- A
- adapter
- A set of software modules that communicate with an integration broker and
with applications or technologies to perform tasks such as executing
application logic and exchanging data. An IBM WebSphere Business
Integration Adapter always consists of the adapter framework and a connector
specific to an application or technology. An adapter might also contain
a sample business object specific to the application or technology, an Object
Discovery Agent (ODA) designed to generate business object definitions
specific to the application or technology, or both.
- adapter development kit (ADK)
- A development environment for creating custom adapters.
- adapter framework
- The software that IBM provides to install, configure, and run an
adapter.
- application connector
- A connector that is designed to interact with a specific
application. Application-specific connectors are intermediaries between
an integration broker and applications. These connectors convert
application-specific data into business objects that can be manipulated by
components of the integration broker, and convert business objects from the
components into data that can be received by the specific application.
- application-specific component
- The component of a connector that
contains code tailored to a particular application or technology. This
component initializes a business object handler to respond to requests, and,
if needed, implements an event-notification mechanism to detect and respond to
events that an application or external programmatic entity initiates.
The code for this component is written in C++ or Java, depending on the
language of the API provided by the application or technology.
- B
- business integration system
- A system, consisting of an integration broker and a set of integration
adapters, which allows heterogeneous business applications to exchange data
through the coordinated transfer of information in the form of business
objects.
- business object
- A set of attributes that represent a business entity (such as an
Employee), an action on the data (such as a create or update operation), and
instructions for processing the data. Components of the business
integration system use business objects to exchange information and trigger
actions.
- C
- character conversion
- Encoding applied to a character so that it retains its meaning when it is
transferred from a location that uses one character code set to a location
that uses a different code set. See also character
encoding.
- character encoding
- The mapping from a character (a letter of the alphabet) to a numeric value
in a character code set. For example, the ASCII character code set
encodes the letter "A" as 65, while the EBCIDIC character set encodes
this letter as 43. The character code set contains encodings for all
characters in one or more language alphabets.
- connector
- A set of software modules (the
connector framework and a connector's application-specific component)
that uses business objects to send information about an event to an
integration broker or to receive information about a request from the
integration broker. See also application connector and
technology connector.
- connector framework
- The component of a connector that manages interactions between a
connector's application-specific component and the integration
broker. This component provides all required management services, and
retrieves the metadata that the connector requires from the repository.
The connector framework, whose code is common to all connectors, is written in
Java and includes a C++ extension to allow the development of
application-specific components written in C++.
- I
- integration broker
- A program that integrates data among heterogeneous applications. An
integration broker typically provides a variety of services that
include: the ability to route data, a repository of rules that govern
the integration process, connectivity to a variety of applications, and
administrative capabilities that facilitate integration.
- L
- local repository
- A collection of metadata that describes components of the business
integration system such as business objects whose data is transferred across
applications. It also contains the configuration information associated
with the connector framework and a connector's application-specific
component. It is also referred to as the connector's local
repository.
- locale
- The part of a user's environment that brings together information
about how to handle data that is specific to the end user's particular
country, language, or territory. The locale is typically specified when
configuring the operating system or internationalized software
products.
- O
- Object Discovery Agent (ODA)
- A tool designed to "discover" business object requirements
specific to a data source and to generate business object definitions from
those requirements. Business Object Designer presents a forms-based
interface to available ODAs, and helps manage the discovery and definition
generation processes.
- Object Discovery Agent development kit (ODK)
- An API for creating Object Discovery Agents (ODAs).
- T
- technology connector
- A connector that is designed for interactions that conform to a specific
technology. The WebSphere Business Integration Adapter for XML, for
example, can be an intermediary through which an integration broker sends data
to a web server (or other programmatic entity) using the XML format, even if
that web server resides on a network that is not running a WebSphere business
integration system.
