Integrators' reading path
This page puts every page of the integrators' section in one order. Read it front to back in your first weeks, or take the short path for your role. Times are rough reading times, not including trying things out.
Contents
- Stage 1: orientation
- Stage 2: the surfaces
- Stage 3: hooks and systems around the site
- Stage 4: patterns and building
- Stage 5: quality and operations
- Stage 6: projects and business
- Short paths by role
Stage 1: orientation
About one hour.
- Integrators: start here
- What integrators do with Exponential
- Integration surfaces at a glance
- Choosing an integration surface
- Choosing credentials for an integration
Stage 2: the surfaces
About three hours.
- The REST API for integrators
- OAuth applications for integrations
- Personal API keys for integrations
- Remote services with expservices
- ezjscore server functions for integrations
- RSS, Atom and OPML feeds
- Syndication between installations
- WebDAV and SOAP
- Packages for import and export
- Bulk data exchange with xrowextract
- CLI scripts and ezexec
- Cronjobs for integrations
Stage 3: hooks and systems around the site
About three hours.
- Workflows and triggers as integration hooks
- Event listeners for integrations
- Outgoing webhooks from the audit trail
- Mail and notifications integration
- Forms and collected information
- Login handlers - LDAP, textfile and your own
- Single sign-on and social login
- Search engine integration
- Payment gateways and the shop
- AI providers, the job queue and MCP
Stage 4: patterns and building
About three hours, more with the code.
- Integration patterns: push and pull, batch and real time
- Idempotent imports keyed by remote_id
- Mapping content classes to external data
- Writing an import script
- Writing an export or an outbound sync
- Migrating content from another CMS
- Building an integration as an extension
Stage 5: quality and operations
About two and a half hours.
- Error handling and logging
- Security for integrations
- Service accounts, roles and policies
- Caching after imports
- Velocity and performance for integrations
- Testing integrations
- Monitoring integrations
- Upgrades without breaking integrations
Stage 6: projects and business
About two hours.
- Integration project playbook
- Estimating integration work
- Statements of work for integrations
- Handover of an integration
- Contributing integrations back
- Integrators and the partner program
- Worksheets: Discovery worksheet, Interface specification template, Security checklist, Go-live checklist
- Reference: FAQ, Glossary
Short paths by role
| Role | Pages (numbers above) |
|---|---|
| Solution architect | 1-5, 28-30, 18, 20, 36 |
| Integration developer | 1, 3, 16-18, 29-32, 34, 35, 40 |
| Developer of an external app | 1, 5-9, 37 |
| Identity engineer | 1, 23, 24, 36, 37 |
| Operations engineer | 1, 17, 35, 38, 39, 41, 42, 46 |
| Project lead or account manager | 1, 2, 43-46, 48, 49 |
Next, for developers: Extension development: the book and Develop with Git.
Related pages
- Integrators: start here
- Partner reading path
- Reading paths of the extension book
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
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