If you’ve ever integrated Oracle Billing and Revenue Management (Oracle BRM) and any third party application, such as ERP, CRM, Self-Care, etc., then you know how it’s accomplished, what the challenges/problems are, and what the result is.
The integration can be achieved in two ways. The first one is to connect to a CM process, call Oracle BRM opcode and pass on the input data in list format. The implementation can be done in programming languages, such as Java, C, C++, and Perl.
The second option is to install the WebService Manager component, start invoking the SOAP web-services and pass the data in XML format. However, there are a few pitfalls to this approach. Oracle BRM WebService component doesn’t support all opcodes; neither does it support customized opcodes and fields. In such cases, you need to extend the XSD and WSDL files, which is very time consuming and awkward.
Previously described integration options are time consuming and don’t follow today’s agile development processes. Therefore, at Tridens, we’ve designed a component called BRM RestBridge, which introduces the integration via REST and JSON. The components support all out-of-the-box and customized opcodes and fields (attributes). Input and Output are configurable and could be in json, xml, or flist formats.
Let’s make an opcode call to retrieve an account from BRM. First, we need to configure the headers’ attributes, such as BRM_URL, BRM_PORT, BRM_USER, BRM_PASSWORD. We also need to specify the input and output format, and the opcode format, since BRM RestBridge supports both numbers and codes for opcode identification.
Finally, we prepare the input FList and hit Send, to receive a response in the FList format.
Now let’s see what happens when we want to purchase a deal on an account, but instead of communicating with FLists, we decide to use the JSON format. First we set the INPUT_FORMAT and OUTPUT_FORMAT headers to JSON, then we prepare the request to purchase a deal in the JSON format and hit Send. The BRMRestBridge processes the request and returns a response converted into JSON.
Even if we choose to mix up the formats, or even convert between them, the BRMRestBridge is up to the task. In the next step, we set the INPUT_FORMAT header to JSON, and the OUTPUT_FORMAT header to XML, then we execute the purchase deal request. This results in BRMRestBridge accepting a request in the JSON format, and returning a response in XML.
To summarize, BRM RestBridge enables fast and easy integration of Oracle BRM with any application. To call any opcode with any field in any format, you don’t need to write a line of code or change any XSD and WSDL files. Just use BRM RestBridge and voila, you’re all set.
Perhaps you would like to hear more, or maybe you have a use-case which you would like to see with BRM RestBridge. If that’s the case, feel free to contact us today, and we will help you out.