With the Xanadu release, we introduced Enterprise Modeling and Visualization in the EA Workspace (EA Modeling) and enhanced our Digital Integration Management (DIM) offering. Combining both solutions will greatly help you represent the integration details you modelled in DIM.
In the current version of EA Modeling, the core DIM objects exist as shapes, and relationships between them can be made. This article explains, by offering a demo update set, how other objects such as "Company" and "API" can be added to enhance your drawings.
If you want to add additional objects such as Information Objects or Credentials to your Digital Interfaces, detailed instructions on how to extend the Shape library can be found on Docs.
In a nutshell, it consists of adding these objects in the EA Workspace/Setup/Enterprise Modeling and Visualization section:
- Define an Entity Configuration. Take a look at the existing ones and create a similar object. For the Diagram Action, use the "Default Entity Action".
- Create a new Shape Library Element in one of the libraries of your choice. Again, for the Diagram Action, use the "Default Entity Action". For the icon, add or use an SVG file stored in the db_image table. Define a Name and tooltip and relate it to the Entity Configuration added in step 1.
- Lastly, when you want to "add related entities", you need to define one or more Relationships. They can be based on references, an m2m table, or CI relationship.
In version 1.3.0 of Digital Integration Management, we introduced the concept of building an integration between a Business Application and an external Company. That Company is either subscribing to a service you expose or provides an interface to interact with. The demo data we added to DIM is based on this scenario:
Intersection Malls" is a big retail company that has kiosks in their shopping malls where customers can order goods (like a new phone subscription). Before a new phone subscription can be activated, the shop collaborator enters the customer's details via a portal and submits the order.
Our company, MyTelco, provides a Digital Interface (My Telco Order Mngt) via the Business Application "My Telco Customer Portal", which allows external companies (e.g., Intersection Malls) to order goods and follow up on the transactions.
When the orders are submitted via the "MyTelco Order Mngt" interface, we (MyTelco) have to verify the customer's International Banking Account Number (IBAN) with our financial institution. We use the external service that our bank/financial institution "A.BankingCompany" provides to us.
MyTelco documents which external companies (e.g., Intersection Malls) use the interface via a Digital Integration such as "Intersection Malls-MyTelco Customer Portal-My Telco Order Mngt". Note: The Digital Integrations were requested via the portal and tracked as Digital Integration Requests.
The attached Update Set provides the shapes for the API and Company objects. Consider it as demo content which might become part of a future out-of-the-box experience.
Hopefully, this gave you some ideas. We're interested to hear your experiences and feedback.
Regards, Bruno
PS: Thank you, Nilesh Gupta, for helping me out with the EA Modeling setup.
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