nships needed to use the APIs successfully. This means that understanding the behavior of the APIs and creating integration processes that work end-to-end can involve significant experimentation with test harnesses and test data prior to, and during, integration. Compounding the situation is the fact that most APIs are moving targets. Vendors are, based on customer demand, continually upgrading their software and thus their APIs, striving to improve the capability and functionality supported by their APIs. Despite their efforts, a continual source of customer frustration is the lack of API functionality, which prevents many IICs from achieving the level of integration they would like. For example, consider how few packages provide an API that allows the internal product catalog to be updated. There is continual pressure to upgrade to the next release to take advantage of improved features. These upgrades are often SO fundamental that they have to occur before the proposed integration package Chapter 6 - Integrating the OSS Platform can be completed. This API churn creates rework and extends the development process. Finally, on the API front, a continual challenge for enterprise application integration (EAI) vendors is to provide the right connector/adapter combinations for customers. Acquiring the right connector/adapter for an application is not as simple as asking a vendor for it. Determining the correct connector/adapter can require matching three and sometimes four variables: - The version of the application software e.g. Siebel 2000 - The version of the EAI tool, e.g. Vitria 3.0 - The version of the underlying operating system, e.g. Windows 2000 - The version of the underlying database, e.g. Oracle 8.0.3. Aligning all of these variables can be difficult. The lack of the correct combination can often result in the need for work-around strategies and temporary fixes that complicate and extend the development process. 10.1 Product Catalog Integration One of the most challenging aspects of any "best-of-breed" in