Exploring Integration: WSO2 Micro Integrator and Ballerina Synergy

Question

In WSO2 Integration Studio, we design the flow and deploy the CAR file in WSO2 Micro Integrator. Subsequently, we can view the deployed flow in the WSO2 dashboard.

Being new to the Ballerina programming language, I've written a sample Ballerina program. I'm uncertain about whether it can be integrated with WSO2 Micro Integrator. If integration is possible, what is the connection between WSO2 Micro Integrator and Ballerina? Alternatively, I'm wondering if WSO2 Micro Integrator and Ballerina are parallel products since both are listed under the Integration section on the WSO2 official site.

Answer 1

There is no direct connection between Ballerina and Micro Integrator. MI and Ballerina are two different products that more or less do the same thing. So if you want to integrate MI and Ballerina, it will be just like integrating with any another service. For example, from Ballerina you can utilize a service developed/deployed in MI through a REST interface, etc. and vice-versa.

Answer 2

WSO2 Micro Integrator (MI) and Ballerina are two integration solutions offered by WSO2. WSO2 MI is a low-code configuration-driven integration solution, whereas Ballerina is a programming language and a platform optimized for integration.

The choice of which solution to use depends on the following three things:

1. Your expertise and preference. One offers a low-code graphical editor to compose integrations, and Ballerina offers programming language abstractions to write integrations.
2. Complexity and the nature of the integration. For example, Ballerina may be a good fit for composing complicated enterprise integrations.
3. Deployment choices. WSO2 MI and Ballerina produce container-friendly executables- one container for an integration. WSO2 MI also supports the deployment of multiple integrations into a single server, the ESB style deployment.

You cannot deploy Ballerina integrations into WSO2 MI. They are two different solutions. We plan to incorporate Ballerina into WSO2 MI just like the Java integration. You may get a new mediator in MI where you can write custom Ballerina code.