WSO2 Enterprise Integrator allows brownfield integration for your existing software in a secure manner with all the feature of the WSO2's previous work related to this such as their message broker, business process server, service bus an so on.

It's a bit complicate for beginners and there are a shortage of tutorials for this particular solution. And lack of support is another are of concern as well.

Overall, I get excited as I can see that it's brimming with potential , but the editor in particular seems to throw you too many unneccesary hurdles on your wayt to your destination. As stated above - teh development cycle seems to be .. progress --> frustration -->Eureka!--progress-->frustration--->Eureka! .... BPMN is the silent, sleeping parter in EI too - that has massive potential, but seems it's not often utilised.

Immensly powerful once you get to grips with it - and this takes some time. There is plenty of documentation available on the WSO2 Documentation site, but it has some issues. The fact that this is all run on an Open Source Stack with a true fully featured 'free' offering gets you a low-cost 'on-ramp' into Enterprise Integration that other solutions just can't offer. At some point - as our dependancy increases we will need to look at a full support subscription - but even so - this is attractively priced compared with the competition. For us - without this Open-Source model it would simply have been a 'no-go' fur us to consider such a product. The Server component is robust and reliable once configured, and consumes workload with minimal resource (though we're not pushing it hard yet!). The Development console (Integration Studio) is conceptually very helpful, and gets you started with the basics quite quickly. Be prepared to spend some time with it if you struggle at first - pretty much all our staff who have developed with it have found the going quite hard initially but then there seems to come a 'Eureka!' moment and progress ensues. There are a ton of off the shelf connectors for cloud and on-premise systems, and the DSS component helps you 'wrap' your own datasources behind SOAP or REST APIs which is really useful. However it's so configurable you can pretty much interface with anything so it's a true enterprise integration 'hub'.

Setting up the server component correctly takes quiet a bit of research, trial and error and collation of various documents to bring it all together. In fairness we're currently electing to run without a suport subscription and I presume this is part of the differentiation / added value this brings. As stated above - once this is done though it seems rock-solid and very efficient (we run it on Windows Servers). As stated above there is plenty of documentation - but it somehow seems to lack structure and focusses too much on HOW and not enough on WHY. This makes it quite difficult to translate example documentation code into your own real-world usage. It just feels like it needs taking to the next level. The biggest gripe is with the development environment (Integration studio) - this is running on a WSO2 customised Eclipse and for the most part it works - but when it fails it really fails frustratingly! The drag and drop 'visual designer' is useful, but is limited with the amount of metadata for some of the mediators, but it does at leas get you going. Once you've established a basic skillset it's then generally more productive to work with the XML. HOWEVER - in many cases the parsers silently 'kill' bits of your configuration and it's not until you open your configuration in another editor that you realise that the Integration studio has removed elements from the saved file, but still shows them in the editor! I now use Eclipse native XML view whenever possible.

Overall, the EI and BPS tools do their job pretty well. But the learning curve is definitely a stopping point for someone who wants to hop on the train. BPS needs an exhaustive overhaul on the documentation for it to appeal to the masses and user friendly. The new version of Integration studio has a bit of helpful information popping up while pointing at different activities/connectors which was non-existent in the earlier versions. If support to XPath can be gained in BPMN, it would be a big boon, but I know it could be a far fetched dream. Having said that, it is fun working with WSO2 and learning to love it.

The development learning curve can be huge initially, but once done, it becomes relatively easy very fast. The use of external integrations via connectors boosts the development speed and helps in avoiding reinventing the wheel. The deployment process is straight forward and irk free. The Eclipse environment is a strength that many veteran programmers can immediately feel home to start the development. Integrations work well, and as expected.

Most of the functionalities work well but the in-tool help, documentation and other supporting artifacts fall decidedly short compared to other Enterprise level offerings. The learning curve is pretty steep without the helping documentation to boot. BPS editor and the deployment have some of the most glaring bugs that need immediate addressing such as the BAR file manipulation through the target folder to get the latest changes deployed.

As a trainer the WSO2 EI training is the biggest of all with the core training at 4 days, really scratching the tip of the iceberg. EI works great with other WSO2 products, like the API Manager, Identity Server and Stream Processor. It is versatile and performant and can run locally, on a server or in the cloud.

The WSO2 EI is the flagship product of WSO2. It is a workhorse for mediation and transformation and is extensible like any WSO2 product. The functionality of the product supports all Enterprise Integration Patterns (EIP) like routing, filtering etc. The suite of connectors that can be added to the product allow for integration with online services like Twitter, Facebook and so on since those are becoming more and more parts of your enterprise IT landscape. There is tooling support using the Integration Studio (using Eclipse) that is becoming more and more stable but other (xml) based tools can also be used. The open source nature allows for code inspection as well as source debugging with the added possibility of a support contract (paid). It will take some time to master the% EI because of all of the possibilities, something that is clear when i train people in using WSO2 EI. Basically you will use the mediation possibilities in the 20/80 (pareto) ratio. 20 % you will use 80% of the time and 80 % you will use 20% of the time (or less). IT is actually more than EI, since the broker, BPS, Analytics and DSS function is also in there.

The software's core components (AXIS2 and Synapse) are becoming dated since they have been around since about 2005 or so. There is a new version underway that will use Ballerina as the mediation language but that is not ready yet. There is however a slimmed down version of EI that will function as a more Microservices environment but still uses Synapse and AXIS2. The product is powerful and will actually take considerable amount of time to master.

i have been working on wso2 product from WSO2 ESB 4.8 to EI 6.Also worked on WSO2 DSS3.2,API manager 2.2 more than 3 years

essay learning -enough online resources available routing and mediation customization using xpath(where other middle ware like IBM,Iway only allows to customized the routing and mediation via gui only.so we can use pre defined properties only ) high performance with less resources.

BAD IDE.specially when we use gui for development always we face the problem of dropping the end point.if we switch from GUI to XML view. Less support of fiance messaging transport . like ISO8583,SWIFT etc. since these days every body try to transform the digital .bring in the integration agility is must with less cost.if the wso2 ESB can support for the finance messages .then all banks can use the wso2 esb for bring in the integration agility into their system. this is the very very week point from wso2 side because it has the all capabilities but not addressing to the point by providing such a service.example if wso2 EI can provide the separate transport for ISO8583,Swift etc. this is the place where other middleway such as IBM used to market there middleware over WSO2.(since I have develop the separate transport for WSO2 esb so we know that EI has the capability)