IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer > Services and service-related functions > Access external services with adapters > Configure and using adapters > IBM WebSphere Adapters > Adapter Toolkit > Implementing code from the IBM WebSphere Adapter Toolkit
Enterprise Metadata Discovery general interfaces and implementation for application adapters
Enterprise metadata discovery is a discovery service, or a component within an adapter that enables the generation of business object definitions and other artifacts required by service component architecture.
The enterprise metadata discovery component is analogous to the Object Discovery Agent of WebSphere Business Integration Adapters. In addition to generating business object definitions, however, the enterprise metadata discovery also generates service component architecture artifacts such as an Import/Export file and WSDL. An explicit goal of enterprise metadata discovery is to enable existing JCA resource adapter extensions to provide metadata discovery and import in a simple, straightforward way.
Using adapters that allow for metadata discovery and import, you can create and edit services with the following capabilities, where the operation style is supported by the underlying adapter:
- Integration-framework-initiated operations to retrieve data from or modify data in the EIS.
- EIS-initiated operations, where the request originates within the EIS.
This type of operation is used for retrieving data from, or modifying data in, the integration framework.
- Types of enterprise metadata
The enterprise metadata discovery service is responsible for exposing two categories of metadata: EIS metadata and service metadata- Enterprise metadata discovery architecture
The enterprise metadata discovery tooling includes runtime, discovery, and service generation interfaces and metadata edit capabilities.- Metadata discovery
This primary interface to the enterprise metadata discovery plug-in holds a reference to the ToolContext. ToolContext is used for logging and tracing and to provide information that helps perform discovery.- Metadata discovery adapter type
Adapter type metadata identify aspects of the adapter that are supported by the enterprise metadata discovery implementation. The Adapter Foundation Classes provide an interface for adapter type information.- Metadata discovery connection type
Specify connection type values for the enterprise metadata discovery service. The connection type includes connection configuration instance information for outbound and inbound directions.
- Enterprise metadata discovery description APIs
The enterprise metadata discovery description APIs comprise the objects that correspond to the artifacts generated by the discovery process. The artifacts include business object XSDs, the SCA import, and export files and WSDL files.- Business object structures for enterprise metadata discovery
In the Adapter Foundation Classes, BusinessObject and its BusinessObjectAttribute and Metadata structures facilitate the generation of XML schema definitions.- Namespace definition
The namespace http://www.ibm.com/xmlns/prod/websphere/j2ca is reserved for XML artifacts produced by or employed by WebSphere Adapters.- Implementing enterprise metadata discovery classes
The following subsections describe the steps and constructs required for implementing an enterprise metadata discovery instance.- Enterprise metadata discovery implementation samples
The following section explains a few EIS Simulator Adapter code samples, to implement an enterprise metadata discovery.