Creation of commercial Mule connector for IBM i (AS400, iSeries)

Duration: 6 months
Services: Product Development, Backend Development, Custom Software Development, Test Automation Services, Early-Stage Innovation, R&D Services, Software Integration Services
Technologies: Mule Runtime, CloudBees, JUnit / TestNG, CI/CD Automation Servers, Jenkins, Git, Apache Maven, Java, Mule DevKit, SonarQube, BitBucket (Stash), Backend, Cloud Platforms, Anypoint MQ Connector, MS Azure, Build and Dependency Platforms and Tools, Mockito, Anypoint Studio, Test Automation, Mule ESB, Source Code Management (SCM), APIs, CI/CD and DevOps, Message Queues and Service Buses, Languages, Protocols, APIs, Network Tools, Software Engineering and Management Tools, IBM i (AS/400), Java Libraries, License4J
Business Domains: E-Commerce, IT Industry
Software Categories and Types: Integration Solutions
IT Architecture Paradigms and Approaches: Test Driven Development (TDD), Data Driven Testing (DDT), Enterprise Integration Patterns, Plugins Architecture and Development
Technical Expertise: Web Development, Test Automation, Research and Development (R&D), Expandable Software Solutions (Plugin Systems), Security Enablement and Audit (digital signature, WS standards, OASIS best practices)
DevOps Expertise: Advanced build organization, CI/CD Basics

Team size (2):
1 Project Manager
1 Backend

Project summary

The connector is to enable IBM i (AS400, iSeries) integrations with the ordinary Mule applications and is available at https://www.mulesoft.com/exchange#!/ibm-as400-integration-connector. Typical connector usage is integration projects, when business is not willing to abandon the existing infrastructure, but would like to introduce modern technologies or ensure the integration of business applications that are running in IBM i (AS400, iSeries) with other systems, the own one or third parties systems. The connector supports synchronous and asynchronous use cases, supports One-to-One and One-to-many scenarios. The connector enables IBM i (AS400, iSeries) system to call (publish) an event in Mule or call Mule service. Moreover, now it is possible in Mule to publish notification in AS/400, and call AS/400 service or team.

JazzTeam worked with Infoview Systems on connector development, testing and Mulesoft certification.

Technologies

Technologies: Java, Mule, Mule ESB, Mule DevKit, Anypoint Connector, Anypoint Studio, AS/400, SonarQube, Maven (license maven plugin), BitBucket, GIT, License 4j, CloudBees, TestNG, Mockito.

Screenshots

Project features

The process of the connector certification is a quite complicated procedure involving a huge number of points, which should be taken into consideration, even at the design stage. Almost half of the project time was assigned to the certification preparation
https://mulesoft.github.io/connector-certification-docs/advanced/index.html.
One of the customer requirements was backward compatibility of the connector with previous versions of Mule.
To pass the certification procedure it is necessary to create a variety of tests – unit, functional, system tests, with at least 70% of percentage coverage.
The expert Maven knowledge was required on this project, to set up and configure all the necessary analyzers and plugins.

Project results

The connector has been successfully certified by MuleSoft and is available for use on the official Mule website https://www.mulesoft.com/exchange#!/ibm-as400-integration-connector.
The connector demo applications which show to the users all the connector features were created.
All the project iterations were acknowledged by customer as successful.

Company’s achievements during the project

Mule connectors testing approaches have been mastered in the shortest time, all necessary unit tests were created.
During work the team created additional guidelines that allow customers to make small changes in the connector independently.
In the process of connector development and preparation for certification a large number of risks arose. But thanks to the daily stand-up, and a very experienced manager deep immersion in the project, our team managed to avoid the appearance of most of the risks.
Our team recommended the customer to use License4j library to create a licensing system, and successfully implemented it. The licensing system supports different operation modes of the connector (commercial use, demo, development).

Testimonials

Dmitriy Kuznetsov, VP Integration and Cloud Solutions, Infoview Systems Inc, the development of integration projects, helping clients to embed innovative services and systems into existing mainframe based enterprise solutions, Livonia, USA

We engaged Jazzteam to help us with the development, testing and certification of IBM i (AS400) connector. The project was completed on time and the connector has successfully passed strict and rigorous Mulesoft certification process. I was impressed by Jazzteam’s effective transparent management and technical breadth. The communication throughout project phases was excellent. The team provided daily status updates, risks, roadblocks and alternative solutions. Overall Jazzteam proved to be capable, reliable and skilled partner and I am looking forward to working with them on our projects.