How to document integration protocol?

Hi ​@simonsztabholz ,
We don’t register all protocols and file formats of our interfaces in leanIX. However, we partially cover the same kind of needs using IT Components. In other words, we want to know if, beside the providing and consuming applications, other technical components are needed by the interface.

Here are some examples of our IT Components:

• SFTP Server
• Seeburger (EDI tool)
• iPaaS (our Azure Integration Platform as a Service)
• …

Best regards
Didier

We created 4 Subtypes:
API
ESB (Enterprise Service Bus)
FTP
CSV

That helps us to group them together easily. We don't need the formats but if we would, I will create a new field with a Singel Select under the Data and Technology.


Regards

Roald​​​​​​​

We have a field on the interface factsheet and also link the type to an IT component. The interface factsheet has a data object relationship so we “govern” the security and data privacy risk using that relationship. the data classification drives the level of encryption required etc. the IT component layer links to our cmdb, where the detailed information is stored, we use the resource tab in the factsheets to manage that link. as we are multinational we have multiple sftp servers etc. it is useful to have the field on the interface factsheets as it helps grouping when a change is required csv format or for sustainability reasons. We also created a subtype for APIs as we develop our own systems and the APIs can be grouped under a “platform”. Also as cloud migration continues it helps to see where there are other rationalisation opportunities. 

Must data be encrypted in transit and at rest? secure by definition. Subject to EU Data Privacy laws? Commercially sensitive? visibility of hosting locations inside/outside EU, subject to Safe Harbour regulation?

which paths it travels through?

event to API based on payload size?

Hello ​@simonsztabholz ,

we do nearly the same as Carsten, but more focus on the Data Format (ANSI X.12, Avro, CSV, EDIFACT, FIX, Flatbuffers, HIPAA 837, IDoc, JSON, MT/MX, ORC, Parquet, PDF, Protobuf, Structerd Data, TRADACOMS, VDA, XBRL, XLS/XLSX, XML, YAML), also enriched with Criticality and Cloud Ready. Its in the interface stored in the category “Data and Technology” and there in the block “Properties”.

And also in this category in the block “IT Components” we put the connection method (=protocoll, list see below) and in a extra field the “Credentials”.

1. API Communication (Web Services)

• REST (Representational State Transfer) – HTTP-based API communication using JSON or XML.

• SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) – XML-based protocol, often used in enterprise systems.

• GraphQL – Flexible API query protocol optimized for efficient data retrieval.

• gRPC (Google Remote Procedure Call) – High-performance RPC framework using Protocol Buffers.

2. Message Queues & Asynchronous Communication

• AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol) – Message broker protocol (e.g., RabbitMQ).

• MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) – Lightweight messaging for IoT communication.

• JMS (Java Message Service) – Middleware standard for enterprise messaging.

• Kafka Protocol – Event streaming via Apache Kafka.

3. Database Communication

• ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) – Standardized database access.

• JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) – Java-specific database interface.

• SQL-Net (Oracle Net Services) – Oracle-specific database connectivity.

• TDS (Tabular Data Stream) – Protocol used by Microsoft SQL Server.

4. File and Data Transfer

• FTP (File Transfer Protocol) – Standard file transfer protocol.

• SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) – Secure file transfer over SSH.

• FTPS (FTP Secure) – FTP with SSL/TLS encryption.

• SMB (Server Message Block) – File sharing protocol in Windows networks.

• NFS (Network File System) – File sharing protocol for Unix/Linux systems.

5. Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)

• gRPC (Google Remote Procedure Call) – High-performance API communication with Protocol Buffers.

• XML-RPC – Older XML-based remote procedure call protocol.

• CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) – Legacy middleware for distributed systems.

• RFC (Remote Function Call) – SAP-specific protocol for system communication.

6. SAP-Specific Protocols

• RFC (Remote Function Call) – SAP-native protocol for communication between SAP and external systems.

• BAPI (Business Application Programming Interface) – SAP's interface standard for accessing business functions.

• IDoc (Intermediate Document) – SAP format for exchanging structured business data.

• OData (Open Data Protocol) – SAP's preferred protocol for web services and S/4HANA integrations.

7. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

• X.12 – EDI standard for business document exchange (common in the U.S.).

• EDIFACT – International EDI standard for structured data exchange.

• AS2 (Applicability Statement 2) – Secure protocol for transmitting EDI data.

• OFTP (ODETTE File Transfer Protocol) – Commonly used in the automotive industry for EDI.

8. Network Infrastructure & Low-Level Communication

• HTTP/HTTPS – Standard web communication protocol (secure and unsecure).

• TLS/SSL (Transport Layer Security / Secure Sockets Layer) – Encryption for secure communication.

• DNS (Domain Name System) – Resolves domain names to IP addresses.

• LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) – Protocol for directory services.

• RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service) – Authentication protocol.

9. Cloud & Container Orchestration

• AMQP & MQTT – Used for IoT and cloud messaging.

• Istio Service Mesh – Manages service-to-service communication in Kubernetes.

• Container Network Interface (CNI) – Networking framework for containers.

Thank you all for your answers.

We will use them to build our concept!

Simon

Hello ​@Silke 

I found this post very interesting, we are also starting tis journey, i have a specific question in regards of  representing the protocols as IT Components, did you created a new Type Fact Sheet to classify all this IT components or you used the existing IT component types? Not sure if you created an IT component “type” called Sap specific protocols and then below RFC, BAPI, IDOC. Just trying to understand the structure behind. 

Thanks,

Fernando

I kept it simple and created it as an IT component. I set the subtype to "Software," for example. I didn't give any thought to classification. This could also be done via a parent-child relationship or tags, but as I said, that wasn't relevant to me. My only concern was how to present this information—the type of interface—as easily as possible in a table and a report - that was the use case ;-).