Integration between two web applications electronically

Integration between two web applications electronically

You need to consider what each web application is capable of, prior to choosing a method to pass around data. There are many more integration methods that can be devised. The integration type depends on the following:

• If the web applications are homogeneous (same technology, same platform) or heterogeneous (different technology. A different platform).
• If the web applications reside on the same server.
• If the web applications reside on different servers.
• The methods / capabilities of the web application for processing data. I. e. can it read ASCII data (plain text) or binary data (serialized objects).

The above need to be considered first prior to deciding on a suitable method for data exchange.

Integration between two web applications electronically

DimaZ, you might have caused a stack overflow on Chao! Chao, you need to tell us the type of the web applications and their comparative locations for us to help you better.

Integration between two web applications electronically

The first one is a Java web application, running on a JBoss server. The other application is a banking system, which is also in Java. The problem is, we are not allowed to modify the banking system.

Integration between two web applications electronically

Web services require a host and a client. That is, there should be a "service" implemented and there should be a "client" implemented as well. Web services are the future of todays messaging for integration. It provides seamless connectivity by NOT requiring to have any client libraries installed. The web service "client" code is generated using the Web Service Descriptor Language file. This is the best method to approach an integration project. However, we see that in your case, it is going to be tricky to use a web service.

Integration between two web applications electronically

XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. It's a structured document format. The file type is a plain text ASCII file. The basic rule in an XML file is that it should have a "tree" like structure with a root element and sub elements. Each element must be closed and data can only be contained inside an element.

This means you cannot have literal data between two adjacent elements. XML is a recommended "transport" format for exchanging data between systems. This requires an XML capable program or routines written on both web applications. Does the core banking system have a batch upload facility? We could devise an integration based on it.

Integration between two web applications electronically

The core banking system supports only plain text files which are of fixed length. Assuming we use XML as the main transport medium, is there a possibility of converting an XML file to a fixed length text file?

Integration between two web applications electronically

That is very interesting. Yes, there is a possible method of converting an XML to a plain fixed length file. For this you need to use XSLT. XSLT stands for XSL-Transform (Extensible Stylesheet Language). This is yet another XML file, with special commands. You pass an XSLT file with an XML file to an XSL-Transform engine. The engine reads the XSL file, and based on the defined rules, transforms the XML data and sends out the output.

Integration between two web applications electronically

That is very cool. Could you provide me a simple code so that I can better understand this transformation process?

Integration between two web applications electronically

Thank you DimaZ for the code! I will use it for the integration! Thank you again for all the help and advice!