Implementing WebSphere Business Integration Express for Item Synchronization

Chapter 6. About some of the key components 61

There are other business objects provided for this solution (such as business

objects for use with TPI processing). However, because we are not using this

product in our solution, they are not discussed here.

6.3 What are connectors?

A connector mediates between an application and one or more collaborations. A

connector can be specific to an application (such as SAP R/3 or iSoft

Peer-to-Peer Agent), to a data format or protocol (such as XML or EDI), or to a

technology component (such as JDBC). See 3.2, “Technical overview and

components” on page 28 for the connectors that are packaged as part of the

item-synchronization solution.

A connector's communications with collaborations can take two forms:

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Application event notifications, in which connectors for specific applications

pass to collaborations

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Request processing, in which connectors perform on behalf of collaborations.

Most connectors share certain common behaviors, differing only in the manner in

which they interact with applications and with application-specific business

objects.

A connector is composed of two major components:

1. Connector Controller

The connector controller interacts directly with collaborations and runs as a

component within the InterChange Server process.

2. Connector Agent

A client connector framework runs as a separate process from the

InterChange Server and, together with an application-specific component,

interacts directly with an application. For our purposes, the client connector

framework and the application-specific component are together referred to as

the connector agent.

Each connector agent is unique, because it communicates with its application

according to the application's interfaces. If there is an application

programming interface (API), the connector can use it. However, a connector

for an application without an API can use whatever method the application

provides, such as user exits or SQL (in the case of a JDBC connector).

To detect application events in which collaborations are interested, a connector

polls the application or uses the application's event callback notification