Premier Consulting & Integration, LLC

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API

API Acronyms Uncovered

We live in a world filled with acronyms. For those who are not familiar, an acronym is an abbreviated formed word, formed by letters of other words and pronounced as a word.

The Application Program Interface (API) world is no different when it comes to abbreviations and acronyms. We have outlined some common API acronyms below.

  • API – Application Program Interface
  • WIC – Web Integration Console
  • SOAP and REST– types of API calls that can be made
    • SOAP – Simple Object Access Protocol
    • REST – Representational State Transfer
  • CRUD – Create, Read, Update, Delete
  • SFTP– Secure File Transfer Protocol
  • AWS – Amazon Web Services
  • SSS – Simple Storage Service
  • VPN – Virtual Private Network
  • SQL – Structured Query Language
  • CSV– Comma Separated Values
    • Type of file that can be used if SFTP sites are used
  • JSON and XML– Formats data from API calls can be in
    • JSON– JavaScript Object Notation
    • XML– Extensible Markup Language
  • 200, 400, 500 responses– responses that tell you if the API call was successful or not
    • 200– indicates successful API call
    • 400– indicates an error caused by the user
    • 500– indicates an error caused by the server
  • DNS– Domain Name System
    • Service that enables a link between domain names and the IP addresses with which they are associated
  • IP Address– Internet Protocol Address
    • unique string of characters that identifies each computer communicating over a network
  • SSL– Secure Socket Layer
    • Uses a public key to encrypt data transferred over the connection to communicate securely with the web server
  • TLS– Transport Layer Security
    • Authentication and security protocol widely implemented in browsers and Web servers
  • HTTP– Hypertext Transfer Protocol
    • protocol for information systems that allows users to communicate data on the World Wide Web.
  • HTTPS– Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure
    • Adds SSL/TLS to the HTTP for added security
  • DB/DBMS– Database/Database Management System
    • Secure system where data is stored
  • SDK– Software Development Kit
    • Collection of software development tools in one installable package
  • CLI– Command Line Interface
    • Processes commands to a computer program in the form of lines of text
  • GUI– Graphical User Interface
    • Type of user interface where users interact with electronic devices using visual representations

We hope you have learned a new acronym or two from this today!

PCI offers cutting-edge solution integrations to complement and enhance your Deltek product investments. Our consultants help to identify and bridge gaps between various business systems, offering several third-party integrations into Deltek Costpoint and Deltek WorkBook. Our API capabilities include data pulls and custom-built integrations.

To learn more about API integrations, visit our LINK API Integration page.

Connect Everything

Is your firm using multiple tools to manage Financials, Payroll, CRM, HR and more? It may be time to consider connecting everything. Connect your applications quickly and easily with PCI’s LINK capabilities.

APIs can help connect all systems and data to one system to help you easily host all your data in one consolidated system such as Deltek Costpoint or Deltek WorkBook. In addition to data storage, API’s enhance productivity and help to drive revenue.

Still confused to how this may work for your organization? Here are a few examples: If you are using Insperity as your PEO, you can use API automation to move your employee data between the Insperity and Costpoint. If you are using HubSpot to move your marketing, sales, and service data we can sync it with Deltek WorkBook for consolidated project management and CRM tool.

Learn more about PCI’s LINK integrations here.

The Power of Integration

The question comes up with any software application, can this product keep up with our business needs or is it only solving the bare minimum?

 

Keeping Technology Fresh

Technology is constantly evolving to solve the needs of business problems. New features keep software platforms up to date and relevant.  Developing new features is no easy task, which is why APIs are becoming more and more popular.

 

The Power of APIs

The ability to connect multiple systems increases the effectiveness of your solutions. APIs give clients extensibility, the capability to create connections between multiple software platforms.

 

Streamline your Business Process with PCI’s API Integration Support

PCI offers cutting-edge solution integrations to complement and enhance your Deltek product investments. Our consultants help to identify and bridge gaps between various business systems, offering several third-party integrations into Deltek Costpoint. Our API capabilities include data pulls and custom-built integrations.

 

Learn more about our Integration capabilities here. Interested in getting started? Contact us today for a quote!

API Analogy

We live in a world where software can automate and fix most of our business challenges. A large piece of this software success comes from APIs. To recap some of the information from our recent blogs, API stands for “Application Programming Interface.” API’s are built to connect systems to one another.

API’s allow us to purchase goods and services directly from our phones, make a dinner reservation, book travel through booking tools such as ARCH and so much more. But how does data get from one point to the other? How do different applications connect to other systems?

 

Ready for the ultimate API Analogy?

An API is a system that takes requests and tells the system what to do and response back to the original messenger.

When at a restaurant, you can choose from a menu of options. The kitchen is the part of the system that will prepare your order. Think of your waiter or waitress as your API. Sending the message between you and the kitchen to ensure you receive your request and delivering the response back to you (in this case, your food).

 

Connect with Us

Questions on API integrations? Are you interested in learning more? Join our LinkedIn Forum to discuss with experts and customers on questions and best use practices on APIs.

A Journey to the Center of the API

My name is John Trela, I am a principal consultant at Premier Consulting and Integration LLC (PCI). As you may know, PCI is a systems integrator for Deltek products.

When I first started my journey into understanding the Deltek API, there were many challenges and questions that arose regarding the programming and integration of systems. In our new blog series around API’s, I will share best practices and answer questions you may find helpful on your API journey.

 

What is an API?

API’s allow the integration of Deltek and many applications/systems. A company could be using various systems for HR, Accounts Payable/Receivable, Payroll, travel, etc. in which they need to connect to their other products.

API “calls” as they are referred to, allow the transfer of data between said systems. In simple terms, an API call is like writing a letter, there is a header and address section, the body of the letter and the closing signature and title block which ends the letter. These headers direct where the API call will go, the body section contains the actual data being transferred and the signature closes the call and generates a response. API calls are preferred over using Structured Query Language (SQL) programming because API’s use the data validation built into Deltek to qualify the calls and make sure the data is correct before accepting the calls.

Example: If you are creating a new employee in Deltek Costpoint and you tried to enter the Social Security Number (SSN) providing too many numbers or providing letters instead of numbers the system would fail to complete the call and send back a response letting you know the SSN did not pass validation.

 

What are some practical use cases for API’s inside of Deltek?

Practical applications for APIs range from HR functions such as setting up employees, updating employee records, importing travel data, issuing Accounts Payable vouchers for payment or EFT payments for travel data and/or updating Accounts Payable records from bill pay services. In short, the API can streamline many functions which employees are currently entering by hand or entering multiple applications. Inside of Deltek Costpoint, you can import or export data, run and return reports, or issue instructions to run any saved parameters inside of Deltek applications.

 

5 Things you need to know before diving into APIs:

  1. Check to make sure the application you want to link into Deltek supports API’s and the level of business servicers you are currently being supplied with do not have any additional costs for accessing API’s.
  2. Identify tasks inside of your organization in which duplications of effort exist, setting up an API can help streamline and automate these efforts.
  3. Deltek provides a Web Integration Console (WIC) to generate API calls and test the integration methods. Programming knowledge is preferred when working with WIC.
  4. Understand programming language such as JSON and WSDL will be helpful on your journey.
  5. Build a team of individuals with programming expertise and employees who are familiar with Deltek and the applications you wish to integrate into.

 

Tips and tricks from the path to API perfection:

Employee information in Deltek’s API can be appended and the salary records can be updated. However, when integrating these modules, I have found that the calls need to be setup to enter one individual at a time instead of sending multiple blocks of employees. Costpoint think every new entry is a new employee until the validation is complete and the record is appended. If you only have 10 seat licenses left, you can only update 10 records at a time. As a workaround for rolling out applications across multiple clients it’s best to make the calls one employee at a time.

Make sure you have proper triggers in place when testing and implementing your API calls. I.E: If employees do not have employee ID’s setup but the salary records exist, do you want to send that date, or should the data wait until an employee ID is provided? Decisions on the quality for the data need to be mapped out before you start making calls.

I’ve found it easiest to start off designing an API call with all the provided fields inside of the Deltek application. Then limiting the items down to the fields that are provided in the application you are integrating in and identifying static fields that can be programmed into the feed as well as items that are required for your specific company.

 

API integrations and future projects:

This journey has been one met with great technical challenges. Every new integration presents technical challenges which must be overcome. I would love to hear how your Deltek API integration is going and what challenges you have had to overcome. If you are just staring out on your journey, I hope this article is helpful and if you need any guidance or direction PCI and myself are here to help!

 

Helpful Resources:

 

Join our Forum:

Request to join our WIC and API LinkedIn Group here.

 

Contact the Author:

John Trela
Principal Consultant
Email: [email protected]

API Much?

With the deployment of Costpoint’s cloud offering, there comes a shift in connection mentality. Historically, people have simply used SQL to write data directly into the Costpoint database. This required a very special skillset and a strong working knowledge of the database tables and fields. Putting invalid data in to the database is a risky process.

 

To alleviate this risk, Deltek provides a Web Integration Console (WIC). A window into the world of Costpoint, in which data can be automatically sent to Costpoint being validated along the way. This is a giant leap forward for automation and integration capabilities between Deltek and other systems.

 

However, like any new system, there is little information around the interworking of this service and even fewer best practices out there. While there are a lot of IT companies that specialize in API integration, there are few with the working knowledge of the Costpoint WIC.

 

We are posting this blog for users, developers and Deltek customers to share their questions, help answer questions and share solution best practices as you venture down this path. We will periodically post our success and failures in our LinkedIn Forum in hopes that you all will do the same. Together we can make this a better experience.

 

Welcome to the conversation. Request to join our LinkedIn Group here.