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Core terms and concepts

Here are some important terms and concepts to understand when working on the Boomi Enterprise Platform:

Account
Workspace used to perform actions provided by the Platform. Each Platform account has at least one associated user, and you can share your account between multiple users.

Account ID
Unique identifier for your Platform account that you can not change.

API
Stands for Application Programming Interface. It is a software library or protocol that facilitates interaction between different software or services

Runtime
Lightweight, dynamic runtime engine that contains process configuration information for Boomi Integration processes. You can download and install Runtimes to a machine behind your firewall. The installation allows access to local resources such as on-premise applications or databases; or deployment to the Boomi data center to integrate web-accessible applications or data sources. You typically deploy multiple integration processes to a single Runtime. See Runtimes.

Runtime clouds
Runtime clouds are multi-tenant, meaning that one instance of the Platform serves multiple customers simultaneously. They consist of one or more Runtime cloud clusters installed on multiple machines. The Runtime cloud clusters on the machines are grouped together to form the Runtime cloud . You can deploy your cloud-based integration processes to a Runtime cloud or set up your own local Runtime cloud. In the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, manages and operates Runtime clouds and Test Runtime clouds. See Runtime clouds.

Atom Installer
An atom installation program. We presently provide installers for Windows, Linux, and Docker.

Atom Queue
Publish, subscribe, and point-to-point message queuing is supported by this component.

Execution worker
In a Boomi Runtime cloud or private runtime cloud, a execution worker is a reserved resource dedicated to performing low latency process executions. In a Runtime cloud, a execution worker can also provide near-real-time performance. execution workers run for 24 hours by default. You can change the length of time after which execution workers shut down. execution workers are only available for Runtime clouds, not for Runtime clusters or Runtimes with a single tenant. To allow execution workers on a private runtime cloud, a Cloud owner must make a one-time update on the Runtime cloud.

Boomi Enterprise Platform API
API used to access Boomi Enterprise Platform objects directly. It is used to pull metrics or to configure components on the Platform. With a Boomi Enterprise Platform API, you can find out how many times a process was executed, canceled, or how many times a component was executed or deployed..

Platform User
An individual's login required to access the Boomi Enterprise Platform. Users are assigned to an account and receive specific permissions that enable them to access various features across the platform.

Business-to-Business (B2B)
Type of e-commerce in which products, services, or information are exchanged between businesses rather than between businesses and consumers (B2C).

Boomi Assure
A tool that allows customers to submit test data for regression testing against a new upcoming version. Thanks to crowd-sourced regression testing, you can be confident that platform modifications will not break established integration procedures.

Boomi Hub Clouds
Runtime clouds managed by Boomi, in which individual Master Data Hub repositories are hosted. Integration Hub listener processes must be deployed to the Hub Cloud that hosts the hosting repository of the master data domain with which the process interacts. Boomi maintains regional Hub clouds worldwide.

Boomi Suggest
An optional feature in Integration that advises which fields should be mapped in a data map. Suggest uses a complicated collection of algorithms to determine the amount of confidence in a suggestion's potential accuracy. It makes use of anonymized metadata from the Boomi community and saves you time by suggesting a mapping. You can choose to accept all or some of the ideas. You can also ignore the recommendations and make your own mappings.

Channel
A channel is an access point an integration process can check for a batch of update requests targeting a particular source, needed by golden record updates. There are two types of channels:

  • Channel on which requests to the source are propagated as entities with all fields. This type is called FULL.

  • Channel on which requests to the source are propagated as entities containing only updated fields. This type is called DIFF.

Collection

Collections are used to represent one-to-many relationships, such as a person and their nicknames or phone numbers, within the context of a single model. In a model a collection is represented by a repeatable field or field group. In a golden record a collection is a set of instances of the same repeatable field or field group.

Component
Reusable configuration objects that appear in the Component Explorer and are used in processes. Components include:

  • APIs
  • Certificates
  • Connections
  • Connector operations
  • Cross reference tables
  • Document caches
  • Maps and map functions
  • Processes, process properties, and process routes profiles
  • Queues
  • Trading partners

You can create components once and then reference them by process shapes across multiple processes. When you modify a component, those changes appear wherever you reference the component. So if that database moves to a different machine, you can update the single Database Connection component once, and the new settings go into effect everywhere it is applied. See Working with Components.

Connector
Allows data to flow into and out of processes. Connectors are standard-class connections that allow specific software applications to communicate with one another like, Netsuite, Salesforce, SAP, or Amazon. You can connect and perform data operations quickly and efficiently since connectors are designed for particular program APIs. Connectors abstract the technical details of communicating with various applications, data sources, and communication protocols.

There are two components: a connection and an operation.

The connection represents the "endpoint" and contains the physical connection details, such as an FTP or database host, a web services URL, or sign-in credentials. A connection is one endpoint to a database, application, or API for use in an integration process created within the platform.

The operation represents a specific action to perform against that connection, such as a database SELECT query, an FTP PUT or a specific web service call.

You can think of the connection as the "where" and the operation as the "how." For example, when extracting customer records from Salesforce, the connection represents your Salesforce organization account user name and password and the operation represents the "query customer" action.

Connector SDK
A free software development kit from Boomi, which helps Java developers write custom connectors for use within the platform. The Boomi SOAP Framework, a library of third-party libraries and custom code included in the Connector SDK package, makes it simple to integrate with SOAP web services. The Connector SDK also supports REST web services.

Connector Shape
Contains all the information needed to connect to a data source or application within your Boomi processes. Connectors enable you to send and receive data from one-third party to another, such as Salesforce to NetSuite.

Container logs
At Boomi, these contain information related to the operation of the atom, molecule, or cloud runtime. The log is intended for runtime owners to monitor and troubleshoot their runtimes. The Platform UI or the local runtime directory can both access the logs.

Database connector
Boomi's database connector allows connection to any database supporting a JDBC driver. The shape has all the data required to connect to a single database instance. The database connector is made up of two different parts. The first is the Connection (or the Where) which contains the database type, location, and user login. The second is the Operation component (Which is the How) and consists of a Read or Write statement or stored procedure call and record-grouping definition.

private runtime cloud
A multi-tenant, multi-molecule runtime engine. A private runtime cloud consists of one or more Runtime cloud clustersinstalled on multiple machines, and then grouped together to form a Runtime cloud. Multiple accounts can use a private runtime cloud.

Process
The central component in Integration that represents a single type of data to integrate between two or more systems. Comprises a series of steps (represented in the user interface by shapes) that specifies the business logic and transformation requirements. Process steps transform, route, and manipulate data to attain the desired end result. Every process begins with a Start shape that gets data from some source and usually ends with one or more connectors to send the data to the destination(s).

Runtime
An executable installed on a server computer. An Atom or a Gateway are runtime programs that can be installed on a Windows or Linux Server.

Runtime data
Anything that is used specifically at runtime, such as states, invoker logs, user tokens, and so on.

Webhooks
HTTP POST callback request that occurs when something specific happens. You can use webhooks to trigger an event in Flow when something changes in a third-party connector integration you use (or vice versa). For example, when a file is uploaded in Box, you can use webhooks to trigger a text message being sent out from the Flow app.message being sent out from the Flow app.