Unleash Jitterbit’s Power with Salesforce: The Ultimate How-To Guide

Introduction 

In a world where businesses are constantly evolving, the need for seamless integration between systems has never been more critical. Jitterbit emerges as a powerful solution, enabling organizations to connect applications, automate workflows, and harness data like never before. But what exactly is Jitterbit, and why should businesses consider it.

What is Jitterbit?

Jitterbit is an integration platform that allows businesses to connect their various applications and data sources easily. At its core, Jitterbit provides tools for API management, data integration, and workflow automation, making it an invaluable asset for companies looking to streamline operations. With Jitterbit, businesses can eliminate data silos and enhance collaboration across departments.

Products 

1.Harmony iPaaS:

i) What is an iPaaS?
iPaaS (Integration-Platform-as-a-Service) is a cloud-based solution, like Harmony that integrates disparate data sources, applications, and systems. iPaaS simplifies the integration and establishes communication between various systems within an organization and with third parties or partners.
To further understand the definition of iPaaS, think of it as a platform for building, deploying, and managing integrations in the cloud. With an iPaaS, you can create integration flows that connect applications living in the cloud or on-premises and deploy them without the need to install or manage any hardware or middleware.
iPaaS includes tools and technologies that support the execution of integration flows, the lifecycle management and development of integrations, the monitoring, and management of governance, application flows, and essential cloud features like self-provisioning, multitenancy, and elasticity. It can also help with the selling, buying, and exchange of integration solutions between service providers, solution providers, and users. A more complete iPaaS solution also offers a single, consolidated and secure platform to create, manage and deploy APIs simplifying the entire API lifecycle management.
iPaaS delivers a cloud service for data, process, application, and service-oriented architecture or SOA integration scenarios. Integration Platform as a Service is a multi-tenant platform that supports B2B, cloud-to-cloud, cloud-to-on-premises, and on-premises-to-on-premises integration. iPaaS vendors support real-time integration and scales to meet the high-volume demands of mobile, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), and ETL environments.

ii) What are the Benefits of iPaaS?
iPaaS can benefit your organization in several ways. As organizations want to take advantage of the agility, speed, and economics of the cloud, there is an evolving need to view integration in a brand-new way. iPaaS solutions help companies handle the integration requirements of the modern business environment, future-proof their integration solutions, and boost the value of their IT investments. Here are some of the top benefits of iPaaS:

• Ease of use: iPaaS allows a low code or no-code approach which increases the speed at which integrations are developed and deployed. This reduces the dependency on the specialized resources or heavy involvement from the IT department and empowers the non-tech users often called ‘citizen integrators’ to develop their own integrations to be up and running in no time. iPaaS provides pre-built connectors, adapters, templates, and recipes that accelerate integrations, seamlessly connecting applications that can be in the cloud or on-premises. It also provides a toolkit making the management and monitoring of integrations hassle-free.
• Faster Time-to-Value: iPaaS rapidly integrates applications and data sources, yielding substantial time savings. With pre-built connectors and a low-code approach, companies are able to quickly automate key business processes such as Quote-to-Cash or Employee Onboarding, to realize fast ROI. Organizations can simply subscribe and start integrating applications accelerating their digital transformation.
• Cost-Effective: As the tech stack grows and more applications are adopted, the integration costs are bound to increase. iPaaS takes away the need to build integrations from the ground up, and the associated infrastructure, resources to manage and maintain these integrations, all are provided by the iPaaS vendor, which leads to substantial savings. iPaaS is typically procured as a subscription service and provides customers with a predictable and manageable expense.
• Scalability and Flexibility: iPaaS enables organizations to maintain their business agility, helping them to tackle and accommodate the dynamic changes. Organizations can create as many connections as they like between hundreds of applications rapidly. The new solutions or services added can be quickly integrated with iPaaS taking away the overhead of labor, costs, hardware, and time investment. Businesses are enabled by iPaaS to meet the changing demands and be future-proof.
• Multitenancy: iPaaS allows multiple tenants or customer organizations to share underlying physical computing resources in a secure way. iPaaS manages and updates the software and infrastructure and deploys upgrades at regular intervals across the customer base. This eliminates the need for customers to buy, implement, manage, and maintain the underlying software and hardware infrastructure.
• Enhanced Security and Compliance: Security is always a concern for organizations with threats and breaches being a consistent possibility in cloud environments. iPaaS offers improved security, reducing the risk of any breaches, by providing threat identification, fraud detection, and intruder alerts. In addition, iPaaS ensures compliance adhering to industry standards such as GDPR, HIPAA with regular updates helping to meet changing regulations and compliance standards.
• Built-In API Management: More and more, a complete iPaaS solution also includes API Management. Organizations can leverage capabilities to create, publish, manage and measure APIs, across the entire API lifecycle. This helps organizations operate in real-time and create microservices from a single secure platform.
• Central management: iPaaS allows integrations to be developed, designed, and managed from a single centralized web-based console. This makes it very convenient to create and monitor all the integrations and processes from a centralized view across the enterprise.
• Improve Efficiency and Productivity: iPaaS automates business processes and helps save time, costs, and resources resulting in efficiency gains. An easy interface and an intuitive design expedite connecting various systems, thereby improving productivity while building integrations. IT teams do not have to invest time in managing and monitoring integrations and focus their energies on strategic initiatives. iPaaS also helps teams to collaborate better with data being transferred in real-time, eliminating the possibility of silo creation.
  
  

iii) iPaaS vs ESB: What’s the Difference?

• ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) was the norm for businesses in the 1990s and into the 2000s. This technology was used to support SOA (service-oriented architecture).
• iPaaS and ESB are made to serve the same purpose, that is, to integrate applications. However, iPaaS and ESB differ depending on the kind of integrations, complexity, and scalability. ESB is an architectural pattern that helps establish communication between applications over bus-like infrastructure. ESB is the pre-cloud era technology aimed at connecting legacy, on-premises systems, enabling data exchange. It requires custom coding along with associated hardware and was used by large enterprises to connect their software applications in their infrastructure. Although expensive, complicated, and heavy-weight, ESB served the purpose of bringing together the legacy and on-premises systems and offered vertical scalability.
• iPaaS on the other hand is a modern cloud-based environment that provides a fast, simple, and cost-effective way to integrate applications with improved security. With its lightweight architecture, iPaaS automates the integration of cloud-based apps and real-time data transfer.. iPaaS also supports hybrid integration, connecting applications and data across cloud and on-premises systems.
• With its horizontal scalability, iPaaS makes it very easy to add new applications to the IT environment as well as connect with third parties or partners while ESB is meant to integrate internally. This is possible due to the low latency of IPaaS and the use of lightweight messaging standards like JSON, REST and API systems. The other major difference would be the multi-tenancy of iPaaS that helps users access data in real-time simultaneously, reduce administrative costs, and eliminate the complexity of maintaining the physical environment.
• In essence, iPaaS is meant for organizations that want the speed and flexibility to quickly integrate cloud-based applications or legacy on-premises systems. ESB integrates legacy on-premises systems and is the choice when some factors restrict data to be in-house and on-premises.

iv) iPaaS vs PaaS: What’s the Difference?

• These two terms sound so similar that it is easy to be confused. PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) is a cloud-based application development toolkit that developers use to quickly build and deliver applications without the hassle of an infrastructure. The PaaS vendor provides all the necessary needs of hardware software and hosting.
• iPaaS empowers users to create integration applications quickly and efficiently, without worrying about managing and maintaining the infrastructure required. The companies also stand to gain huge benefits with iPaaS adoption in terms of costs and time savings along with increased security, speed to market, and future scalability to name a few more.
• While PaaS is a platform that provides virtualized technology to develop and deploy applications, iPaaS is a cloud-based platform that integrates different applications and data sources, automating data transfer across the systems. In simple terms, iPaaS connects systems that are not meant to work with each other. With connectors, templates, and integration workflows, iPaaS connects applications that may be on-premises or on the cloud, augmenting PaaS and ensuring the applications created can be used together seamlessly.

2. Vinyl Low-Code:

Vinyl is a low-code application platform (LCAP) designed for large enterprises to solve complex business problems at scale. Vinyl enables full stack and citizen developers alike to create powerful, end-to-end, enterprise-grade applications with sophisticated logic, workflows, security, and integrations. No code required.
The Vinyl platform is designed with simple and intuitive layout and navigation elements. Vinyl applications, and the platform itself, are made up of the following core elements:

• Panel – the basic building block of a page. A panel acts as a container that presents information to the user.
• Page – a page is made up of at least one panel, and may contain a collection of panels.
• Control – represents what the panel displays. Examples include text, a button, image, etc.

Navigating Vinyl is similar for developer and application end users alike, with the exception being a developer user will see more options available. The following diagram illustrates the key ways to navigate Vinyl.

Vinyl is platform agnostic. This means it can be run on any modern browser and is fully mobile-compatible. It can be accessed on any operating system and can connect to data sources from virtually every major database service provider. Furthermore, the Vinyl platform is developed with a responsive design. This means the platform will run and be viewable on any size screen or resolution and is automatically optimized for mobile.

For more information see the Vinyl user guide.

3. Harmony EDI:

Harmony EDI (EDI) is Jitterbit’s web application for managing EDI trading partners and the transactions made with them. To access it and get started, satisfy the application’s prerequisites, log in to the Harmony portal, then click the EDI tile.
In the rapidly expanding commerce and retail market, businesses are capitalizing on the growth by embracing marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, Costco, and Home Depot. Businesses leverage these marketplaces to boost sales, increase brand awareness, and maintain a competitive edge. To establish a presence on these marketplaces, businesses must leverage Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to meet the marketplace’s transaction requirements and seamlessly exchange electronic documents such as purchase orders, shipping information, invoices, and more. When businesses decide to implement EDI, they often find that solution providers offer it as a stand alone service with heavy reliance on the provider to set up, test, and configure trading partners and EDI within their network. 

Experience the Power of Jitterbit’s Harmony EDI: Seamlessly Integrated, Cloud-based solution for effortless setup, testing, and monitoring of EDI Trading Partners and Transactions.
Jitterbit’s EDI allows customers full and complete access to trading partner settings and configurations including the ability to: Harmony EDI Self-managed, fully integrated solution with built-in trading partner connections. 

• Facilitate the entire transaction lifecycle including: Acknowledgments, Status, Reprocessing, and Related Documents
• Gain complete visibility and monitoring of transactions 
• Manage trading partners across multiple environments 
• Self-manage trading partners and workflows 
• Access to over 1000 trading partners and 4000 maps 
• Manage the full EDI transaction lifecycle 
• Configure, setup, and manage trading partners 

4. eiCloud:

i) Introduction
An EDI for Cloud Get Document activity, using its EDI for Cloud connection, retrieves all documents (from a specified partner) from eiCloud and is intended to be used as a source to provide data in an operation.

ii) Create an EDI For Cloud Get Document activity
An instance of an EDI for Cloud Get Document activity is created from an EDI for Cloud connection using its Get Document activity type.
To create an instance of an activity, drag the activity type to the design canvas or copy the activity type and paste it on the design canvas. For details, see Creating an activity instance in Component reuse.
An existing EDI for Cloud Get Document activity can be edited from these locations:

• The design canvas (see Component actions menu in Design canvas).
• The project pane’s Components tab (see Component actions menu in Project pane Components tab).

iii) Configure an EDI For Cloud Get Document activity
Follow these steps to configure an EDI for Cloud Get Document activity:

Step 1: Enter a name and select a partner
In this step, provide a name for the activity and select a partner. Each user interface element of this step is described below.

• Name: Enter a name to identify the activity. The name must be unique for each EDI for Cloud Get Document activity and must not contain forward slashes / or colons :.
• Select a Partner: This section displays partners available in the EDI for Cloud endpoint.
• Selected Partner: After a partner is selected, it is listed here.
• Search: Enter any column’s value into the search box to filter the list of partners. The search is not case-sensitive. If partners are already displayed within the table, the table results are filtered in real time with each keystroke. To reload partners from the endpoint when searching, enter search criteria and then refresh, as described below.
• Refresh: Click the refresh icon or the word Refresh to reload partners from the EDI for Cloud endpoint. This may be useful if partners have been added to eiCloud. This action refreshes all metadata used to build the table of partners displayed in the configuration.
• Selecting a Partner: Within the table, click anywhere on a row to select a partner. Only one partner can be selected. The information available for each partner is fetched from the EDI for Cloud endpoint:
• Name: The name of the partner.
• Description: The description of the partner.
• Save & Exit: If enabled, click to save the configuration for this step and close the activity configuration.
• Next: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and continue to the next step. The configuration will not be saved until you click the Finished button on the last step.
• Discard Changes: After making changes, click to close the configuration without saving changes made to any step. A message asks you to confirm that you want to discard changes.

Step 2: Select a document type
In this step, select a document type. Each user interface element of this step is described below.

• Select a Document Type: This section displays document types available in the EDI for Cloud endpoint.
• Selected Partner: The partner selected in the previous step is listed here.
• Selected Document Type: After a document type is selected, it is listed here.
• Search: Enter any column’s value into the search box to filter the list of document types. The search is not case-sensitive. If document types are already displayed within the table, the table results are filtered in real time with each keystroke. To reload document types from the endpoint when searching, enter search criteria and then refresh, as described below.
• Refresh: Click the refresh icon or the word Refresh to reload document types from the EDI for Cloud endpoint. This may be useful if document types have been added to eiCloud. This action refreshes all metadata used to build the table of document types displayed in the configuration.
• Selecting a Document Type: Within the table, click anywhere on a row to select a document type. Only one document type can be selected. The information available for each document type is fetched from the EDI for Cloud endpoint:
  • Name: The name of the document type.
  • Description: The description of the document type.
• Back: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and return to the previous step.
• Next: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and continue to the next step. The configuration will not be saved until you click the Finished button on the last step.
• Discard Changes: After making changes, click to close the configuration without saving changes made to any step. A message asks you to confirm that you want to discard changes.

Step 3: Review the data schemas
Any request or response schemas are displayed. Each user interface element of this step is described below.

• Data Schemas: These data schemas are inherited by adjacent transformations and are displayed again during transformation mapping.
  The EDI for Cloud connector uses a custom Jitterbit API. Contact Jitterbit support for information on the schema fields.
• Refresh: Click the refresh icon or the word Refresh to regenerate schemas from the EDI for Cloud endpoint. This action also regenerates a schema in other locations throughout the project where the same schema is referenced, such as in an adjacent transformation.
• Back: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and return to the previous step.
• Finished: Click to save the configuration for all steps and close the activity configuration.
• Discard Changes: After making changes, click to close the configuration without saving changes made to any step. A message asks you to confirm that you want to discard changes.

iv) Next steps

After configuring an EDI for Cloud Get Document  activity, complete the configuration of the operation by adding and configuring other activities, transformations, or scripts as operation steps. You can also configure the operation settings, which include the ability to chain operations together that are in the same or different workflows.
Menu actions for an activity are accessible from the project pane and the design canvas. For details, see Activity actions menu in Connector basics.
EDI for Cloud Get Document activities can be used as a source with these operation patterns:

• Transformation pattern
• Two-target archive pattern (as the first source only)
• Two-target HTTP archive pattern (as the first source only)

To use the activity with scripting functions, write the data to a temporary location and then use that temporary location in the scripting function.
When ready, deploy and run the operation and validate behavior by checking the operation logs.

5. Wavo iPass:

Jitterbit, the API transformation company, today announced it has acquired Wevo, a leading Latin American enterprise integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) provider that orchestrates data integration and APIs. Wevo’s strategic presence in Latin America, coupled with connectivity to new ecosystems and endpoints, will enhance Jitterbit’s ability to provide integration services to companies across the globe, helping them to accelerate their digital transformations and realize exponential efficiencies.

• Integrate systems quickly:
  Wevo iPaaS has more than 200 ready-made connectors for different software on the market, including CRMs, e-commerce platforms, ERP systems, and more. It delivers the flexibility to create your own component at any time.

  

• Customize your integrations:
  Build your own integration processes and easily map fields with a drag-and-drop interface. For more advanced integrations, you can also write fully customizable business rules to transform data.

  

• Manage integrations automatically:
  Run integration processes automatically at a custom frequency (e.g. every 5 minutes, every hour, once a day). Monitor the health of your integrations and receive automatic notifications in case something unplanned happens.

  

6. API Manager:

API is an acronym for Application Program Interface. In simple terms, API is a software intermediary that allows applications to interact with each other and securely exchange data. APIs act as a messenger between applications that take requests, translate and return responses.

i) What is API Management?
API management is the process of creating, publishing, controlling, and analyzing APIs in a secure and scalable environment. API management provides a unified platform to scale, share and socialize APIs while ensuring security and access control. In addition, API Management provides usage analytics for reporting and assessment to improve performance and decision-making.

ii) What is an API Management Platform?
The API management platform is a software tool used to create, access, publish and govern APIs. With API management platforms, companies can centrally manage, run and secure APIs, and perform full lifecycle management.
The key components of an API management platform are:

• API Design: API design enables the creation, publishing and deployment of APIs. API design defines the architectural and functional characteristics of APIs and influences how the users consume these APIs and how they are tracked.
• API Gateway: An API Gateway is a software component sitting between a client and a collection of backend services transmitting requests and responses. The API Gateway acts as a manager handling the requests, routing, translation, and delivery of data and services.
• API Developer Portal: API Developer Portal is a place where published APIs are cataloged. The developer portal serves as a marketplace for the published APIs from where users can browse, subscribe, and read about them.
• API Security: Security is an essential component of APIM. You can use an API management platform to secure and govern your APIs various authentication types including Basic and OAuth 2.0. It also allows users to implement security capabilities such as user-level rate limiting and IP-white listing to ensure that your APIs are safeguarded and used the way you intended them to be used.
• API Analytics: API Analytics are critical to track key performance and monitor metrics. API Analytics enables organizations to filter, sort, and aggregate API data and display it in reports and dashboards that are easy to understand.

iii) How to get started with API Management ?
APIs are increasingly becoming important as organizations rely on them for everything, from introducing new products and channels to achieving operational efficiency and delivering an improved customer experience. Organizations need to implement effective API management and create an environment to manage the API lifecycle, making APIs secure and easily consumable.
Jitterbit understands the importance of APIM management and the growing dependencies of businesses on APIs. With the Jitterbit API integration platform, businesses can create, run, secure, publish, manage and analyze APIs and microservices no matter where your APIs are hosted, or what technologies they run on. A simple yet powerful user interface makes it very easy to integrate APIs from existing systems.

7. Message Queue:

Message Queue Service provides the tools to manage queues to support asynchronous processing. It helps manage system workloads and resources efficiently.

With MQ Service, you can:

• Move messages in and out of the queues
• Provide governance capabilities for storing/clearing the messages in the queues
• Monitor the queues and provide status updates
• Manage access to the queues

  

Why choose Jitterbit for your Salesforce Integration?

• Jitterbit and our community of certified partners have the expertise to provide you with Salesforce integrations that expedite time to value, increase efficiency, and improve the ability to scale and adapt to new opportunities.
  
• Jitterbit’s Harmony – Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) – provides various out-of-the-box Salesforce connectors and powerful API integration tools that make it fast and easy to connect applications and automate workflows, such as a built-in Salesforce Einstein Analytics connector, while providing the following:
  
• Speed:  Most of our customers are up and running with their first integration in less than 30 days. But perhaps the most important factor is how fast you can build additional integrations to deliver compelling customer experiences. Jitterbit provides a robust toolkit that shortens reusability of code, so your business can quickly implement future integrations as you add on new applications.
  
• Simplicity: Jitterbit customers are up and running quickly because of our easy-to-use, drag and drop user interface. Our low-code approach, out-of-the-box Salesforce connectors, pre-built integration recipes and templates, and a modern cloud-based platform simplify the design, deployment, and management of Salesforce integration projects.
  
• Trust: No matter how complex or straightforward your Salesforce integration is, our team of experts is on hand to help you every step of the way.

Summary 

Jitterbit is an integration platform that helps businesses connect various applications and data sources, making it easier to manage and automate workflows. It offers key features like API management, data integration, and pre-built connectors for popular applications such as Salesforce and SAP. Businesses choose Jitterbit for its user-friendly interface, rapid implementation, and robust capabilities, making it a valuable tool across various industries. The platform continues to evolve, with future enhancements aimed at meeting the growing demands of modern businesses. Overall, Jitterbit is a powerful solution for achieving seamless integration and improving operational efficiency