Header Integration development is not a standardized term, so there isn’t a dedicated page for it on Wikipedia.
In this article, it defines application integration as the process of enabling individual applications to communicate with each other.

For me, integration means adapter. Let me explain it.

Basic skills

Fundamental skills :

  1. Protocols : HTTP, XML, messaging protocols, web services, and web sockets are some of the most common protocols used in application integration.
  2. Formats : EDI, HL7, SWIFT, and other standards are often used in enterprise businesses to facilitate communication between systems.

View from a higher perspective :

  1. SaaS or API connectors : REST APIs are commonly used to interact with SaaS services. These APIs typically support CRUD operations (create, read, update, delete) and webhooks. Webhooks allow for callback-based interactions, enabling event-driven functionality.
  2. Data operations : routing, transformation, filtering, and publication/subscription patterns are some of the common data operations used in application integration.

Approaches

It can be categorized into two approaches:

  1. direct computation from the sources
  2. storing the data first before computation

Common messaging patterns :

  1. request-reply
  2. publish-subscribe
  3. event sourcing

Several key technical focus areas are:

  1. Implementation : Primarily focused on adapter conversion.
  2. Data Transmission : Emphasizes data compression.
  3. Performance : Involves cache, load balancing, and asynchronous processing to reduce latency.
  4. Network Latency Handling : Utilizes Cloudflare and implements timeout retry mechanisms.
  5. Security : Ensures data encryption.

In most cases, it’s sufficient to implement the functionality according to the User Guide. Data compression and performance optimization become specialized topics when they are actually needed.

Summarize

Let me summarize :

  1. Understand the protocols being used
  2. Choose the appropriate messaging pattern
  3. Implement the adapter

If you encounter various technical challenges, address them with the appropriate solutions. But fundamentally, it’s all about the adapter.