6.2 The Shim

A shim is compiled code that handles translating commands and data between the connected system and Identity Manager. The driver shim is often written in Java, which uses native application programming interface (API) calls that the system makes available to developers. APIs can include LDAP standard calls, native Windows Active Directory calls, and JDBC connections for SQL databases. The shim has the following responsibilities:

For example, if the connected system is an HR system, and a new person is hired, the shim needs to build an XML document that describes this information. In Identity Manager terminology, this is an Add event and an XML document is built to describe this event to the Identity Manager engine. The event is submitted to the engine and a new user is created in the specified location.After the new user object is created in the Identity Vault, an event is generated for other drivers that monitor changes to user objects. For example, if you have the GroupWise driver deployed, an Add event is generated for the GroupWise driver to create an e-mail box for the new user.