In the IBM WebSphere business integration system, the connector is a component of an IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapter. As discussed in "Adapters in the WebSphere business integration system", an adapter includes runtime components to support communication between an integration broker and applications or technologies. The adapter also includes an adapter framework, which includes components for the configuration, runtime, and development of custom adapters in cases where a prebuilt adapter for a particular legacy or specialized application is not currently available as part of the IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapter product.
The adapter framework includes configuration tools that assist in the
development of the adapter components listed in Table 7.
Table 7. Adapter framework support for the development of a connector
In addition to the adapter framework, the IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapter product also provides the Adapter Development Kit (ADK). The ADK is a toolkit that provides code samples of ODAs and connectors. For more information, see Adapter Development Kit.
Table 8 shows the tools that the IBM WebSphere Business Integration
Adapter product provides to assist in the development of business
objects.
Table 8. Development tools for business object development
Development tool | Description |
---|---|
Business Object Designer | Graphical tool that assists in the creation of business object definitions, either manually or through an ODA. |
For a brief introduction to business objects, see "Business objects". For more information on the use of the Business Object Designer, see the Business Object Development Guide.
Table 8 shows the tools that the IBM WebSphere Business Integration
Adapter product provides to assist in the development of an ODA.
Table 9. Development tools for ODA development
Development tool | Description |
---|---|
Business Object Designer | Graphical tool that assists in the creation of business object definitions, either manually or through an ODA. |
Object Discovery Agent Development Kit (ODK) | Set of Java classes with which you can create a custom ODA. |
In addition, the ADK provides sample ODAs in the following product subdirectory:
DevelopmentKits\Odk
For a brief introduction to ODAs, see "Business objects". For more information on the use of the Business Object Designer and the development of ODAs, see the Business Object Development Guide.
Table 10 shows the tools that the IBM WebSphere Business Integration
Adapter product provides to assist in the development of connectors.
Table 10. Development tools for connector development
Development tool | Description |
---|---|
Connector Configurator | Graphical tool that assists in the configuration of the connector. |
Adapter Development Kit | Includes sample code for Java connectors and ODAs. |
The platform for connector development is Windows 2000. Connectors can be written in either C++ or Java, depending on the language of the application API.
Connector Configurator is a graphical tool that allows you to configure a connector. It provides the ability to set the following information:
This graphical tool runs on Windows 2000. Therefore, this platform is for connector configuration.
The Adapter Development Kit (ADK) provides samples to assist in connector
development. The ADK provides the samples in the
DevelopmentKits subdirectory of your product directory. Table 11 lists the components of the Adapter
Development Kit and the subdirectory of the DevelopmentKits
directory in which they reside.
Table 11. Components of the Adapter Development Kit
Adapter Development Kit component | Description | DevelopmentKits subdirectory |
---|---|---|
Java Connector Development Kit (JCDK) | Provides sample code for a Java connector. | jcdk edk\ConnectorAgent |
ODA Development Kit | Provides sample for an Object Discovery Agent (ODA) | Odk |
The ADK includes the Java Connector Development Kit ( JCDK), which provides components for use in the development of a connector. The components of the JCDK reside in the ProductDir\DevelopmentKits subdirectory:
DevelopmentKits\jcdk
Table 12 describes the contents of the subdirectories in the jcdk directory.
DevelopmentKits\edk\ConnectorAgent
Table 12. Components of the Connector Development Kit
Connector Development Kit component | Description | Subdirectory |
---|---|---|
low-level Java connector library
|
Provides connector class libraries that you need to use when you develop a
low-level Java connector. For more information, see Overview of the low-level Java connector library.
| lib |
Code samples | Sample code for a simple low-level Java connector | samples |
For Java connectors, use the Java compiler provided with the JavaSoft Java Developers Kit (JDK) 1.3.1.
The Adapter Development Kit includes samples for the creation of an Object Discovery Agent (ODA). These samples reside in the following directory:
DevelopmentKits\Odk
For more information, see Development support for ODAs.