CIECA 101

Welcome to CIECA 101. This tutorial is designed to help you get up to speed quickly and efficiently and understand the structure and usage of CIECA Standards. It provides an overview of key terminology and provides an overview of how CIECA documentation is organized. By taking a few minutes to familiarize yourself with this information will make your experience with CIECA Standards more productive and efficient.

Part 1 - Fundamentals

CIECA Standards consist of a number of Services and Components that work together to create an effective set of standards for the development of webservices and API's. It is important to understand the following terms in order to use CIECA Standards effectively.

SERVICES

CIECA Standards are designed around the concept of 'Services'. One uses a service to achieve a specific outcome. For example, if you wish to create an integration to send an assignment to a trading partner, you would select the 'Assignment Service'. It contains the data, codes and schemas necessary to achieve it's intended purpose. CIECA provides a wide range of services to support all major workflows in the collision ecosystem.

COMMON COMPONENTS

The common components are used in support of all services. They contain information that is not specific to a particular use case or service, but are intended to be useful for all integration projects.

SERVICE SPECIFIC COMPONENTS

These components are specific to particular services or use cases. Before starting a project it is best to understand the intended outcome and identify the CIECA Service that supports the use case.

Part 2 - Common Components

The CIECA Data Dictionary is the heart of the standards library. It contains a complete listing of all data elements included in CIECA Standards and includes the data type, length and usage.

The CIECA Code List is a comprehensive listing of codes used throughout CIECA Standards and services. Codes are organized by code type and are an essential part of any API / integration.

Part 3 - Service Specific Components

Implementation Guides contain vital information about implementing a service. The Implementation Guide is a great place to start to understand how a service is used and see useful tips and examples.

Schemas are an essential part of any implementation. They provide sample code to help developers implement API's quickly and efficiently. Schemas can be tailored to the needs of the specific implementation.

CIECA Test Instances accelerate the testing process to ensure the service validates. This is an important tool for efficient development of API's.

Part 4 - Getting Started

Meet with your Trading Partner

While CIECA Standards are intended to provide reusable standards that can work consistently with many trading partners, it's best to start with one trading partner and reach a consensus on the purpose and intended outcomes of the integration. You will need to agree on what Service(s) best meet your needs and will achieve the intended purpose.

You will also need to understand what method of integration will be used (SFTP, Webservices, etc.). You will also need to exchange server addresses, authentication methods and credentials.

Review Services Documentation

Once you have identified the Service(s) you plan to use, take time to review the Implementation Guide and learn from others who have experience with the process. Identify the data elements necessary from the Data Dictionary and familiarize yourself with the Code Lists to identify which lists are relevant to your implementation.

Start Small

Many developers like to start with a simple proof of concept to ensure they have the parts and pieces necessary to build a complete integration. Start with a simple integration to ensure it will test successfully and that both parties can validate the results. Once you have a functioning integration you can build out from there.

Test... Test... Test

Take advantage of the full set of CIECA tools to ensure your data is accurate. Validate the data locally and with your trading partners to ensure you have an accurate and reliable integration for the future.