Watson Explorer Engine has powerful connectivity options to source both structured and
unstructured content from a variety of data applications. The data sources can include generic
databases, websites, email systems, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, Product Life
Cycle (PLC) systems, Content Management Systems (CMS) and others. The purpose of this document is to
describe the different connectivity options that are available, beginning from out-of-the-box simple
solutions, to advanced build-your-own-connector solutions.
- Option A: Use An Existing Connector
- Your starting point is to consider using an existing connector for your connectivity options. If
Watson Explorer Engine provides an installed connector that is already
designed to crawl your data repository, then you simply can use that connector and beginning
crawling your data.
- Option B: Modify An Existing Connector
- In some cases, however, you will have a customized instance of a third party repository, or you
will want an existing connector to specifically retrieve certain types of data from your third party
repository in a manner in which it does not do out of the box. In such cases, you may want to
consider modifying an existing connector. Although you can change any part of a connector, modifying
an existing connector typically involves writing your own Watson Explorer Engine converters or modifying existing Watson Explorer Engine converters to change the way the data that is retrieved by
a connector is processed.
- Option C: Use Watson Explorer Engine API
- The next connectivity option would be to consider using the Watson Explorer Engine API to pull or push data to your index. The Watson Explorer Engine API can enable you to connect to a remote resource
quickly.
- Option D: Consider The Big Index API
- In cases where you want to crawl extremely large database repositories, which likely may be
distributed across your enterprise, consider the Big Index API, which provides an optimized API
solution.
- Option E: Build Your Own Custom Connector
- Connectivity can also be achieved by building your very own connector from scratch. This option
would make the most sense only if there are no existing connectivity options that meet your needs.
If you do decide to build your own connector, you are not left to your own devices. Watson Explorer Engine provides a complete guide on how to get started building
your own connector from scratch.
The next chapter provides more detail about each of these options, including the pros and cons of
using them, and where you can find more information about the Watson Explorer Engine connectivity options that make the most sense for you.