1. A method, comprising: receiving first input data at a graphical user interface of a first application, the first input data specifying selection criteria for executing a query to a database; transforming, by a report connector, the first input data to create second input data, the transforming being according to at least one input mapping rule of the report connector, the second input data including a second representation of the selection criteria; providing, by the report connector, the second input data to a second application via a report application programming interface (API); executing, by the second application, a report including the query to the database, using the second input data as input to the query, the second application producing raw business data based on data selected from the database in response to the query and generating raw metadata describing display characteristics of the raw business data and a display characteristic of at least one user interface element of a graphical report user interface of the second application, wherein the database is separate from the second application; providing, by the second application, first output data based on the raw business data and raw metadata to the report connector via the report API; transforming, by the report connector, the first output data to create second output data, the transforming of the first output data being according to at least one output mapping rule of the report connector; and outputting the second output data by the first application as a response to the selection criteria received at the graphical user interface of the first application.