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Connecting Mobile Order Entry to Backend Systems with APIs

Leah Avner
03/2023

The Client

A distribution company that specializes in B2B and B2C customers was looking to enhance its robust retail mobile app to streamline the order process done “in the field”.  

The mobile app already existed, but its connection to the JDE World ERP, was limited.  

The Problem

Currently, orders were created in the mobile app which subsequently made an SQL call to insert orders directly into JDE World. Once in the ERP, orders would continue through the pick, pack, and ship process.  

This meant the mobile app was handling the financial validations, as well as other necessary built-in business logic. Due to application constraints, the mobile orders were often buggy and performance was poor.  

The Solution

To increase mobile app performance, we removed the business logic from the mobile app and allowed the application to focus on the thing it did well – order entry.  

Our team developed an API that included business rules and necessary validations to create2 the order and used Eradani to connect the data flow to JDE World. Functioning as a middleware of sorts, the API could be called to by any source (Mobile App, Browser, BTB, etc.) to receive order information and repackage it into a format that could be received by JDE World.  

This allowed orders to be taken in real-time and avoided duplication of business rules and validations in the source systems. 

The second need was verifying the payment information taken during the order entry in the mobile app. Since there would likely be a delay from order entry to the order’s shipment, the system needed a way to verify and authorize the validity of the payment source and also store the verification token so that the payment could be processed during the time of shipment.  

The Briteskies team built a second API to receive payment information from the mobile app, call out to Worldpay B2B Payments (formerly known as Paymetric), a financial verification tool, to verify and authorize the payment, and then receive the authorization token from Worldpay and send the information to JDE World for posting once the order is shipped. 

For building the APIs and connecting Eradani to the existing RPG logic in JDE World, our team used various tools and languages including RPG Free, SQL, Postman, node.js, JavaScript, and TypeScript.  

From design, development, test, to roll-out, our team was involved every step of the way. 

With these enhancements, our team was able to create a secure, streamlined process for connecting the mobile orders to the backend ERP. These improvements allow the client’s customers to easily and swiftly place orders and permit the client to efficiently administer their order entry processes.  

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