In addition to the ATG Web services functionality discussed in the preceding chapters, the ATG platform includes a more generalized framework that enables you to integrate your applications with remote software systems for cases where using Web services might not be appropriate. For example, you could use the integration framework to integrate an ATG Commerce application with an order-processing system. When a customer places an order through ATG Commerce, the order data can be transferred to the order-processing system, and the ATG platform can trigger events that invoke the processing facilities in the remote system.

The integration framework involves several key facilities that you can use to integrate ATG applications with remote systems:

You can use these facilities individually, but a typical integration will use all of these facilities together. For example, the Integration Repository typically uses RPC to execute the commands used to move data between the ATG platform and the remote system.

Integrators and Adapters

Integrating the ATG platform with a remote system generally involves additional software to handle the communication between the two systems:

• A middleware transport layer, such as Tibco or MQ

• Adapters that enable the ATG platform and the remote system to communicate through the middleware transport layer

• An integrator that implements the Integration Framework’s queries and commands in a form understood by the remote system, enabling the two systems to interoperate and share data

The following figure illustrates the ATG integration architecture:

You can write adapters and integrators by implementing the various APIs described in this manual. Note that ATG adapters handle only the communication between the ATG platform and the middleware transport. Adapters for communication between a remote system and a middleware transport are typically available from the company that develops the remote system or the middleware.