Glossary

Access Token (aka Authorization Token)

A token used to get access to an endpoint of the Core Services Platform API.

API Key

A system generated key that allows you to obtain an Access Token for the Core Services API.

Application

A Core Service application is a collection of namespaces known as "modules".  Each module contains a set of endpoints and configuration objects that are bundled together and delivered down to the Concierge application to drive the available features and functionality.

Bag (aka Cart)

A collection of products selected for a customer that are waiting to be purchased.  A customer Bag can be persisted in the tenant's systems if they support this feature, and the Bag can be retrieved, altered, and transacted via the mPos or Suspend functionality.  If not persisted, customer Bags are removed from Concierge when the associate logs out of the application.

Claims

These are pieces of information, usually name / value pairs that describe information about a user's profile.  They are typically provided in the authorization token returned by IDPs upon authentication. Examples of claim information are things like Username, Email, and User Id.

Connection

A specific set of configuration properties and metadata that allow you to configure and connect to an external service. Connections are specified at the Sandbox level and you can create any number of Integration Endpoints based on a given Connection.

Feature Toggle

A property in the configuration object of a module that describes a feature of the module and specifies a value indicating whether or not the feature is available for use.

Federated Authentication

The process of relying on third party Identity Providers to authenticate a users identity.

Instance

A logical instance of the Core Services Platform for a specific customer.  An instance can contain multiple Applications, each with their own set of modules etc.

Endpoint

An endpoint is a method within an Applications module collection that allows you to interact with an external service based on a specific Connection. The external service could be any of the supported connectors (e.g., HTTP, SOAP).  There are 3 types of endpoints in Core Service platform:

• Integration Endpoint: a simple method call that takes a optional number of params, makes a single call to an external system, and returns a response. 
• Javascript Endpoint: a simple method call that takes a optional number of params, runs a Javascript function, and returns a response.  It's sort of like a Lambda function, and does not make external calls.
• Workflow Endpoint: a complex method call that can orchestrate multiple Integration and/or Javascript endpoints in nested waterfall or parallel calls, and return a response

Identity Providers (IDPs)

An external third party entity or system (Auth0, ADFS) that is responsible for providing an authentication service for establishing a user's identity.

Management Tenant

The management tenant or the Management Instance is the Instance of the Core Services Platform used by the administrator to access any of the services in the Platform API, for example, creating other instances or API Keys.

Migration

The promotion of all endpoints and configuration data from one Sandbox to another within the same Tenant.  This is typically used to provide a structured change management process when moving alterations to a Tenant's endpoints and configuration from development -> UAT -> production. 

mPOS

This term is the shorthand version of Mobile Point of Sale.  It is used to describe the process of mobilizing POS functionality...and more specifically to enabling sales transaction functionality on the Concierge device. 

On-premise Agent 

The On-premise agent is a process that runs inside a secure network and establishes a Web Socket connection with the Core Services platform, enabling the use of connectors, that would otherwise be unreachable from the cloud.

Provision

A specific "view" or "version" of an application that encompasses all of the application resources (endpoints, configuration, storage, etc.). All applications start off with a `default` provision and new ones can be added to inherit from a parent provision.

Sandboxes

Sandboxes are essentially containers for applications. They provide an isolated environment where you can change your Endpoint definitions within an Application without affecting others. They also provide the ability to promote changes from one Sandbox to another via Migrations.

Suspend Transaction

The process of finalizing the sale of products in the customers shopping bag in Concierge by sending them to a POS system with a "suspended" status.  The POS system then "resumes" the transaction and perform the final processing.

Tenant

Also called an Instance, is a logic instance of the Core Services Platform for a specific customer. A Tenant can point to multiple Provisions.  For example, a customer may have a Development Provision, UAT Provision, and Production Provision. 

Theme

A collection of properties in an Application's configuration schema that specify the colors and images to use for a customer's specific version of Concierge.  Difference theme configurations can be created per Application version. 

Token Exchange

The process of exchanging an Authentication Token obtained form a third party Identity Provider (IDP) for an Authorizations Token (aka Access Token) for the Core Service platform.

Transformations

Responses from external systems will typically not fit into the necessary format, or "contract", expected by the Concierge application.  Pre and Post processing "hooks" are available to transform requests and responses into the necessary format.

Vagrant

On-prem agents are Vagrant Virtual Machines that allow the Core Services platform to talk to external systems that reside behind client firewalls.

Workflow

A kind of API endpoint that can orchestrate other endpoints and resources within the Core Services.