This document discusses using FME to integrate council systems and services. It provides case studies from Harrow including an environment app, highways web form, and parking web form. The environment app takes third party reports and passes them to council systems. The highways form processes case files from an SFTP, emails customers, and updates databases. The parking form accesses parking data, pre-populates web forms, and confirms submissions. FME acts as a "data translator" between different systems and languages to enable data sharing and integration across various council services.

1. Integrating Council Systems and
Services Using FME
Sam Tizzard

2. Agenda
● Overview of the general issue
● Overview of the general solution
● Case study examples from Harrow
○ Environment App
○ Highways Web Form
○ Parking Web Form
● Summary and conclusion

3. Everything speaks a
different ‘language’!
Although systems share common concepts of import/export/push/pull
etc. the method, system or language by which this is achieved varies
greatly from system to system
‘Sistema’

4. We Need a Data Translator!

5. Some Examples from Harrow

6. Environment App Integration Requirements
● Take data from a third party reporting application
● Pass each report logged in the third party application into Council Systems
● Be able to run at least once an hour to keep Council Systems updated with
reports from the third party application
Main issues:
● The third party app provides no constrained data other than location
● The Council systems have a strict mandatory field requirement

7. Environment App Solution and Summary
Solution Overview
● Call database for time keeping attributes
● Call required API using required time
attributes
● Process response and tidy or format
attributes
● Build XML required for Council Systems’
acceptance
● Submit XML to Council Systems
● Verify successful submission
● Log transactions with anonymised data
and update time keeping data table

8. Environment App Integration Solution

9. Highways Web Form Integration Requirements
● Read files (cases) from an SFTP that are the output of the Highway system
● Process these files to determine what to do with them
● Email customers to update them on their case status
● Update database tables to enable mapping of features
● Be dynamic and adaptable in case additions or changes are required
Main issue:
● Files are held on an SFTP

10. Highway Web Form Solution Overview
Solution Overview
● FME workspace runs every hour to pull
required files (cases) and process them
● Dynamic email templates for responses to
customers
● Keeps spatial dataset up to date to display
previous, pending or completed reports
● Enables a dynamic workflow including the
adjustment of existing (and addition of
new) email templates
● FME cannot read directly from SFTP but is
capable of a workaround using the system
caller

11. Highway Web
Form Solution
1. Call SFTP to pull required
files onto a local drive to
Archive, Process and
Delete from SFTP
2. Feature reading and
feature filtering
3. Builds and sends email
updates to customers
4. Updates database table to
allow mapping and display
of features

12. Parking Web Form Integration Requirements
● Access parking system data relevant to user’s request
● Pre-populate web form details or process with the required data to make the
customer’s journey easier
● Inform customer of successful submission and provide temporary permit if
required
Main issue:
● The form has many different functions and potential process routes or
requests that need to be interchangeable integrations

13. Solution Overview
● ~30 workspaces generated to fulfil various
requirements
● These workspaces act as web services for the
form’s requirements only being called when needed
● They return JSON data for the form to use in
another process or to pre-populate key fields with
● Upon completion of a parking form, a confirmation
email is sent to the customer (with temporary
permit if required)
Parking Web Form Solution
and Summary

14. Parking Web Form Integration Solution
~30 workspaces created to act as web services for the parking form
A few examples:

15. Conclusion

16. The Universal Data Translator
and Integrator!
Source System
Output
Destination System
Requires

17. THANK YOU!
Sam Tizzard
GISTeam@harrow.gov.uk