Jitterbit 2.0 focuses on reuse in integration

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By Jeff Feinman

August 18, 2008 — Open-source integration software company Jitterbit has added the ability to expose integrations as Web services to its namesake open-source integration platform.

Jitterbit 2.0, released today, includes improvements to its user interface and integration server, company executives said. A new graphical user interface (GUI) gives the building of integrations a flowchart-style design.

Jitterbit 2.0 has a feature called pipeline customization, which allows the creation of reusable scripts in the integration process. Jitterbit said this can improve the layout and maintenance of an integration project by removing redundant activities. Another new feature in the is the ability to expose integrations as Web services.

Ilan Sehayek, CTO of Jitterbit, said that the previous version of Jitterbit was frequently used for complex business processes, but its interface lacked a graphical representation of integration data, instead displaying the process in a tree form. The new interface can make navigation through the process easier, he said.

The focus of this version is on trying to make integrations simpler for users, and the company has geared the product toward people that aren’t necessarily developers, Jitterbit executives said.

“If you have to integrate with a software-as-a-service company like Salesforce.com, we allow you to use a wizard to point client application to the Salesforce.com site, find the file that describes the interface, and we do an introspection and reveal open methods on that,” said Sharam Sasson, Jitterbit chairman and CEO. “As a result, the product doesn’t really need classic developers to do this integration. The person needs to be somewhat IT savvy; he or she needs to know bits and bytes and databases that would be useful, but they don’t need to be a developer.”

Sehayek added that knowledge of Microsoft’s SQL database can serve as an advantage in working with Jitterbit.

Sasson also said that Jitterbit reuses integrations, as users can store integrations developed through the wizard or GUI in files and e-mail them to others. A feature called the Jitterpak provides pre-built integrations, which can be developed by Jitterbit users and reused by other people.

“The reason why integration is cumbersome is that many aspects of it [are] similar to something someone else has already done,” Sehayek said. “Yet typically, most integration projects today still start from scratch, whether they’re going to be developed in-house using coding and scripting, or whether you’re using a commercial product to do it. One of the trends we’re trying to increase is the ability to take what others have done and reuse it.”

Related Search Term(s): integration, open source, Jitterbit

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