This document describes the typical integration of WorkLink scenarios with a third-party system, the different approaches to accomplish that, and the work involved in setting this up.
In This Article
| Table of Contents |
|---|
Glossary
There are several key terms relevant to the content described in this document.
Key Term | Description |
|---|---|
GraphQL API | Method of retrieving a customer’s data via a single API endpoint. |
Scenarios | Sets of work instructions pertaining to a specific physical device, to be completed by a user while using the Scope AR WorkLink app. |
Scenario Sessions | A record of a scenario's run while using the Scope AR WorkLink app and the events performed during that run . |
Scenario Catalogs | A set of related scenarios that can be presented to user as a collection to select one of them for execution. |
Deep Links | Method of launching a scenario or catalog with the Scope AR WorkLink app via a structure URL. |
Webhooks | Method of notifying integration code about key events that take place in the Scope AR platform for the purpose of triggering an integration script or middleware application. |
Introduction
The WorkLink platform allows customers to integrate a wide variety of third-party systems to ensure that the operations completed within the WorkLink AR are known are recorded by other systems of record. This could be an MES, CMMS, LMS, or other systems.
There are two main approaches to this integration and which solution you choose will depend on the amount of business logic that needs to occur on that data before storing it in your third-party system. The following sections explain these two approaches.
Workflow Overview
At a high level, the interaction between WorkLink and your third-party system is very simple. The basic flow is that when a job order is created a deep link is generated in the third-party system that will launch the appropriate scenario content to accomplish the job order. After the scenario is complete, the WorkLink system will automatically report the results of that scenario run to the third-party system to be stored as part of that job order. The diagram below illustrates this.
...
Required Third-Party System Capabilities
For a system to integrate with the WorkLink system, it needs to have some basic integration functionality. This functionality includes the ability to create a link to WorkLink and an API for WorkLink to report results. Let's discuss each of these in greater detail.
Ability to create a link to launch WorkLink.
The third-party system must have the ability to assemble a custom deep link to WorkLink for each job order. This is simply an assembled URL that adds together the base link to WorkLink, the scenario that completes the work for that type of job order, and parameters that specify any of the necessary linking data that will be needed to report the results back to the third-party system and connect it to the correct job order. This is often just the job order ID but may include other data such as the equipment ID that the job is to be completed on or the person assigned to the work.
Creating this as a simple URL will work well to launch WorkLink on the same device that the job order is being viewed on, but many systems will also allow the ability to encode that link into a QR code so that WorkLink can be launched on a different device that the job order. For example, opening the order on a workstation and then scanning the QR code to load the WorkLink scenario on their mobile phone, tablet, or AR headset.
API to report job order results
The third-party system must also have an API that WorkLink can access and that allows WorkLink to report the results of the job order execution back to the third-party system. This can be a REST API or a GraphQL API and must allow for updating all the data on the job order that the customer wishes to retrieve from WorkLink and store in the third-party system.
| Info |
|---|
Some customers will create custom fields on the job order that capture data specific to a WorkLink-based implementation of the work. The API must support updating those custom fields in order for the integration to be able to update them. |
Integration Options
Given that the third-party system system meets the requirements above, there are two primary ways to accomplish this integration.
Integration using Built-in Integrations
This first way, and certainly the simpler option, is that you can use the built-in integration features of the WorkLink CMS. See below for the basic data flow diagram of how this integration works. In this diagram, it is assumed that the asset ID and the work order ID are the data fields needed to link the resulting execution back into the third-party system system. This may be more or less data than needed for your third-party system integration.
...
Some customers that have programming expertise in-house will have these internal resources write these integration scripts. Others will hire Scope AR to create these integration scripts for them.
Integration using a Middleware App
In some cases, the built-in integration scripting is not sufficient for the level of integration that is needed. This may happen when the data transformation requires a lot of business logic, data retrieval from other systems, or batching and aggregation of the WorkLink data. In these cases, a more complex integration may be required. When that is the situation, then a middleware app can be used instead of the built-in integration.
...
The customer’s custom application receives ALL Webhook notifications, not just create and update events pertaining to ScenarioSessions. The application needs to inspect the Webhook’s payload event and data.resource_type values in order to determine which notifications to act on.
Scope AR Development and Support
If this type of integration is needed, then customers will need to evaluate if assistance from the Scope AR team is needed to accomplish this integration based on the level of expertise of their in-house resources. Scope AR has services available to either complete or assist the development of scripting using the built-in integration capabilities or a custom middleware app. This can be done on either an hourly or project basis.
...
Does your third-party system have the required capabilities to create a deep link for each job order? Please provide documentation on the capabilities of the third-party system to create a deep link
Does your third-party system have the required capabilities to accept updates to a job order through an API?
What data would you like to be collected from the WorkLink platform into your job order?
Does your third-party system have fields for all the collected WorkLink data in the job order record?
How does the third-party system’s API support updating all those fields?
Reference Documentation
For further details on the integration capabilities of WorkLink, please refer to the following links:
...