Custom Berkeley Bridge integration development
Berkeley Bridge created the Berkeley Publisher, software that lets experts build decision trees and document models without programming. The company has since become part of xxllnc, and the product is now called xxllnc Expertsystemen. Organisations use it for things like permit applications, telephone triage or tailored legal advice. A decision tree only becomes truly useful when it knows the data in your systems and the outcome ends up somewhere. Appfront builds the integration between your models and your case management system, CRM, database or website, using the interfaces that Expertsystemen provides.
What is a Berkeley Bridge integration?
A Berkeley Bridge integration connects your decision trees to the systems around them. In xxllnc Expertsystemen, as the Berkeley Publisher is now called, you design interactive decision trees without programming, test them and publish them to the web, either as a standalone page or embedded in your own site. The outcome can be advice, or a tailored document from a Word, Excel or PowerPoint template. The integration ensures the model knows the data in your systems, so users don't fill in what you already know, and that answers, outcomes and documents arrive where they are processed.
The Expertsystemen documentation describes several entry points for this. A model can retrieve data itself from a database, such as MySQL, MS SQL or Oracle, and from external services via SOAP or REST, using basic authentication, two-way SSL or an OAuth2 token. A model can also be a SOAP or REST endpoint itself, so that another system calls it and receives the outcome. There is also a JSON API that lets an application open and manage cases, plus interfaces for Excel and email. The real work lies in what has to happen in between: mapping fields correctly, securing calls and handling errors.
We build custom integrations because every organisation has different models and different systems. Which data a model needs, which system is leading, where the outcome has to go and whether the model is called or retrieves data itself all determine how the integration works. How your models are set up and which server version you use, we establish in the first step with you and, where necessary, with xxllnc.
Data known
From your systems into the model.
Outcome passed on
To the case or CRM.
Usable anywhere
From a site or application.
How we build your Berkeley Bridge integration
We start with your models: which decision trees and document models you have, which data they ask for that you already hold somewhere, and where the outcomes currently go by hand. Then we build the first integration, usually for the most-used model, such as prefilling data from the CRM or creating the outcome as a case in the case management system. You work with it for a while with real users. Other models and flows follow if that goes well. After that, we maintain the integration when Expertsystemen or your other systems change.
Data, outcomes, manual work.
The most-used one first.
More models and flows.
Go-live, monitoring, and maintenance when things change.
What a Berkeley Bridge integration actually does
The components below appear in almost every integration with Expertsystemen. Which ones you need depends on your models and on the systems you use alongside them.
Retrieving data
Via REST, SOAP or database.
Model as a service
Called by your system.
Outcomes
To the case or CRM.
Documents
Tailored, stored.
Access
Secured calls.
Reporting
Usage per model.
Who we build a Berkeley Bridge integration for
The integration is intended for organisations that work with Expertsystemen or the Berkeley Publisher and want their models to work together with other systems. The more often a model is used, the more it delivers.
Municipalities
Application to case.
Legal
Advice and documents.
Healthcare and triage
Questions to record.
Knowledge organisations
Expertise with broad application.
Technology and integrations
This page is about integrations with xxllnc Expertsystemen, formerly the Berkeley Publisher. If you are looking for applicable rules for the Omgevingsloket (the Dutch environmental permitting portal), see our page on software for the Environment and Planning Act; if you want your own document software, see our pages on legal document software and a document configurator, and for the case management system itself, our page on a custom case management system. You can read about how we work on building software.
Why Appfront for your Berkeley Bridge integration?
A user who enters data into a decision tree that the organisation already holds, advice that sits in a mailbox as an attachment, or an outcome that an employee retypes into the case management system all cost time and open the door to errors. That is what we build around: models that know what you already know, outcomes that arrive on their own, and an integration that shows you when something went wrong.
Less data entry
Known data filled in up front.
Less retyping
Outcomes passed on automatically.
Visible
Errors in the log.
Security and privacy in a Berkeley Bridge integration
The integration often processes personal data, such as an applicant's answers or a client's situation, and therefore falls under the GDPR. It retrieves only the data the model needs, secures calls with the authentication that Expertsystemen supports, and records every exchange with its time and result.
The integration runs in a European data centre, using encrypted connections. Keys and passwords are stored securely and are not visible to staff. We agree with you in advance who in your organisation may see which data from the integration.
Frequently asked questions about a Berkeley Bridge integration
Questions that functional administrators, model builders and information advisers ask before they get started.
A connection between your decision trees and document models in xxllnc Expertsystemen and another system, such as your case management system, CRM, database or website. Data then flows into the model automatically and outcomes flow back automatically.
Berkeley Bridge has been absorbed into xxllnc. The Berkeley Publisher is now called xxllnc Expertsystemen, and the Berkeley Bridge websites redirect to xxllnc. The Berkeley Bridge name still appears in the technology, such as file names and the namespace.
Software from xxllnc for automating knowledge with interactive decision trees. You design, test and publish models without programming, and create tailored documents from templates. xxllnc cites a permit application and telephone triage as examples.
Yes. The documentation describes REST and SOAP connections from a model, a model that is itself a REST or SOAP endpoint, and a JSON API for opening and managing cases. We decide which entry point suits your needs in the first step.
No. xxllnc has a separate product for that, Toepasbare Regels (Applicable Rules), and we have our own page about software for the Environment and Planning Act. This page is about integrating decision trees and document models in Expertsystemen.
The integration retries, and puts an exchange that keeps failing on an error list together with the reason. You can see which case or model is involved and, once it is corrected, have it sent again.
For organisations with models that are used often, ask for data that is already known somewhere, or produce outcomes that are currently processed by hand. If a model stands alone and is rarely used, an integration is usually not needed.
Want your decision trees to work with your systems?
Tell us which models you use and where the data and outcomes come from and go to. We will show you how an integration handles that.