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Integrate with other software

Write a connector app to connect with external software systems.

Connector apps are a type of Actyx app, whose purpose is to connect with equipment or software outside of the Actyx swarm.

Software systems integrationm

As shown above, integrating a software system means writing a connector app that uses the network to communicate with an interface provided by the external system. Given the breadth of enterprise software systems, there are a multitude of different interface types and methods, including:

  • File-based data exchange
  • SOAP or REST HTTP APIs
  • Custom TCP/IP-level interfaces
Using Node-RED

Node-RED is a tool that allows you graphically construct data flows. It can be quite useful for such scenarios. Node-Red also provides several protocol-specific connector nodes (e.g. SMB) out-of-the-box.

Virtual machines as edge devices

External software systems often run in virtualized environments. This means that it often makes sense to run Actyx and your connector app on a virtual edge device itself, as close as possible to the system you are integrating with.