The connector is meta-data driven. Meta-data, in the IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapter environment, is application-specific data that is stored in business objects and that assists a connector in its interaction with the application. A meta-data-driven connector handles each business object that it supports based on meta-data encoded in the business object definition rather than on instructions hard-coded in the connector.
Business object meta-data includes the structure of a business object, the settings of its attribute properties, and the content of its application-specific text. Because the connector is meta-data driven, it can handle new or modified business objects without requiring modifications to the connector code.