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Seamless is invisible integration.
Seamless Web services allow developers to incorporate third party services in to Websites in real-time
without any visual interruption. The browser never refreshes nor redirects to another Website. The service appears
as if it is part of the Web page the user is viewing. Technically, it is. But it was built on the fly with
data provided from a third party when the page loaded.
A good example of a seamless service is the USPS Rate Calculator API. It
will allow website owners to offer USPS shipping rates with exact costs in real-time. All we need to do is
send a request to the USPS system telling it the order weight and zip codes the order will be
shipping from/to. USPS processes
that request and sends us a response. We decipher that response and it becomes a drop down menu where the user can
select their desired shipping option.
As you can see, seamless applications are very powerful. They allow us to add services to our Website that we could never offer without them.
Best of all, they stop us from asking too much of the user or confusing them. We do not have to send the user to a different Website to perform
these operations. It comes to use in real-time and the user stays on our Website.
PayPal Standard is an example of a service that is not seamless. In order to process payments with PayPal Standard, you must physically
send the user to PayPal. While this is better than nothing, it is awkward and borderline unprofessional. Such a redirection
could result in loss of sale and pass a user off to the rules and standards of some other organization. Not to mention that
it is an extra step. Seamless lets us stay in control and offer professional services with ease.
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