Adapter configuration for input and output

IBM® Sterling Transformation Extender connections, actions, and resource adapters retrieve data from sources and send data to targets. They do not perform transformation. (Map rules describe the nature of the transformation, and the transformation server transforms the data.)

IBM Sterling Transformation Extender includes adapters for common, enterprise-level resources. In its simplest form, specifying an adapter for an input or output card means selecting the required adapter from a list.

Adapter settings defined in a connection can be overridden with different adapter settings at map run time.

The resource adapters are loosely coupled with the transformation process. An adapter retrieves data to be processed by the map as a byte stream. This means that, to the extent that the type definitions and byte streams are compatible, schemas and adapters can be used interchangeably.

For example, you might use a file as a data source when testing, while in the production environment, the data source is a database. As long as the format of the data retrieved from the database is consistent with the format of the data in the file, you only need to change the input from using the File adapter to using the Database adapter to run the map in production.

In fact, the map source file does not need to be changed at all because the map execution settings, including the adapter configuration settings, can be overridden at run time.

Where possible, resource adapters use the native client libraries of the concerned resources to connect to those resources. It is through this mechanism that IBM Sterling Transformation Extender products can achieve "direct" connectivity to those resources. For example, the IBM Sterling Transformation Extender Oracle adapter uses the Oracle Net8 client to achieve connectivity to Oracle databases.

IBM Sterling Transformation Extender provides an open API to allow for the development of a user-defined adapter, should the need arise. This allows connectivity to unforeseen, possibly proprietary systems (such as a home-grown HR system), in addition to the standards-based adapters that IBM Sterling Transformation Extender provides.