Introduction

The Adapter concept is a mechanism in Tivoli® Directory Integrator to enable developers to create new custom Connectors by using the AssemblyLine (AL) methodology. The alternative would be to develop these in either Java or JavaScript. Adapters are easy to distribute to other Tivoli Directory Integrator developers, and just as simple to use as traditional, pre-built standard Connectors.

Adapters enable developers to use the entire Tivoli Directory Integrator arsenal when creating custom connector with potentially complex business logic and custom operations to be offered to the Tivoli Directory Integrator development community.

There are a number of new features that in combination make Adapters possible that will be described in the sections below. All of these features have value outside the Adapter concept as well, so we advise you to read about each feature in the rest of the formal documentation.

The following is the high level flow of activities to implement and use a Tivoli Directory Integrator Adapter:

1. Anne develops the Adapter AssemblyLine (for example to access a custom developed ERP system) that implements the connector modes to be supported (such as iterator and delete), as well as custom modes as required.
2. Anne publishes the AL into a package that can be distributed to Pete, another Tivoli Directory Integrator developer, as a stand-alone file.
3. Pete copies the package into his Tivoli Directory Integrator development environment. The resource/library model is ideal for this purpose, along with other components that Pete wants to re-use across the Tivoli Directory Integrator solutions that he routinely develops.
4. Pete uses Anne's Adapter in his AL just like any other Tivoli Directory Integrator connector by using an AssemblyLine Connector to call the Adapter.
5. Anne can improve her Adapter and publish new versions by going through the steps above.

The picture below illustrates Pete's AL on the left using Anne's Adapter both in standard Connector lookup mode, as well as the custom Disable_acct mode. In the illustration, even though the Adapter is used two places in Pete's AL, there is only one instance started of the Adapter to reduce the impact on the back-end target system. Just like normal Connectors, Adapters can be shared within an AL, pooled - and even shared - across AL's.

Figure 13. Overview of Adapter usage