In order to connect to enterprise information systems (EIS) you might need to use adapters. This section introduces adapter concepts and usage.
IBM® adapters allow you to integrate enterprise applications, and data storage facilities, in a service-oriented way. Adapters expose low-level EIS functions, or events, in the form of a service.
Adapters are sometimes referred to as resource adapters, and provide a standard interface to proprietary systems. Using standard interfaces avoids the maintenance issues associated with non-standard solutions.
Some adapters come with WebSphere® Integration Developer and are licensed for production use, others are only for development purposes: that is, they can be used to develop and test an application. Generally, after you deploy your application to WebSphere ESB, or WebSphere Process Server, you will need a licensed runtime resource adapter.
For a list of WebSphere Adapters supported by WebSphere Integration Developer, their
licensing and how to develop services using adapters, see: .
Resource adapters, in WebSphere Integration Developer, are used in the context of an import or an export. You develop an import or an export with the external service wizard and, in developing it, include the resource adapter.
EIS exports and imports are created with a particular resource adapter, and let you interact with EIS systems.
The external service wizard follows a similar pattern,
regardless of the adapter you are using. For
more information on how to use the external service wizard with the
different adapters, see: .
Many of the IBM WebSphere Adapters supported by WebSphere Integration Developer are at Version 6.1 and, therefore, implement the Enterprise MetaData Discovery specification. The Enterprise MetaData Discovery specification defines a metadata discovery and import model for adapters and the enterprise application integration (EAI) tools framework. WebSphere Integration Developer has an external service wizard that supports the specification. The wizard browses the metadata information of an EIS system in a process called discovery. For more information on the WebSphere Adapters Version 6.1, see: WebSphere Adapters