Developing Journey Exchange integrations

   Exchange Pre-configured Maestro services.  |   Platform Developer |  All versions   This feature is related to v5.1 and higher.

This topic covers some coding guidelines and techniques that you may find useful while developing a Journey Exchange integration.

Getting started with Fluent Groovy services

The Groovy programming language is built on Java, and the grammar of the language is derived from the Java grammar but enhances it with constructs and simplifications that improve developer productivity while making code more concise and readable. Given the foundation on Java, most of the Java syntax is supported in Groovy, and developers with strong Java experience are likely to pick up Groovy faster than those without.

To get started with Fluent Groovy service development, we recommend the following steps:

1. Complete your Development Environment Setup in the IDE of your choice.
2. Follow the Hello World Service Example to develop, deploy and test your first service.
3. Review the Temenos Journey Manager (TJM) Fluent API reference documentation to build your awareness of the packages and classes it contains.
4. Read Application Package Quick Start and Project Build Files to understand the build functions included in the Transact Project Template.
5. Review our articles, listed below, on Coding conventions and practices and Techniques for solving common problems.

For developers new to Groovy, we strongly recommend you review the following assets:

• Read through our introductory content relating to Groovy Declarations and Control Statements.
• Review the official Groovy documentation in depth.
• This 1-hour Groovy Tutorial on YouTube covers a great deal of content very quickly and is recommended viewing.

Related technologies

Groovy services developed on the Temenos Journey Manager platform are commonly accessed via a RESTful web service API, so an understanding of this protocol will be beneficial. IDE support is facilitated by Ant build scripts, so knowledge of Ant is required to customize the build function.

The following references should be reviewed by developers involved in Groovy service development on the Temenos Journey Manager platform:

• RESTful Web services: A concise description of RESTful Web services by IBM.
• Apache Ant: Ant is used to facilitate packaging, uploading and testing of Groovy services from IDEs.
• JSON Home and JSON Tutorial: The JSON format is commonly used for managing structured data in Groovy and REST.

Coding conventions and practices

The Groovy coding conventions and practices referenced below are intended to promote consistency and reliability in the services built for the Temenos Journey Manager platform. It is recommended that anyone developing TJM services, for whatever purpose, review and adhere to these guidelines.

Any TPac being proposed for inclusion in the Journey Exchange program will be assessed according to its compliance with these guidelines before being accepted into the program.

• Use defined type declarations in favor of dynamic types
• Naming conventions for Groovy services
• Null-safe Groovy code
• Groovy error handling and reporting
• Log third-party service calls
• Encapsulate common code in shared Groovy classes
• Manage external service timeouts
• Static compilation and type checking

Techniques for solving common problems

Here are some tips for how to deal with some common problems.

• Perform Remote Service Calls
• Interrogate structured data paths
• Translate date formats
• Interrogate XML Content Containing Namespaces
• Check for JavaScript Cross-Site Scripting Attacks
• Avoid SQL Injection Attacks