What are our options for integrating our back office systems with the Orion server, for automation of order fulfillment?

Orion provides the following options for programmatic inbound integration of back office systems with the Orion server (ie. for back office systems to call into the Orion server):

• A direct Java administration API, suitable for access from a servlet that you write to receive HTTP POSTs from external systems. The administration API supports license setup and update operations as well as running operational reports, auditing and analytic reports.
• A set of command line tool wrappers around the direct Java administration API for command-line administration of the server. The command line tools are CGI-friendly and shell-scripting-friendly.
• A SOAP based Web Services API for remote integration from any system or environment capable of issuing SOAP messages. Wrapper Java API and command line tools are also available as a convenience. The API mirrors the direct Java administration API in functionality.
• Similarly, a REST based Web Services API for remote integration from any system or environment capable of issuing HTTP POSTs. Wrapper Java API and command line tools are also available as a convenience.

Orion provides the following options for outbound integration of the Orion server with back office systems (ie. for the Orion server to call out into back office systems):

• A custom event handler plug-in architecture. You can develop custom plug-in’s that are invoked in response to events according to Orion’s event alerter configuration rules. The custom plug-in’s can implement arbitrary server-side functionality, for example to send messages to a CRM system in response to user license activations or license-expiration warning conditions.