The JText adapter has the following components:
Figure 1 illustrates the JText connector's architecture when IBM WebSphere InterChange Server (ICS) is used as the integration broker.
Figure 1. JText
connector architecture
The JText adapter's application-specific component manipulates files and calls a specified data handler to convert data between business objects and strings or byte arrays. It also handles communication with the integration broker.
The goal of the JText connector is to provide conversion between any existing file format and a business object. To do so, it uses the data handler specified in the connector's meta-object configuration.
The data handler performs the conversion without interacting with the file system in any way, either by reading from or writing to files. All interaction with the text file is handled by other connector components.
To handle data conversion, you can use data handlers that IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapter Framework provides or data handlers that you create to handle specific text-formatting needs. The product provides the following data handlers:
The product provides sample code for the NameValue, Delimited, and FixedWidth data handlers. You can use this code to customize or develop your own data handlers. The sample code is located in:
$ProductDir/DevelopmentKits/edk/DataHandler/Samples
Windows:
%ProductDir%\DevelopmentKits\edk\DataHandler\Samples
ProductDir represents the directory where the IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapters product is installed. The CROSSWORLDS environment variable contains the ProductDir directory path, which is IBM\WebSphereAdapters by default.
For more information, see How data handler processing works. For more information about each of the product-delivered data handlers, see the Data Handler Guide.
In addition to the standard and application-specific connector configuration properties that you set in Connector Configurator, the JText connector has a set of configuration properties that enable you to configure the connector to process different business objects differently. You set these properties by using JText meta-objects. A meta-object is a special kind of business object that contains configuration information.
The connector uses the meta-object information to determine what classes to use to transform strings or byte arrays that it reads from files into business objects, and to format strings or byte arrays from business objects into files. The JText meta-objects specify the directories, file extensions, filenames, business object delimiters, and data handlers to use during event, and request processing.
The JText adapter uses meta-objects internally. It does not send them through the integration broker. For more information about using meta-objects to configure the connector, see Using JText connector meta-objects.