Connect SDK

Connect SDK is a Java Maven Archetype and Java Library Utils that form a toolkit for building Spring Boot microservice applications that communicate with the Fluent Order Management System and any external system. These applications can be compiled and deployed as Spring Boot microservice applications in any cloud-supporting Java run time environment. A "Connector" is an open-source Java Maven project built on Connect SDK, which includes input and output interface implementations for the 3rd party system it connects to. It can be compiled and deployed as a Spring Boot microservice application. The external interfaces will depend on the specific 3rd party system being connected to and the implementation of the Connector.

Scenarios 

Separate connectors can be built and deployed for synchronous requirements where performance and scale are important. Connect SDK allows you to share credentials and log across connectors via an interface-driven approach, which means one can build connectors and deploy them independently rather than as a monolith. This decoupling helps to have separate connectors to front-end systems and backend legacy systems working completely independently where change to one connector need not disrupt the other. This modularized approach helps to design a connector for the scale that is one size fits all for all types of connectors.

A simple Connect SDK use case

Setup 1:

The client is a retailer who sells across two channels (e-commerce and POS).

Use Cases supported:

• Sells home delivery, click and collect and mixed basket orders
• Needs real-time product availability calls on website
• Has own product catalog
• Has own notification systems ( Email, SMS )
• Has own customer support system
• Has inventory load from ERP

Typical design for integration:

• Design middleware layer which can have logic talking to both the e-commerce system and Fluent
• Design where credentials are stored for the two systems. Typically, in an enterprise architecture, there would be more than one system involved
• Design scaling and deployment for the volume of orders
• Resourcing for building middleware who understands e-commerce and works with team members with Fluent expertise to design relevant GraphQL and event calls
• Ensure authentication across the two systems is reliable and implement observability to trace issues
• Design storage for configuration data used in the connector
• Design integration for synchronous calls to the Fluent platform (product availability) and asynchronous calls to Fluent (order sync, status updates from Fluent, Event analysis, etc.)
• Design for product availability parsing of fulfillment plans and enrichment of data
• Design for the scale of synchronous calls different from asynchronous calls
• Design for job schedulers for repeated jobs, including pushing data to Fluent and/or pulling data from Fluent
• Design for exposing webhook endpoints and rest endpoints for different functionalities
• Design for authentication of validation of webhooks and have logic for the integration ode depending on the webhook payload
• Design testing for end-to-end scenarios

Typical time taken:

Minimum six sprints (3 months of effort), which typically includes 1 Project manager, two middleware integration engineers, 1 Fluent expertise engineer, and 1 QA

With Connect SDK:

• Any number of endpoints can easily be exposed and integrated into target systems
• You get out of the box ”connect queue” with validated webhooks from Fluent available to be processed based on the webhook
• Adding a new logic for a webhook is as simple as adding a new handler for the new webhook name.
• Ability to add any Java package to build your connector to augment Connect SDK capabilities
• Interface-driven Credential, Configuration, and logging packages. OOTB AWS module for deployment in AWS cloud. The ability for partners to build cloud-specific deployment
• Ability to deploy different connectors built on top of Connect SDK specific to scaling requirements, e.g.) Product availability connectors can be deployed and scaled independently. They will use the same credentials, configuration, and storage access.
• Utilization of Fluent skilled folks as integration uses similar event and GraphQL patterns as a custom rule
• Connectors built using Connect SDK can be tested locally.

Time Taken :

This can be accomplished in 3 sprints, including testing with lesser resources, saving cost, and time, and having a quicker ability to add value to the client

Setup 2 :

Integrate Product availability calls into an e-commerce website

Use case :

• Get product availability for click and collect, home delivery, and mixed basket orders via UI

Typical Design :

• Store Fluent platform credentials
• Parsing logic for fulfillment plans returned from the response
• Design for enhancing the output of the plans
• Design for the display of data
• Design for parallel scaling of product availability calls
• Design for logging

Typical Time taken:

15-18 days to Build and Test

With Connect SDK :

• The product availability endpoint is available out of the box, supporting request payload for triggering product availability workflow in Fluent
• The product availability can easily be embedded into any system supporting HTTP call
• It can be built as a separate connector for scaling, saving costs
• Output data from Fluent can be enriched via support for external services

Time Taken:

It can be set up and running in less than three days!