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APPS - Integration

APPS - Integration

Owned by Mayur Karwa
Last updated: Dec 24, 2019
4 min read

OBJECTIVE

  • Build a platform which can manage integrations with various third-party tools including but not limited to

    • Marketplaces like Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm, etc

    • Shopping cart tools like Woocommerce, Shopify, Magento

    • Shipping aggregators like Click post, Shiprocket

    • Point of sale software like Ginesys,

    • ERP like SAP, Marg, Navision

  • The platform should be able to answer specific standard integrations features/issues

    • Logging

    • Auto retry to manage system downtimes at third party end as well.

    • Error handling

    • Authentication and authorization mechanisms

    • Versioning

  • The ideal goal of the platform is to be a no-code platform to create any new integration or manage changes in an existing Integration. Though it is okay to achieve the same in phases.

BACKGROUND

The goal of the integration is to automate some workflows between two different applications.

Some example workflows being.

  1. When a customer places new order on Shopify website, Then it should create a new order in Eshopbox

  2. When a shipment is packed at Eshopbox, Then it should update the order status as “Ready to ship” in Shopify

  3. When an order is delivered by Delhivery, Then it should update the order status as “Delivered” in Eshopbox

  4. When a shipment is delivered in Eshopbox, Then it should update the order status as “Delivered” in Shopify

  5. When there is a change in the stock count of an SKU in Eshopbox, Then it should update the available inventory count in Shopify.

If you dissect the above workflows it can be divided into two

  • Trigger

    • The first part of the above workflows mentioned - “When” section or The Events.

    • Notice there are some conditions also in the trigger. For eg. Workflow 2 - Trigger only if the status is “packed”.

  • Action

    • The second part of the above workflows mentioned - “Then” section of The Events.

    • The action could also have dynamic fields for eg -Workflow#2 update “Ready to ship” but Workflow#3 update status as “Delivered”

APP :

In order to achieve such integrated workflows with some third-party tools - there should be an APP created on the Eshopbox Integration Platform.

What should be the capabilities of such apps?

  • Authenticate and authorize to interact with third-party tools

  • Listen to triggers of certain events from third party tools (Supported Triggers)

  • Perform certain action on third party tools (Supported Actions)

App can be defined by following

  • Meta Information like - Name, Description, Unique key

  • Version

  • Authentication and Authorization mechanism - The mechanism and credentials for integration bot to connect and interact with the app.

  • Supported Triggers - The type of events which the bot can listen to

  • Supported Actions - The type of actions which the bot can perform.

  • Error handling and Retrial mechanism workflow

Authentication and Authorization mechanism (AnA mechanisms):

Following type of AnA mechanisms should be supported

  1. Basic Auth

  2. Session Auth

  3. API Key Auth

  4. Oauth V2

  5. Digest Auth

More details on the various type of authentication mechanisms and details of the same would be discussed on a separate document.

An important thing to note is that there may be a need to define certain other fields while configuring an APP by the client.
For eg. Amazon EDI integration requires PARTY NAME; Flipkart integration may require Location ID. Such custom field should be able to define by defining “custom properties”.

Trigger

  • Events (changes) that would start the automation.

  • Each app should list down what are the supported Triggers.

  • There can be two types so triggers -

    • Webhook based: Third-party tools will send an updated whenever there is an event in their system

    • Polling based: Apps would keep pulling data from third-party applications to identify if there is any desired change or event.

  • Occasionally trigger can include conditions like only confirmed orders need to be fetched etc. Such conditions can be defined by forms.

Actions

  • Actions create or put new data or updates existing data in the third-party tool.

  • Sometimes there is a need for Search action to look up existing items before updating or creating a new one.

  • One workflow may involve one or more actions.

  • Actions will be accompanied by client customizable fields (also to be managed by custom properties)

Versions

  • There can be multiple versions of apps running simultaneously.

  • Versions not in use can be deprecated

  • Clients will need to upgrade versions of the app.

Environments

Some APIs require additional data to authenticate or connect to your app. You may need a custom API key to pass to the API, along with users’ authentication credentials. Or you might want to set a sub-domain, role, user permissions, or other API configurations differently for your beta integration and live, active versions of your integration.

Environment variables let you set these on a per-version basis for your app. Much like in local development environments, environment variables store key and value pairs outside of your app’s API calls. Instead of hardcoding critical, secret values into your API authentication, trigger, and action calls, it’s best to add them as environment variables in your app’s settings, then reference the environment variable in your API calls.

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