WebSphere Adapters Glossary

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.
adapter development kit
A development environment for creating custom adapters.
adapter framework
The software that IBM provides to install, configure, and run an adapter.
after-image
A business object that contains all of an entity's data after changes have been made to it during an update operation. An after-image contains the complete business object rather than only the primary key and those elements that were changed. See also delta business object.
application
A program or set of programs that performs a task; some examples are payroll, inventory management, and word processing applications.
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 that is 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.
BPEL
See Business Process Execution Language.
business graph
A wrapper that is added around a simple business object or a hierarchy of business objects to provide additional capabilities, such as carrying change summary and event summary information related to the business objects in the business graph.
business integration system
An integration broker and a set of integration adapters that allow 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 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.
Business Process Execution Language (BPEL)
An XML-based language for the formal specification of business processes and business interaction protocols. BPEL extends the Web Services interaction model and enables it to support business transactions.
character conversion
The process of changing data from one character coding representation to another.
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.
connection pooling
A technique used for establishing a pool of resource connections that applications can share on an application server.
connector
The component of an adapter that uses business objects to send information about an event to an integration broker (event notification) or receive information about a request from the integration broker (request processing). A connector consists of the connector framework and the connector's application-specific component.
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 support application-specific components written in C++.
delta business object
A business object used in an update operation. Such a business object contains only key values and the values to be changed. See also after-image.
deployment descriptor
An XML file that describes how to deploy a module or application by specifying configuration and container options. For example, an EJB deployment descriptor passes information to an EJB container about how to manage and control an enterprise bean.
Document Object Model (DOM)
A system in which a structured document, for example an XML file, is viewed as a tree of objects that can be programmatically accessed and updated.
DOM
See Document Object Model.
EAR
See enterprise archive.
EIS
See enterprise information system.
enterprise archive (EAR)
A specialized type of JAR file, defined by the J2EE standard, used to deploy J2EE applications to J2EE application servers. An EAR file contains EJB components, a deployment descriptor, and Web archive (WAR) files for individual Web applications.
enterprise information system (EIS)
The applications that comprise an enterprise's existing system for handling companywide information. An enterprise information system offers a well-defined set of services that are exposed as local or remote interfaces or both. (Sun)
integration broker
The component in the WebSphere business integration system 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.
J2EE
See Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition.
J2EE Connector architecture (JCA)
A standard architecture for connecting the J2EE platform to heterogeneous enterprise information systems (EIS).
Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE)
An environment for developing and deploying enterprise applications, defined by Sun Microsystems Inc. The J2EE platform consists of a set of services, application programming interfaces (APIs), and protocols that provide the functionality for developing multitiered, Web-based applications. (Sun)
Java Message Service (JMS)
An application programming interface that provides Java language functions for handling messages.
JavaServer Pages (JSP)
A server-side scripting technology that enables Java code to be dynamically embedded within Web pages (HTML files) and executed when the page is served, in order to return dynamic content to a client.
Java virtual machine (JVM)
A software implementation of a central processing unit that runs compiled Java code (applets and applications).
JCA
See J2EE Connector architecture.
JMS
See Java Message Service.
JSP
See JavaServer Pages.
JVM
See Java virtual machine.
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.
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.
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 application programming interface (API) for creating object discovery agents (ODAs).
ODA
See object discovery agent.
ODK
See object discovery agent development kit.
SDO
See Service Data Objects.
Service Data Objects (SDO)
An open standard for enabling applications to handle data from heterogeneous data sources in a uniform way. SDO incorporates J2EE patterns but simplifies the J2EE data programming model.
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
A lightweight, XML-based protocol for exchanging information in a decentralized, distributed environment. SOAP can be used to query and return information and invoke services across the Internet.
SOAP
See Simple Object Access Protocol.
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.
Web Services Description Language (WSDL)
An XML-based specification for describing networked services as a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information.
WSDL
See Web Services Description Language.