Purpose and usage
crossConnect is based on a hot folder principle. This clearly defines responsibilities and the lose coupling increases stability. Even more important: Partner companies don't have to bother with Across details. They only have to learn how to read and write the exchange file format which is a widely-used open standard (XLIFF).
On the Across-side, crossAutomate interacts with the hot folders. For each use case, Across provides standard crossAutomate workflows that can be configured. These workflows listen to the appropriate events in Across and ensure that the Across workflows and the integration interact in a smooth way. The Across integrations have to watch for new files in the From_Across folder, processes them in the 3rd party software and return the results in the To_Across folder. An additional "result" file allows crossAutomate to make a case distinction and skip e.g. a workflow step in case the external quality assurance found no significant errors to be processed by a corrector.
In order to meet the security requirements of the industry customers, a project setting defines for which projects an external processing is allowed. All files in the hot folders will be encrypted so that only Across and the partner company can decrypt them. Across and the partner companies ensure that during the whole process the data cannot leak.
crossAutomate
crossAutomate provides the infrastructure that dis-burdens the integration software from Across-specific things and allows a seamless integration in Across.
For each use case, crossAutomate offers standard workflows.
- These standard workflows implement functionality which is common for the corresponding integration scenarios:
- Check that the prerequisites are fulfilled.
- Listen to certain events and trigger the integration process.
- Ensure a proper interaction of the integration and the Across standard functionality.
- Communication with the Across programming interface crossAPI.
- Remote access to crossAPI for crossAutomate to be able to run on the same machine as the trusted application integration. This prevents using shared folders or transferring files from another machine to the integration software.
The communication between crossAPI and crossAutomate fulfills the same security requirements as Across requests from Trusted Across Integration Solutions.