---
title: Connections between resources
description: A connector lets you transfer data between different resource systems. The connector configuration works in conjunction with the synchronization mapping and specifies how target object attributes map to attributes on external objects.
component: pingidm
version: 8.1
page_id: pingidm:synchronization-guide:sync-connections
canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingidm/8.1/synchronization-guide/sync-connections.html
keywords: ["Synchronization", "Connectors"]
section_ids:
  connector-config-adminui: Configure connectors using the admin UI
  connector-config-files-cli: Edit connector configuration files
  connector-config-over-rest: Configure connectors using REST
---

# Connections between resources

A connector lets you transfer data between different resource systems. The connector configuration works in conjunction with the [synchronization mapping](mappings.html) and specifies how target object attributes map to attributes on external objects.

[Connector configuration](https://docs.pingidentity.com/openicf/connector-reference/preface.html) files exist in your project's conf directory and are named `provisioner.resource-name.json`, where resource-name reflects the connector technology and the external resource. For example, `openicf-csv`.

To create and modify connector configurations, use one of the following methods:

## Configure connectors using the admin UI

From the navigation bar, click Configure > Connectors, and do one of the following.

* Select an existing connector to modify.

* Click New Connector, and configure the new connector.

## Edit connector configuration files

IDM provides a number of sample provisioner files in the `path/to/openidm/samples/example-configurations/provisioners` directory. To modify connector configuration files directly, edit one of the sample provisioner files that corresponds to the resource to which you are connecting.

The following excerpt of an example LDAP connector configuration shows the attributes of an account object type. In the attribute mapping definitions, the attribute name is mapped from the IDM managed object to the `nativeName` (the attribute name used on the external resource). The `lastName` attribute in IDM is mapped to the `sn` attribute in LDAP. The `homePhone` attribute is defined as an array, because it can have multiple values:

```json
{
    ...
    "objectTypes": {
        "account": {
            "lastName": {
                "type": "string",
                "required": true,
                "nativeName": "sn",
                "nativeType": "string"
            },
            "homePhone": {
                "type": "array",
                "items": {
                    "type": "string",
                    "nativeType": "string"
                },
                "nativeName": "homePhone",
                "nativeType": "string"
            }
        }
    }
}
```

For IDM to access external resource objects and attributes, the object and its attributes must match the connector configuration. Note that the connector file only maps IDM managed objects and attributes to their counterparts on the external resource. To construct attributes and to manipulate their values, you use a synchronization mapping, described in [Resource mapping](mappings.html).

## Configure connectors using REST

Create connector configurations using REST with the `createCoreConfig` and `createFullConfig` actions. For more information, refer to [Configure Connectors Using REST](https://docs.pingidentity.com/openicf/connector-reference/configure-connector.html#connector-wiz-REST).