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Hello to the community,

 

 We would like on interfaces to have a better technical understanding of its set up. In that regards, we are wondering on how to document integration protocol and file format.

Examples of integration protocol: SFTP, REST API, TLS, Manual…

Examples of file format: CSV, JSON, XML, TXT…

 

We are considering 2 options:

  1. Create a Multi Select attribute on the Integration factsheet
  2. Create these integration protocol or file format as IT component and associate them to integrations.
  3. Any other options?

I will be happy to hear the feedback of people having the same question and that implemented something in their workspace.

Thank you,

Kind regards,

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​​​​​​​


Hello ​@simonsztabholz,

we have many interfaces using a middleware in between. We model this middleware as a component linked with the interface. Therefore we added Provider and client technology showing what is used: 
 

 

e.g. we have an interface using Boomi as a middleware. J.D. Edwards ERP sends Item Prices to Salesforce. On JDE - side a SOAP technology is used to send date to Boomi and on SFDC side ODATA is used to get the price from Boomi in. We intentionally did not use Mulitselection Lists, because it is less concrete.

Best regards,
Carsten
 


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


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