OIM - Adapters

One thing I found very confusing without much documentation is how and when to create adapters. Adapters are a crucial part of OIM operation and provisioning. Adapters perform the functions of how and what to do through code. Every action you want to perfom on a user object requires one.

To use adapters, they have to be attached to an OIM User Form or to a User-defined custom form.

• Process Tasks adapters - automate completion of a process task and are attached to a Process Definition Form ( AD user, OID User, etc)
• Entity Adapter - automatically populates a field on the OIM User form or custom User Form on pre-update, pre-delete, pre-insert, post-insert, post-update, or post-delete
• Pre-Populate Adapter - specific type of rule generator attached to a user-created form field that can automatically generate data to the form but does not save that data to the OIM database but does send that information to appropriate directory user object. The data can come from manual entry on a form or from automated entry from the OIM defined forms.
• Rule Generator - can populate fields automatically on an OIM form or a user-created form and save to the OIM database based on business rules
• Task Assignment Adapter - automates the assignment of a process task to a user or group

The ones we have found to be most used are Entity, PrePop, and Process task. More about creating adapters and adapter tasks later.