INTRO TO INTERFACES(For Freshers to oracle Apps)-1

Hi All,
Here i a trying to get the basics of Interfaces.I will try to post as many interfaces code available.
Even though they might not very much helpful ..but gives the direction to look into and some head start...

First before i post the interfaces codes i would like to introduce some general concepts of interfaces for freshers..

What is a interface?
In terms of oracle applications interface is a communication channel that allows the data to move in and out of the system.

How many types of interfaces are there?
1.INBOUND INTERFACES
2.OUTBOUND INTEFACES

Inbound InterFace:The one which allows data to get into oracle application from outside is called inbound interface.

OutBound Interface:The one which allows data to get data from oracle applications to other systems is called outbound interface.

What are different types of inbound interfaces available?
1.Open interfaces
2.API's(Application Program Interface)
3.EDI(Electronic Data interchange)--Mainly used for automation transactions with third party systems
4.XML GATEWAY --Mainly used for automation transactions with third party systems
5.WEBADI--Used for uploading data from excel with the scope to have some validations--mainly used for one time loading..Just like sqlloader+validation program..
5.PLSQL Packages for Reading XML Data--Use this in case of importing non stadard transactions

What are different types of outbound interfaces available?
1.Custom programs where we pull data to a csv file using UTL_FILE in the required format
2.EDI
3.XMLGATEWAY
4.PLSQL Packages for generating XML

what is the difference between OPEN INTERFACE & API's?
OPEN INTERFACE:
I dont see much difference between the open other than the way we load data.
In case of open interface the data is loaded in to open interfce table like GL_INTERFACE or Sales Order Interface(OE_ORDER_HEADERS_IFACE_ALL).
Run the interface import program.
This will validate the data and put it into oracle applications.All the invalid records are marked as Error.
One thing is there are GUI Screens available for most of these interface where you check the errror message correct it there only and resubmit the interface.
From the technical perspective there are Error tables available for each interface

API:
API's are the oracle built packages where the validation logic is wrapped inside a package and the data is passed as parameters to the API.
Most of these api's use the PLSQL tables as paremeters to take the advantage of bulk binding concepts for faster loading data.
THey will have the two OUT parameterst to throw back the error code and message in case of data validation failure
Apis' are compartively faster than open interfaces.
If a API's and open interface are available it is better to load through API's.If the records are more...



This is what i understand till date...Plz put your comment in case of i am wrong any thing more that would be helpful to make this better...