IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapters represent a collection of software programs, tools and application programming interfaces (APIs) an enterprise can use to enable applications to exchange business data with an integration server. This can include IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server, IBM WebSphere InterChange Server, IBM WebSphere MQ Integrator Broker, IBM WebSphere MQ Integrator, IBM WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker  and IBM WebSphere Application Server Enterprise. Each application requires its own application-specific adapter to participate in the business integration system. WebSphere Business Integration Adapters include:  A connector that links the application to the integration server, tools with graphical user interfaces to help the user configure the connector and create the business object definitions needed for the application, and an object discovery agent (ODA) for some of the adapters, which introspects application metadata to generate business objects.  An adapter development kit (ADK), which provides a framework for developing custom adapters in Java or C++ technology in cases where an adapter for a particular legacy or specialized application is unavailable.

Connectors - A connector mediates interactions between an application and the integration server over the network. It can be specific to an application—such as SAP R/3, Version 4—or to a data format or protocol, such as XML over HTTP.  All connectors share certain common behaviors, differing only in the manner in which they interact with applications and with business objects. Each connector consists of two parts—the adapter framework and the application-specific component.  The adapter framework communicates with the integration server by means of the transport layer. The application-specific component interacts directly with an application.

Each connector consists of two parts—the connector controller and the connector agent. The connector controller interacts directly with WebSphere InterChange Server collaboration objects and resides on a server that has implemented the IBM WebSphere InterChange Server system (the hub in a hub-and-spoke relationship). The connector agent interacts directly with an application, and can reside with that application on any server. A remote agent technology can be used to implement communication between a connector controller at a hub site and an agent that resides at another site across the Internet.

Some connectors are designed to interact with specific applications. Application connectors—for example, the Clarify connector— are intermediaries between collaborations and applications. These connectors transform data from the application into business objects that can be manipulated by the collaborations, and transform business objects from the collaborations into data that can be received by the specific application.

Other connectors are designed for interactions that conform to specific technology standards. (For example, the XML connector can be used for sending data from InterChange Server collaborations to a web server, even if that web server resides beyond a firewall on a network that is not running the connector agent or other IBM WebSphere software.)