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Dovetail is a no-code and low-code iPaaS integration solution that helps businesses connect internal and external applications to transfer and transform data from one or more endpoints to one or more other applications' endpoints.

Dovetail can also be used to integrate with legacy software. Dovetail is added as a layer to convert the data from the legacy software to usable format towards the application where the data is supposed to be used.

Dovetail is a data flow application. With the Flow designer you easily configure how the data should flow. Over 200 opinionated components can be dragged & dropped and configured in the Flow Designer. This graphic interface allows for describing what each component does, enable you to write the documentation of what you have built, as you go. This ensures the maintenance and sustainability of your flows.

Thanks to this drag & drop interface you can already configure flows with just knowledge of the business processes. No coding required.

How does Dovetail work?

With every integration we go through to following phases: Connect, Translate, Map, Optimise.

First you investigate how to set up the connection. You look into the API and its documentation. If there is no API available? Look into what the possibilities are to connect.

The next phase is Translate. Look into what translations the data needs to be able to travel onwards. Not every endpoint speaks the same language, for example, one uses JSON while the other endpoint uses XML. In this step, the dataset is converted into what the receiving endpoint can process.

In the third step, the content of the sender's message must be mapped to what the recipient can process. Imagine having to process product data from your ERP to a web shop. Chances are that the field containing your unique item code will have a completely different field name on the receiving end. During mapping, you ensure that your data is processed in the right place.

The definition of mapping the data between the supplied data and the data to be processed is described in an XSLT. In our application the Dovetail XSLT component takes care of this and ensures the correct processing.

Building an integration flow is done with the information available at that moment. The better the preparation, the greater the chance of getting the right result. This result we call the "happy flow," you take into account everything you know.

Our experience however, is that you don't know, what you don't know.

On many occasions we see that the behaviour of endpoints is creating unexpected outcomes. For example; the feedback you receive was not documented and could therefore not be taken into account. Or the supplier of the endpoint imposed limits on the number of messages of the endpoint but they were not documented or not documented well enough. All these kinds of circumstances require the "happy flow" to be optimised.

For each flow, you can create an error route in Dovetail that is kicked off once an error occurs. That error route is again a flow that you can configure yourself. For example, a log to Slack or a post on a monitoring system.

By following these steps in building integrations, you are not only building your integration flow, but you are also ensuring it will continue to work, because you have insight into all deviations.