About the Connector and Metadata wizard

The Connector and Metadata wizard imports information about an external application or system and generates rules and data objects that your Pega Platform applications can use to communicate with that external system. You use this wizard to generate connector rules or data mapping rules. The wizard uses a flow to guide you through the process of creating a service. Because it uses a flow, the data you enter about the rules is stored as a work item.

Generate Connector Rules

Select this option when you want to generate the rules and data objects necessary for your application to send messages to or make requests of external systems and then process the results or response. The Connector and Metadata wizard can import Java class metadata through introspection, and connect to and then determine the tables and column names in an external database. It then converts the resulting information into the class, property, activity, and connector rules necessary to build a connector.

The wizard can generate rules for only those connector types that communicate with external systems through protocols or technologies that can expose information or metadata about the construction of that external application. You can use the wizard to generate connectors for EJB, Java, .NET, SAP, SOAP, and SQL.

Before you begin, see About generating connector rules.

See also the Pega Community document Creating Connectors with the Connector and Metadata Wizard for step-by-step instructions about using this wizard.

Generate Data Mapping Rules

Select this option when you want to perform one of the following tasks:

  • Generate Parse XML, XML stream, class, data transform, property, and other rules that implement in Pega Platform the data model of an external system based on the schema described in an XSD file. Before you begin, see About importing XSD files.
  • Generate classes, data transforms, and Java properties that reflect the data model described by a JavaBean. In this case, the wizard also generates Java wrapper classes that access the get and set methods from the source Java class through a Clipboard API interface. Before you begin, see About importing JavaBeans.

Starting the wizard

To start the wizard, in Dev Studio, click Configure > Integration > Connectors > Connector and Metadata wizard .

Updating classes and properties after XSD changes

If you have produced a SOAP connector by using the Connector and Metadata wizard, and later obtain updated XSD files, you do not need to re-run the wizard. You can generate the needed class and property changes from the XML Stream rule form and XML Parse rule form:

  1. Using Save As, copy the current XML Stream rule or XML Parse rule into an unlocked RuleSet version.
  2. Identify the XSD file on the XML tab.
  3. Click the Update button on the Mapping tab.
  4. Save the rule form.