Metrici Portal is is a great tool for creating new solutions. But your new solutions need to work alongside your existing systems and data.
Integration the Metrici way
At Metrici, we specialise in systems integration, and we knew we needed to put integration into the core of Metrici Portal.
To achieve this, we built Metrici Portal around a service layer which connects the data, processing and user interface. The service layer can be accessed through a secure web service interface. This means that any data, any processing and any features within the portal can be accessed from other systems.
Services and data from other systems can be wrapped as Metrici components and easily incorporated into any Metrici solution.
Many integration solutions use the built-in features of the portal to access and update data without any development.
Integration protocols
Metrici Portal supports multiple data formats, access methods and security protocols.
Web services calls can use XML, JSON or files. The portal can read and write Excel, CSV, and plain text, and can generate PDF and manipulate PDF forms. It supports large file transfers (1GB+). For image processing, it provides format converters and resizers, for example to automatically create thumbnails of imported images.
Incoming calls can be made using HTTPS, either using simple service calls or using REST patterns.
As well as HTTPS, outgoing calls can use SFTP to push files to destinations. There is a full outgoing email interface, including the ability to push attachments.
For more complex requirements, Metrici products work seamlessly with integration toolsets (we like Node-RED) to support messaging protocols such as AMQP and STOMP or more specialised protocols such as SOAP.
Metrici Data Hub extends the reach of the portal into database systems, which can be hosted by Metrici or on your premises. This supports all the leading database systems (such as SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL), as well as search engines such as Elasticsearch. Metrici Data Hub provides sophisticated data access and consolidation methods, allowing you to easily build and integrate data solutions such as data staging, master data management and business intelligence. For on-premise installations, the data hub provides a command line/file interface, allowing you to integrate Metrici solutions directly into your processing schedules.
Metrici Portal provides browser-based integration, allowing you to incorporate web and mobile applications into Metrici Portal, and to use the portal to manage data and security for the applications.
Integration can be secured using basic authentication or using JSON web tokens (JWTs). Metrici Portal provides an OAuth 2.0 subset so that it can act as an authorisation server for API access to Metrici or to other systems.
The process management support within the portal can be used to orchestrate integration, controlling the flow of information between systems or scheduling regular inbound or outbound interfaces. Web service proxy components allow you to wrap calls to external systems, allowing you to seamlessly combine external services or data within any Metrici solution. The scripting capabilities of Metrici can be used to build custom API end points or call outs, allowing you to support even the most complicated integration requirements.
More than technology
As well as being packed with technical features, Metrici Portal helps you build the whole integration solution.
Typically, integration solutions need to join data and processing up with real people, and the portal provides all the features you need to collect and distribute data and reports, including uploading, processing and downloading files in a huge variety of formats.
Integration needs to be controlled and auditable. The Metrici integration components can log calls, providing an audit trail of activity for security and troubleshooting, including non-repudiation signatures to guarantee that data content cannot be tampered with.
Metrici provides tools to design integration solutions. Metrici Data Dictionary guides you through an analysis of the "as is" and "to be" integration landscape and then helps you define your detailed integration design. For database solutions, Metrici Schema Designer lets you model your data needs using visual data models and then automatically generate database tables and mapping definitions.
Integration examples
For a market research company, we integrated Metrici Portal with their in-house back-end systems, with web services that pass Excel files for validation and analysis, using Metrici Portal to gather the data and to report back any errors.
For a electric vehicle battery manufacturer, we provided a full REST interface to connect their IFS ERP software with portal solution to allow suppliers to book delivery slots.
For an IoT sensor company, we provided a secure wrapper around an air quality visualisation application. The wrapper provided user management and security and turned a single page web application into a full software-as-a-service offer.
For a kitchen refurbishment company, we used Metrici Data Hub product to join an OFBiz ERP system to a Sugar CRM system to provide access to products and pricing, including using the data hub to provide a staging area to speed up data access. We also provided an interface from Sugar CRM into Metrici Portal to generate PDF orders and send them to suppliers.
Contact us to discuss your requirements and how we can integrate into your existing systems and data.