Programming languages

How to implement Ballerina, the WSO2 programming language

25th December 2018

The technological revolution has meant that programming has had to evolve, and now there is a trend towards native programming in the cloud (cloud computing). This involves combining remote network points, such as microservices, serverless applications, APIs, WebSockets, and SaaS, among others.

While it is true that the most popular programming languages were born some time ago and adapted to the cloud, new native languages based on the cloud have also been created. An example that stands out is the programming language WSO2 Ballerina.

-Don’t miss: Programming languages you should learn in 2019-

Below we present its characteristics and advantages in the current era.

What is Ballerina?

Ballerina is a programming language that is designed to build inherent language coding networks as well as code that integrates endpoints. It offers optimal support for distributed transactions, circuit breakers, flow processing, data access, JSON and XML, gRPC, among many other things.

This is an open source project in Github specialized in integration, which provides a maximum-security environment. It contains innovative ideas, concepts, and tools for application programming. In addition to all this, there are elements such as resistance, concurrency, and administration platforms. Sounds great!

-4 things you should know about Ballerina-

The Ballerina language has been distributed under the Apache 2.0 license and was inspired by other programming languages such as Java, Go, C, C++, Rust, Haskell, Kotlin, Dart, TypeScript, JavaScript and Swift, among others.

This language was launched in 2017, so since its birth, it has been adapted to the demands of today’s technology market. Programmers have been able to confirm all its benefits, so it aims to position itself as a benchmark for connecting services and applications.

Its philosophy is clear: that any person and company may have the opportunity to use it and to take advantage of its tools. Gone are the days when programmers struggled and suffered to achieve perfect integration. Ballerina saves effort and avoids the excessive expenditure of economic resources.

What do I need to implement Ballerina?

Ballerina stands out as an advanced programming language that relies on open source resources to ensure system integration. Programmers require the following tools before starting to work with the language:

  • Composer: the main editor that allows you to run and debug programs, as well as program, make compositions easily and edit any interface.
  • Testerina: this is the test unit of the system, in which unit tests can be written and programs emulated in a test environment.
  • Docerina: this tool generates API documentation in HTML format to provide additional support for all formats.
  • Connectors: it is an extension point that connects all APIs and cloud systems, and users can write connectors for use in other programs.
  • Editor plugins: these are tools that complement the edition of source code.
  • Container support: facilitates the execution of packaging programs through different commands.

The good news is that WSO2 offers all these development tools, called Ballerina Tools. That way, programmers can do a simple job and start writing successful codes in the cloud no matter the type of the client company.

-Types and features of programming languages-

Advantages of Ballerina programming

Ballerina WSO2 is just beginning to climb in the field of cloud programming. Despite its short time in the market, it has the capacity to offer benefits comparable to those of large programming languages. The main advantages of this language are:

  • Textual and graphic syntax: Ballerina works with natural semantics to express the logic and structure of a program. It is an extremely intuitive language in the visualization of the whole.
  • Maximum resistance: circuit breakers, failover and retry for the specific protocol are the resilience capabilities that integrate safety and resistance into the language.
  • Circuit breaker: an additional parameter for the endpoint code.
  • Failover: allows defining endpoints in case of an error.
  • Process again: This is a configuration capable of performing retries when necessary.
  • Asynchronous and parallel execution: Ballerina incorporates independent parallel execution units that interact and work optimally together.
  • Transaction management: facilitates local transactions with connectors and distributed transactions through language level constructs.
  • Secure design: Codes produced with this programming language resist the most common security vulnerabilities, such as SQL injection, path, and file manipulation, unauthorized access, and non-validated redirection.

Ballerina Programming Tools

With Ballerina’s implementation tools, programming will gain decisive flexibility because it composes integrations that arise from sequence diagrams. It also supports the writing of codes in the language itself or Swagger and various plug-in formats.

“Ballerina was born to give strength to integration, unlike other languages; for this reason, it has the ability to quickly handle any program, from simple to complex.”

It includes native support for REST, JSON, XML, and Swagger, as well as connectors to popular social networks.

Ballerina’s programming tools are characterized by an attractive, intuitive and easy to understand graphics language. This means that it approves the design of all the components of the integration scenario. Its simplicity surprises and pleases programmers who use it, who can easily create different diagrams with remarkable integration logic.


To be an outstanding developer today, where the programming language focused on cloud computing reigns, you must learn and master Ballerina, since it has been created considering the corresponding technical demands and has a community of users that is growing every day.

Enter the new era of a programming language by taking advantage of its features. Chakray is a good partner to do so. Our consultants will help you with the implementation of Ballerina, in order to create simpler integrations for any purpose.

success story wso2 chakray