Integration

“Can't these systems talk to each other?” Usually, that's the beginning of a useful conversation. The next question is what they need to agree on: an order, an invoice, a stock count, or the fact that something failed.

This lane is for the person asking for the connection and the person building it. We use Sandline's working examples to make the discussion concrete. Sandline is our example company; any resemblance to a real business is accidental.

Start with what an API is. Follow an approved order into accounting, including the field mapping and the reply nobody wanted. You'll leave with questions to ask before calling the integration finished.

Then read types of system integration to compare the available methods and how you connect the systems. When the question becomes “how do we keep them in sync?”, take webhooks, APIs and polling. That guide follows late, repeated and missing notifications. For the old application with no suitable interface, read integrating without an API.

Our view: a useful connection includes a way to find unfinished work and someone responsible for fixing it. Bring that question to each guide. When you're ready to apply it, see Beezr's integration approach or bring one process.