I have to study the API for SAP's RFCs (Remote Function Calls) to build connectivity components, why not design the connectivity as an AppComm, which means that if I do it well once, no one will ever have to read the API specs again!!! (sorry, for the triple exclamation points - my mother would not have approved, with her proper and perfect usage of the English language, but in this case, I think they are well deserved). Not only do you never have to study the API, but you don't have to understand the prerequisites, assumptions, and in what order all the calls must be made.

Off the shelf, AppComms encapsulate all that knowledge and programming in a flexible and reusable manner, so you can get going quickly. It discovers all the schema information specifically for the particular instance at hand, and allows you to select the data of interest. You can then configure the mapping without programming, which you would need to do without an AppComm.

The truth is, contrary to coerced popular belief, the fact that there exist Web services for accessing an application's data does not mean they are easy to use. And since you are programming instead of configuring, if there's a change to your application's data schema, you have to go back into the code and make changes in order to access new fields, or make sure that your integration doesn't crash because expected data is missing. AppComms know when the schema changes, and alert you to reconfigure.

There are clearly time and cost savings when utilizing the AppComm technology compared to accessing the raw Web services. When you combine the AppComm with its Agile Integration platform, you have the synergy for coordinating data access from multiple applications simultaneously, aligning and transforming the information on the fly and passing it to the destinations without staging.