The connector is metadata driven. Metadata, in the WebSphere business integration system, is application-specific data that is stored in business objects and that assists a connector module in its interaction with the application. A metadata-driven connector module handles each business object that it supports based on metadata encoded in the business object definition rather than on instructions hard-coded in the connector module.
Business object metadata includes the structure of a business object, the settings of its attribute properties, and the content of its application-specific information. Because connector modules are metadata driven, they can handle new or modified business objects without requiring modifications to the connector-module code.
The vision connector framework uses the value of the verb application-specific information in the top-level business object to call the appropriate connector module to process the business object. The verb application-specific information provides the classname of the connector module.
The verb application-specific information of most top-level business objects must identify the classname of the connector module. The syntax of this verb application-specific information is:
AppSpecificInfo = PartialPackageName.ClassName,
For example,
AppSpecificInfo = sap.sapextensionmodule.VSapBOHandler,
In this example, sap.sapextensionmodule is the partial package name, and VSapBOHandler is the classname. The full package name includes the com.crossworlds.connectors prefix, which the WebSphere business integration system adds to the name automatically. In other words, the full text of the example is:
com.crossworlds.connectors.sap.sapextensionmodule.VSapBOHandler
You need not specify the package name and classname for the verb application-specific information if the business object is used:
Most business object processing is specific to each connector module. By default the connector uses the ABAP Extension Module. For more information on business object processing for the ABAP Extension Module, see Installing and customizing the ABAP Extension module and "Business object data routing to ABAP handlers". .
For more information on specifying verb application-specific information for the ALE module, see Event processing and Processing multiple IDocs with a wrapper business object.