Modular and portable deployment of a resource adapter in an application server

A system by which resource adapters may be utilized in client server computer configurations utilizing enterprise information systems is disclosed. A connector provider develops a set of Java interfaces and classes as part of its implementation of a resource adapter. These Java classes implement connector architecture specified contracts and implement EIS specific functionality provided by the resource adapter. The development of a resource adapter can also require use of native libraries that are specific to the underlying EIS. The Java interfaces and classes and native libraries, help files, documentation and other resources (as necessary) are then packaged together with a deployment descriptor to create a resource adapter module. The resource adapter module defines the contract between a connector provider and deployer for the deployment of a resource adapter in the client server environment. In order to facilitate the configuration of the resource adapter in an operational environment, the present invention specifies the following interfaces and classes. A class that implements a managed connection factory class supports a set of properties that provide information required by the managed connection factory for the creation of physical connections to the underlying EIS. This implementation class provides getter and setter methods for each of its supported properties. The supported properties are consistent with the specification of configurable properties specified in the deployment descriptor.