TIB/Adapter Applications and TIB/MessageBroker

custom adapter has to work together with an application-independent transformation engine to provide full adapter functionality.

• The adapter's primary functionality is to retrieve data from and export data to a source or target application such as an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) application.
• Transformation and routing functions are performed by a message transformation engine like TIB/MessageBroker or other transformation product.

A custom adapter created with the TIB/Adapter SDK changes the format of the data so it can be understood by a variety of other applications. Although a source application's data model can be complex, the adapter retains much of the source information and makes it easy to access.

However, a custom adapter does not change the content of the data, so two applications might still not be compatible. For example, the name and address of a customer might be stored in five fields in one ERP application and in six fields in another. This kind of content conversion must be performed by a tool like TIB/MessageBroker or a third-party, message transformation system enabled for TIB/Rendezvous.

TIB/MessageBroker transforms data and provides a graphic interface for creating and modifying data transformation rules. The adapter pushes data out of a third party application (for example SAP R/3). TIB/MessageBroker can then transform the data to formats understood by other adapters (for example TIB/Adapter for Clarify, TIB/Adapter for PeopleSoft, or custom adapters).

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TIB/Adapter SDK Advantage

The TIB/Adapter SDK promotes rapid development and ensures that adapters built using it have the same external interface and that they plug into the overall ActiveEnterprise product suite in a consistent manner.

Using the TIB/Adapter SDK to create a custom adapter has the following advantages:

• A set of reusable components that aids in rapid development of your custom adapter, with few constraints placed on the development process.
• Consistent external interface to adapters and applications built using the SDK:

1. Consistent configuration data and metadata representation through the SDK TIB/Adapter Administrator tool. The tool is explained in TIB/AdapterAdministrator User's Guide.
2. Common mechanisms for reporting (MTrace and MSink classes and MAdvisoryDocument and MBusinessDocument classes.)
3. Standard application and session (transport) management (MApp and MRvSession)

Common means of configuring, transforming, and routing data (import and export)

• Compatibility with other applications in the TIBCO ActiveEnterprise product suite.
• Integration with TIB/Hawk (SDK 2.x is compatible with TIB/Hawk 2.x; SDK 3.x is compatible with both TIB/Hawk 2.x and TIB/Hawk 3.x).

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What are adapters? About TIB/Adapter SDK

They are components that enable application integration. They integrate applications with TIB. Their functions include:

• Data representation mapper
• Establish connectivity
• Support for common communications paradigms
• API hiding

Adapters and the TIB/Adapter SDK

A TIB/Adapter integrates an application in an event-driven, decoupled manner with the rest of the enterprise. Specifically, the adapter integrates third-party software with TIBCO ActiveEnterprise applications.

TIBCO Software Inc. has already released a number of adapter products such as TIB/Adapter for R/3, TIB/Adapter for Clarify, and TIB/Adapter for PeopleSoft. You can buy these products to integrate the respective application with TIB/Rendezvous and ultimately with your event-driven enterprise. You can also use the TIB/Adapter SDK to build a custom adapter for the application you need to integrate.

The TIB/Adapter SDK

All TIBCO adapter products are built on top of the TIB/Adapter SDK, and you can use the SDK to build an adapter of your choice.

The SDK is a class library that allows developers to implement an adapter for their source or target application with minimal effort. The SDK itself encapsulates much of the required behavior; developers implement certain methods and subclasses and specify configuration and metadata information as appropriate.

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Adapter SDK and Its Core Features

These are components that enable application integration. They integrate applications with TIB.

Their functions include:

• Data representation mapper
• Establish connectivity
• Support for common communications paradigms
• API hiding
• Provides infrastructure code for writing custom TIBCO Adapters
  Application Management
  Configuration
  Tracing and monitoring
  Metadata description facility
• Encapsulates much of the required adapter behavior

Its Core Features

• Application Management
• User extensible model
• Transport protocols
  Publish/Subscribe
  Request/Reply
  Broadcast Request/Reply
• Communication with Rendezvous
• Data encapsulation classes
• Extensible monitoring and debugging features

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