The following terms are used in this guide:
- ASI (Application-Specific Information) Metadata tailored
to a particular application or technology. ASI exists at both the
attribute and business object level of a business object. See also
Verb ASI.
- BO (Business Object) A set of attributes that represent
a business entity (such as Employee) and an action on the data
(such as a create or update operation). Components of the WebSphere
business integration system use business objects to exchange
information and trigger actions.
- BO (Business Object) handler A connector component that
contains methods that interact with an application and that
transforms request business objects into application
operations.
- COM component The connector interacts with a COM server
by processing between a business object and a COM component object.
During connector processing, a COM component, which is part of a
COM application, is represented in the connector by a proxy object.
A proxy is a Java class that represents a COM
component.
- COMProxy The interface tool that allows Java programs to
communicate with ActiveX objects. This tool generates the Java
proxy objects that the connector requires to invoke COM components.
The properties, structures, and methods of a COM component are
typically defined in a type library file (.tlb,
.dll, .ole, .olb, or .exe).
Using the Java Native Interface and COM technology, COMProxy allows
a COM component to be treated just like a Java object.
- Connection factory A special kind of proxy object that
refers to an application. If the appropriate connector properties
are set, the factory object, which is persistent for the life of
the connector, can create connections that are placed in the
connection pool. The number of connections created depends on the
value specified in the PoolSize property.
- Connection object A special kind of proxy object that is
an instance of the connection class. A connection is a reference to
an application that can contain state information. For every
instance of a connection on the adapter side, there is a
corresponding object on the COM side. Connections can be
instantiated in batches, retrieved at will, sent back to the
connection pool, and be re-used by another thread.
- Connection pool A repository used to store and retrieve
connection objects.
- Foreign key A simple attribute whose value uniquely
identifies a child business object. Typically, this attribute
identifies a child business object to its parent by containing the
child's primary key value. The connector for COM uses the foreign
key to specify poolable connection objects.
- ODA (Object Discovery Agent) A tool that automatically
generates a business object definition by examining specified
entities within the application and "discovering" the elements of
these entities that correspond to business object attributes. When
you install the adapter, the ODA is automatically installed.
Business Object Designer provides a graphical user interface to
access the ODA and to work with it interactively.
- Per-call object pool A programmatic entity for storing
objects that need to pass from one method to the next during a
single doVerbFor method call. Stored objects may be proxy
objects or simple attributes.
- Proxy class A Java class that represents a COM component
class in the connector. The connector creates a proxy object
instance of the proxy class name specified in the business object's
ASI.
- Verb ASI (application-specific information) For a given
verb, the verb ASI specifies how the connector should process the
business object when that verb is active. It can contain the name
of the method to call to process the current request business
object.
