WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration and Configuration Guide for the Full Profile

Chapter 10. Accessing EIS applications from WebSphere 387

Application components, such as CMP enterprise beans, have cmpConnectionFactory

descriptors that refer to a specific connection factory, not to the resource adapter.

10.3 Installing and configuring resource adapters

To use a resource adapter, you must install the resource adapter code and create connection

factories that use the adapter. The resource adapter configuration is stored in the

resources.xml file.

There are two ways to make a resource adapter (.rar file) available to applications. One way

is to install the adapter into WebSphere Application Server. The other way is to install the

adapter in the application (embedded adapter). For example, Rational Application Developer

embeds resource adapters when you create a JCA application. This chapter describes

installing the adapter into WebSphere Application Server, which can be useful if different

applications use the same resource adapter.

To install an adapter:

1. From the administrative console, select Resources  Resource Adapters  Resource

adapters, and select a scope (Figure 10-2 on page 388).

Note: You can see all of the WebSphere built-in resources by selecting the Show built-in

resources preference, also shown in Figure 10-2.

388 WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration and Configuration Guide for the Full Profile

Figure 10-2 JCA resource adapters

2. Click Install RAR to install a new resource adapter.

3. Enter the path to the .rar file supplied by your EIS vendor. In this example, we use a JCA

adapter provided by IBM. It can reside locally, on the same machine as the browser, or on

any of the nodes in your cell. See Figure 10-3 on page 389.

Chapter 10. Accessing EIS applications from WebSphere 389

Figure 10-3 RAR file location

Select the node where you want to install the .rar file. You have to install the file on each

node separately.

4. Click Next.

390 WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration and Configuration Guide for the Full Profile

5. The Configuration window for the resource adapter selected opens containing information

gathered from the deployment descriptor, as shown in Figure 10-4.

Figure 10-4 JCA resource adapter properties

In this example, you do not have to configure any properties. The defaults, combined with

the information supplied in the RAR file, provide all of the information needed. However,

you have the option of configuring the following properties:

– Name: Create an administrative name for the resource adapter.

– Description: Create an optional description of the resource adapter for your

administrative records.

– Archive path: This field is the path where the RAR file is installed. If this property is not

specified, the archive is extracted to the absolute path represented by the

${CONNECTOR_INSTALL_ROOT} variable. The default is

profile_root/installedConnectors/adapter_name.rar.

– Class path: A list of paths or JAR file names that together form the location for the

resource adapter classes. The resource adapter code base itself, the RAR file, is

automatically added to the class path.

– Native path: This is a list of paths that together form the location for the resource

adapter native libraries (.dll and .so files).

6. Click OK.

7. Save the configuration and synchronize the nodes.