We see several integration platforms and tools these days, all of them claiming to simplify integrations. How much of these claims are a reality is a million dollar question. Curious to learn how the integration is simplified, I was studying the documentation available on the web of some integration platforms. I happened to come across an example of a Web Service integration in MuleSoft, where the tutorial discussed about how to consume a Web Service exposed by external providers. Given below is a small extract of the tutorial:

Just by the terminologies used in the tutorial, one can infer that the procedure is highly technical, it requires skilled developers to build the integration and it requires development tools, what with their complex installation procedures! On a contrast, here is another platform 'mondCloud' which claims simplification of integrations. Let us see how a Web Service consumer is defined on this platform:

Step 1: Import Web Service using the WSDL URL.

A snapshot of the WSDL import screen is given below:

A 'Citizen Integrator' uses a browser based screen to import the Web Service Resource by giving the WSDL URL.

Step 2: "???".

Wondering why "???" is there in Step 2? Because, there is no step 2. Step 1 is the first and last step to discover the WebService. The WebService and its operations are discovered just by importing the WSDL. A snapshot of the Web Service discovered is given below:

A snapshot of the Web Service operations discovered in the above process is given below:

The Web Service Client is ready to be used in any service that require the data! Well, by now you might have realized what a true simplification means.While there are lot of platforms claiming simplification of integration,very few realize that Simplification is a product design philosophy and not just a marketing buzz-word.

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