2.1 - Core Terms and Concepts

There are several important terms and concepts to understand when working with Dell Boomi AtomSphere:

Atom	Atoms are the lightweight run time engines that contain process configuration information and actually do the work. Atoms can be downloaded and installed to a machine behind your firewall to access local resources such as on-premise applications or databases, or deployed to the Dell Boomi data center if only web accessible applications or data sources need to be integrated. You will typically deploy multiple integration processes to a single atom. (More...)
Component	Components are the reusable configuration objects used in processes. Components are reusable and include processes, profiles, maps, connections, operations, certificates, cross reference tables, document caches, trading partners, and map functions. They are listed in the Component Explorer and can be created once and referenced by process steps across multiple processes. For example, the same database connection representing a customer database can be referenced in every process that needs to communicate with that database. When you modify a component, those changes are reflected wherever the component is referenced. So if that database should ever move to a different machine, you can simply update the single database connection component once and the new settings would be in effect everywhere it is used. (More...)
Connector	Connectors get data into and send data out of processes. Connectors abstract the technical details of communicating with various applications, data sources and communication protocols. They are actually comprised of two components: a connection and an operation. The connection represents the "endpoint" and contains the physical connection details, such as an FTP or database host, a web services URL and/or login credentials. The operation represents a specific action to perform against that connection, such as a database SELECT query, an FTP PUT or a specific web service call. You can think of the connection as the "where" and the operation as the "how". For example, when extracting customer records from Salesforce, the connection represents your Salesforce organization account user name and password and the operation represents the "query customer" action. (More...)
Document	A document is a set of data that goes through a process. A document can be a single record, a group of records, an EDI transaction or an entire file. Documents often represent individual files read in, however it is important to understand that a single document may contain multiple records. In these cases it is often useful to split a document into multiple documents (using the Split action within the Data Process step), each containing a single record for processing. For example, a large daily batch file of purchase orders could be split by order number into multiple documents so each purchase order can be processed and tracked independently.
Execution	An execution is the results of running a process. When viewing previous executions in the Manage menu, you can view the data passed into and out of the process, detailed logs and error messages. In production environments, processes are typically scheduled to execute at regular intervals but can be run manually on an ad hoc basis as well. (More...)
Map	Maps allow data to be transformed from one format to another -- or specifically, from one profile to another. Fields or elements are mapped by dragging and dropping a source element to a destination element. Map functions can be used to perform simple or complex field-level manipulations as values are mapped. (More...)
Process	Processes represent a single type of data to integrate between two or more systems. They are comprised of a series of steps that specify the business logic and transformation requirements. They are the central components in AtomSphere. Process steps transform, route and otherwise manipulate data to attain the desired end result. Every process begins with a Start step that gets data from some source and usually ends with one or more connectors to send the data to the destination(s). (More...)
Profile	Profiles define the structure or layout of the data to be processed. They are used when reading from or writing to a given format. There are four categories of profiles: Flat File -- Flat files are common, simple formats that typically contain one record per line, like a comma separated value (CSV) file. Each record contains a number of fields or elements that are either delimited or data positioned (fixed width). Flat file profiles can represent simple structures with a single record type (e.g., CSV file) to moderately complex structures with multiple record types to accommodate parent-child relationships or other repeating record types within the same file (e.g., header and detail records). (More...) Database -- When used for reading, the database profile represents the fields in the result set of a SELECT statement. When used for writing, the profile represents the values used in an UPDATE, INSERT or DELETE statement. Database profiles can also contain elements to be used as parameters in dynamic statements. (More...) XML -- XML is a common hierarchical format used in much of the Internet communication today characterized by the use of tags that describe data elements. Tags can be nested within one another to establish parent-child relationships. XML profiles are used by web services and the majority of Dell Boomi application connectors. (More...) EDI -- Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is defined as the exchange of business data from one computer to another computer using a public standard format. EDI replaces the traditional processes of preparing data in paper form and sending it by mail or by facsimile. Business communications with EDI is not restricted by software, equipment or computer. EDI profiles represent the structure of the various EDI documents sent through Dell Boomi processes, including all the segments, data elements, looping and other configuration information. Similar to the XML profile, the EDI profile allows you to configure repeating data sets (loops). You can also organize segments in Header, Detail and Summary loop sections. (More...)
Step	Process steps are the shapes linked together to form the business logic for a process. Steps can perform execution tasks like document splitting and data transformation, or logic tasks like decision and routing. Each step has its own configuration settings. Steps often reference components such as profiles, connections, operations, and Maps. (More...)