Application Deployment Adapters/Connectors

Application connectors and adapters provide uni- and bidirectional, request-response, and publish/subscribe connectivity among the various types of application deployment software (primarily application, integration, and Web servers) and specific or general applications and technologies. Some application adapters and connectors are used in conjunction with add-on software that incorporates in-depth knowledge of application/technology environments; when such software (e.g., iWay's adapter framework) has no purpose other than working with application adapters and connectors, it is measured in the application adapter/connector market. (Note that some adapters and connectors are intended to support connectivity among data sources and specific or general applications and technologies; when that is the case, they are measured in the data integration and access software market, and not in the application deployment connector/adapter software market.) Different types of application deployment connector/adapters accommodate the many requirements and capabilities of the disparate technology involved in application integration. These types include but are not limited to:

• Packaged application adapters that provide object-level support for packaged application systems such as SAP, Siebel, Oracle, Lawson, and others
• Business process set adapters that handle abstract integration issues among typical business processes, such as work order, purchase order, and Sales order, whether or not packaged applications are involved
• Heritage middleware adapters that support automatic transaction invocation, message transformation, and error recovery for other unifunctional application deployment software such as message-oriented middleware and transaction-server middleware or between application, integration, and Web servers and other unifunctional application deployment software
• Technology adapters that support many of the other technologies that exist in an environment, including application frameworks, networking protocols, and more
• Standards adapters that facilitate the processing of transactions such as EDI, SWIFT, FIX, HIPAA, HL7, and other role- or industry-specific activity (XML-standard-based transformation is covered in the Information and Data Management Software section.)

In J2EE terms, these can be considered resource adapters (which mediate connectivity between the J2EE-compliant application deployment software and the application or technology via a contract). In .NET terms, they are considered technology patterns within the architecture. Many application adapters and connectors work in both environments and take no specific advantage of either architecture. The terms adapter and connector are used interchangeably for the purposes of this definition.