Differences: Robots and Integrations

Robots and integrations provide similar capabilities, including automating your business by connecting to applications and sending data back to Oracle Integration. However, robots and integrations get information from applications in different ways.

Area	Integration	Robot
How it gets information from an application	An integration gets information from an application by calling its APIs.	A robot gets information from an application by opening the application and completing a task in the user interface as a person does.
Key requirements	An integration developer with a broad and deep technical skill set designs an integration. The integration must access the application's APIs.	A robot developer who is comfortable with technology builds a robot. The robot must access an application's user interface.
Sample usage for an ERP system	When you want to automate the creation of orders, and APIs are available for the work, you can design an integration that connects to the ERP application's APIs. You connect to the APIs using an adapter in Oracle Integration.	When you want to automate the creation of orders, and an API isn't available for the work, you can build a robot that interacts with the ERP application's user interface.

Area

Integration

Robot

How it gets information from an application

An integration gets information from an application by calling its APIs.

A robot gets information from an application by opening the application and completing a task in the user interface as a person does.

Key requirements

An integration developer with a broad and deep technical skill set designs an integration.

The integration must access the application's APIs.

A robot developer who is comfortable with technology builds a robot.

The robot must access an application's user interface.

Sample usage for an ERP system

When you want to automate the creation of orders, and APIs are available for the work, you can design an integration that connects to the ERP application's APIs. You connect to the APIs using an adapter in Oracle Integration.

When you want to automate the creation of orders, and an API isn't available for the work, you can build a robot that interacts with the ERP application's user interface.