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About Anypoint Connector DevKit

Anypoint Connector DevKit (DevKit), enables the development of Anypoint Connectors. An Anypoint Connector is an extension module to the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform that facilitates communication between third-party systems' APIs and Mule applications.

Anypoint Connector DevKit 3.9 is the latest version of DevKit, offering connector end user support in a few aspects of Mule app design in Studio 6. Requirements and suggestions for writing connector code using DevKit have not changed since version 3.9.

Anypoint Connector DevKit 3.9.x Release Notes

DevKit versioning does not follow Mule versioning. Connectors built with DevKit 3.9 work with Mule 3.5.3 to 3.9.
DevKit is compatible only with Studio 6 and Mule 3. To build Mule 4 connectors, see the Mule SDK documentation.

Developing Connectors with DevKit

This is what you need to develop DevKit-based Anypoint Connectors on your system with your instance of Anypoint Studio.

  1. See detailed instructions here on how to install: Java JDK version 8, Apache Maven, Anypoint Studio, and Anypoint DevKit Plugin to build and test your connector. You can develop a connector using Windows, Mac, or Linux.

  2. New Connector:

    Existing Connector:

    • Click File > Import > Anypoint Studio > Anypoint Connector Project from External Location, choose a URL or a .zip file, and complete the wizard to locate and import the project.

      See also Creating a SOAP Connector.

  3. Determine resource access - Each resource has a different access method, such as REST, SOAP, FTP, or the Java SDK features.

  4. Choose an authentication mechanism - Mule supports OAuth V1 or V2, and username and password authentication (known as connection management), which can be used for protocols such as API Key, SAML, NTLM, Kerberos, or LDAP.

  5. Choose the connector’s data model - Models can be static Java objects or dynamic objects. You can use DataSense - Determine what information the target resource expects.

  6. Add connector @ attribute annotations - Create code for your connector containing the @ attributes that Mule uses to designate the important parts of your connector.

  7. Code tests - Tests can be unit tests, functional tests, and Studio interoperability tests.

  8. Document your connector - MuleSoft provides a template that helps you fill in the blanks to create documentation to help your staff and others understand the features and use of your connector.

  9. Package your connector.

DevKit Features

Features DevKit provides:

  • Visual design and implementation using Anypoint Studio with an Eclipse-based interface that simplifies and speeds up development.

  • Maven support.

  • Connector packaging tools.

  • Authentication support for multiple types of authentication, including OAuth and username and password authentication.

  • DataSense support to acquire remote metadata.

  • Extensive testing capability.

  • Examples, training, and support to simplify development startup.

  • Batch, Query Pagination, and DataSense Query Language support.

DevKit is a annotations-based tool, with a wide set of available annotations to support its features. For a complete list of DevKit annotations, see the Annotation Reference.

What is a Connector?

An Anypoint Connector is an extension module that eases the interaction between a Mule application and external resources, such as databases or APIs, through REST, SOAP, or the Java SDK.

As reusable components that hide API complexity from the integration developer, custom connectors facilitate integration with SaaS and on-premises web services, applications, and data sources. Connectors built using Anypoint DevKit in Anypoint Studio, running Mule runtime environments, act as extensions of Anypoint Platform.

Connector Architecture

Connectors operate within Mule applications, which are built up from Mule Flows, and external resources, which are the targeted resources.

DevKit architecture overview

A Mule connector has two operational sides. The Mule-facing side communicates with a resource’s target-facing client side to enable content to travel between the Mule applications, and the external target-facing resource.

Mule-Facing Functionality

From the Mule-facing side, a connector consists of:

  • Main Java class. Java code that you annotate with the @Connector attribute. See the Anypoint DevKit API Reference for information about Anypoint Connector DevKit annotations. See Java annotations for information on how annotations work.

  • Connector attributes. Properties of the @Connector class that you annotate with the @Configurable attribute.

  • Methods. Functionality that you annotate with the @Processor attribute.

Additional annotations define authentication-related functionality, such as connection management. Annotations allow you to control the layout of the Anypoint Studio dialogues for the connector as well. The data model and exceptions that either raise or propagate are also Mule-facing classes.

DevKit generates a scaffold connector when you create your Anypoint Connector project in Studio. This scaffold connector includes the @Connector class, the @Configurable attributes, the @Processor methods, and authentication logic to build out your connector.

Target-Facing Functionality

The target facing or client facing side of a connector depends on the client technology that enables access to the resource. This functionality consists of a class library and one or more classes that @Connector classes use to access client functionality. This functionality is called the client class.

The client class in turn generally depends on other classes to actually implement calls to the targeted resource. Depending on your target, some of these classes may be generated or provided for you. For example, if you have a Java client library, or are working with a SOAP or REST services, most of the client code is implemented there. In other cases, you have to write the code yourself.

Coding a Connector

DevKit lets you build connectors from scratch. Before creating your own connector, check the Anypoint Exchange for available connectors. The connectors page also lists Community open source connectors that let you contribute to the growing community of public connector development.

Connector Data Model

The data model for the connector consists of the objects passed into and out of the exposed operations. While many Web services accept and return XML or JSON data, a proper Mule connector must translate the data format the client uses into Java objects – either POJOs or key-value maps which represent the data objects sent to, and returned from, the target. (Returning raw XML or JSON responses to Mule is one marker for an immature, improperly implemented connector.)

REST Versus SOAP

REST simplifies access to HTTP using POST, GET, PUT, and DELETE calls to provide access to creating, getting, putting, and deleting information on a resource.

SOAP is a traditional means of communicating with a resource and requires a WSDL file, which is an XML file that specifies all aspects of a Java class’s structure, methods, properties, and documentation. SOAP is an industry standard with tools for governance, building, and schema information. DevKit provides a tools that helps building a connector using a WSDL file.

DevKit 3.9 Default Connector Project Classes

The following is an example of the starting @Connector and @Configuration classes that DevKit 3.9 creates:

package org.mule.modules.newconnector;

import org.mule.api.annotations.Config;
import org.mule.api.annotations.Connector;
import org.mule.api.annotations.Processor;

import org.mule.modules.connpom.config.ConnectorConfig;

@Connector(name="connpom", friendlyName="Connpom")
public class ConnpomConnector {

    @Config
    ConnectorConfig config;

    /**
     * Custom processor
     *
     * @param friend Name to be used to generate a greeting message.
     * @return A greeting message
     */
    @Processor
    public String greet(String friend) {
        /*
         * MESSAGE PROCESSOR CODE GOES HERE
         */
        return config.getGreeting() + " " + friend + ". " + config.getReply();
    }

    public ConnectorConfig getConfig() {
        return config;
    }

    public void setConfig(ConnectorConfig config) {
        this.config = config;
    }

}

The DevKit 3.9 @Configuration class is as follows:

package org.mule.modules.newconnector.config;

import org.mule.api.annotations.components.Configuration;
import org.mule.api.annotations.Configurable;
import org.mule.api.annotations.param.Default;

@Configuration(friendlyName = "Configuration")
public class ConnectorConfig {

    /**
     * Greeting message
     */
    @Configurable
    @Default("Hello")
    private String greeting;

    /**
     * Reply message
     */
    @Configurable
    @Default("How are you?")
    private String reply;

    /**
     * Set greeting message
     *
     * @param greeting the greeting message
     */
    public void setGreeting(String greeting) {
        this.greeting = greeting;
    }

    /**
     * Get greeting message
     */
    public String getGreeting() {
        return this.greeting;
    }

    /**
     * Set reply
     *
     * @param reply the reply
     */
    public void setReply(String reply) {
        this.reply = reply;
    }

    /**
     * Get reply
     */
    public String getReply() {
        return this.reply;
    }

}

DevKit 3.9 Default pom.xml

The pom.xml file for a DevKit 3.9 project. The <parent> section shows DevKit’s group ID org.mule.tools.devkit.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">

    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>org.mule.modules</groupId>
    <artifactId>newconnector-connector</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>mule-module</packaging>
    <name>Mule Newconnector Anypoint Connector</name>

    <parent>
        <groupId>org.mule.tools.devkit</groupId>
        <artifactId>mule-devkit-parent</artifactId>
        <version>3.9.0</version>
    </parent>

    <properties>
        <category>Community</category>
        <licensePath>LICENSE.md</licensePath>
        <devkit.studio.package.skip>false</devkit.studio.package.skip>
    </properties>
    <repositories>
        <repository>
            <id>mulesoft-releases</id>
            <name>MuleSoft Releases Repository</name>
            <url>http://repository.mulesoft.org/releases/</url>
            <layout>default</layout>
        </repository>
    </repositories>
</project>

Connector Features DevKit Supports

Authentication Types

API Types

Data Processing and Retrieval

Connector Development Lifecycle

See Also