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.
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
One or more computer programs or software components that provide functionality in direct support of a specific business process or processes.
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 is capable of responding to requests, and, if needed, implements an event-notification mechanism to detect and respond to events initiated by an application or external programmatic entity.
bidi
See bidirectional.
bidirectional (bidi)
Pertaining to scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew that generally run from right to left, except for numbers, which run from left to right.
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 (inbound) or receive information about a request from the integration broker (outbound). A connector consists of the Websphere Adapter Foundation Classes and the connector's application-specific component.
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)
enterprise service discovery wizard
A tool that is used to generate business objects, WSDL interfaces, and Service Component Architecture (SCA) constructs from the enterprise information system to run as an SCA component.
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.
J2C (JCA)
See J2EE Connector architecture.
J2EE
See Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition.
J2EE Connector architecture (J2C, 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 Database Connectivity (JDBC)
An industry standard for database-independent connectivity between the Java platform and a wide range of databases. The JDBC interface provides a call-level API for SQL-based and XQuery-based database access.
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 processor that runs compiled Java code (applets and applications).
JCA (J2C)
See J2EE Connector architecture.
JDBC
See Java Database Connectivity.
JMS
See Java Message Service.
JSP
See JavaServer Pages.
JVM
See Java virtual machine.
locale
A setting that identifies language or geography and determines formatting conventions such as collation, case conversion, character classification, the language of messages, date and time representation, and numeric representation.
SCA
See Service Component Architecture.
SDO
See Service Data Objects.
Service Component Architecture (SCA)
An architecture in which all elements of a business transaction, such as access to Web services, Enterprise Information System (EIS) service assets, business rules, workflows, databases and so on, are represented in a service-oriented way.
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.
service-oriented architecture (SOA)
A conceptual description of the structure of a software system in terms of its components and the services they provide, without regard for the underlying implementation of these components, services and connections between components.
SOA
See service-oriented architecture.
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.
technology adapter
An adapter that is designed for interactions that conform to a specific technology. The WebSphere FTP Adapter, for example, can be an intermediary through which an integration broker sends data to a file system residing on a local or remote FTP server.
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.

Last updated: Thu 26 Oct 16:31:02 2007
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