App Connect

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  • 1.  Develop Connectors

    Posted Wed March 15, 2023 12:44 PM
    Edited by Timothy Dilbert Wed March 15, 2023 12:44 PM

    I am only in the beginning stages of researching IBM App Connect, so please excuse my first few questions as I become familiar with the product.

    There are a few applications prevalent within my area that currently do not have Connectors within IBM AppConnect. I would like to develop those Connectors and sell them as Add-ons to my AppConnect customers. Is it possible to develop Connectors for our customers? And is there an Add-on framework where BPs can sell/import those Connectors separately from the AppConnect product for customers who might be interested in the additional Connectors we develop?



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    Timothy
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  • 2.  RE: Develop Connectors

    IBM TechXchange Speaker
    Posted Thu March 16, 2023 09:48 AM

    Hi Timothy,

    We currently don't support the framework for BPs to sell connectors. Today in our Connector Development Kit, we allow users to publish their built connectors to the community so that others can use them for free. 

    We really appreciate your input here, and we'll take it into consideration for future plans.


    Owen Jeffs - Product Manager, IBM App Connect 



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    Owen Jeffs
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  • 3.  RE: Develop Connectors

    IBM TechXchange Speaker
    Posted Thu March 16, 2023 11:49 AM

    Further to Owen's post I just wanted to check which variant of App Connect Connector you had in mind? As Owen says, the Connector Development Kit which is used for authoring connectors for the Designer authoring tool doesn't support BPs selling connectors ... but you can develop "User-defined nodes" for the App Connect Enterprise Toolkit authoring tool. These message flow nodes can be written in either Java or C and you can package and distribute them yourself. Toolkit message flows also provide a Loopback node which can be used with any third party loopback connector.

    https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/app-connect/12.0?topic=use-user-defined-nodes

    https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/app-connect/12.0?topic=applications-working-loopback-connectors



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    Ben Thompson
    IBM UK
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  • 4.  RE: Develop Connectors

    Posted Thu March 16, 2023 01:09 PM

    Hi Ben,

    Admittedly I am only at the stage of researching AppConnect to understand if it is a good fit for my needs.

    My goal is for customers to have the low-code authoring environment they see when they research AppConnect. Meaning, these users will want to determine business logic using the graphical flowchart, etc.

    The only issue with AppConnect at the moment is that the Connectors for the apps important to my customer base are not included in your current list of Connectors. I'd be willing to develop them, but I would want some way to recoup the cost of development, which would be hard to do on the license fees alone.   

    @Owen Jeffs I think it would be very valuable to both IBM and the Business Partners if there were a way we could develop and resell Connectors. For example, the Connectors I would develop are used by 70% of my target customers, but overall, these Connectors would be niche to my market and so of little interest to IBM to develop yourselves.

    I hope there's a model in a future version of AppConnect allowing third parties to monetise the Connectors they develop.



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    Timothy
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