Your business logic is an essential tool when planning API integration. Because the first steps to API integration include accommodating the customer experience and establishing your current technology level, your unique business logic is the key to understanding where your business is and how to move forward. It can also serve as a roadmap to building your own composable enterprise. Establishing your business’s specific needs and use cases is the key to determining what specific technology you’ll need to integrate.
If no two digital transformation plans are alike, this means that no API implementations will look the same either. Every transformation will be different depending on the nature of the business and what its needs are moving forward. So when drafting your plans to digitally transform the business, it’s important to hold on to how the business’s specific needs are met through the application of sound business logic.
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On Business Logic
Simply put, business logic contains the rules for data creation and changes. This logic is not only specific to your industry, but specific to your business. Your users are what determine the specifics of your business logic, and so the workflows they establish would make little to no sense outside of the context of your business. Business logic is what happens between the user interaction and internal data persistence. It determines what data is to be collected from the user, how it’s stored, and where it goes. If APIs handle the what of your workflows, business logic handles the how.
Business Logic and Digital Transformation
Typically, when a business looks to digital transformation, it’s a significant change. You must rethink not only what technology you want to use but also rework your entire business infrastructure. Best practices include API implementation and retooling your integrations. But your business logic need not change as a result. Because your business logic faces the customer, its importance to your digital transformation depends on how effectively the logic contributes to the user experience. If your business logic is sound, your digital transformation will mean designing your new business infrastructure around the business logic.
Now look at your business logic as it relates to data, and in particular, where your organization’s data resides. Establishing what data you already collect and where you allocate it can be helpful in determining your business’s current state of technology. It can also help you determine what other data is required and where it needs to go. Understanding the structure of your data and what front-end applications your data is required to support is a fundamental aspect of business logic and needs to be carefully considered in implementing any transformation initiative.
Business Logic and Your APIs
In most cases, the implementation of APIs actually doesn’t come down to new business logic, but rather to the orchestration of existing business logic, or connectivity to existing business logic. If you treat the API as a messenger service between the business logic and any other part of the service, you can achieve the same results with a cleaner execution. This also keeps your API scalable. What is key is remembering that an API can be implemented using different resource methods ensuring that ‘orchestration’ is achieved seamlessly and in a manner that ensures front-end functionality whilst at the same time preserves the integrity of back-end data sources.
A common way to execute this is to encode your business logic into services that are integrated using the API. This is especially true if you rely on many microservices in your business, and the result is a more composable business architecture. The API remains central as a messenger and traffic control.
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About DreamFactory
DreamFactory is a full life cycle API management as a service platform that can help you construct the ideal architecture for your business. We offer instant API generation that will provide a full-featured, documented, and secure REST API without a line of code on your end. With our API management tools, you can build upon your existing APIs and reuse them according to your business needs and changes. Learn how to incorporate your business logic into your new workflows and infrastructure with a large library of resources and support.
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