# About Applications and Connectors
IdentityIQ uses configured applications to connect to your enterprise’s target systems and read data from those applications into IdentityIQ. This data is used for creating/updating Identity Cubes, building IdentityIQ’s entitlement catalog, and bringing information about users' accounts and group membership into IdentityIQ. Many, but not all, applications can also write information back to target systems, to reflect changes made within IdentityIQ.

Although the terms "application" and "connector" sometimes seem to be used interchangeably, it's important to understand the differences:

**Connectors** are how IdentityIQ provides the base functionality for communication with the target system. Connectors are in essence templates for connecting to target systems. They define how connectivity to the target system is accomplished, provide the ability to connect to a source, to read from and (in some cases) write to the source, and to create a normalized resource object representing the data read from the source.

**Applications** are configured instances of connectors. They contain specific information for connecting to specific target systems, such as a unique name, connection parameters for connecting to a particular system, and a specific account schema. For example, you may need to aggregate data from several different delimited files. Using the delimited file connector, you can create many unique delimited file applications, each pointing to a particular file, and using a specific schema that defines the data to be aggregated from the file.

## Documentation for Specific Connectors

This guide provides general concepts and common practices that apply to all connectors. For detailed information about a specific connector, refer to the corresponding SailPoint connector guide.

Connector-specific guides include information such as supported features, connection parameters, account schema details, and other connector-specific configuration requirements.

Connector documentation is available in the following formats:

**Online connector documentation**: Documentation for the [current](https://documentation.sailpoint.com/connectors/identityiq/landingpage/landingpages/identityiq_connectivity_landing.html) version of each of the connectors supplied by SailPoint is available online on the [SailPoint documentation portal](https://documentation.sailpoint.com/#identityiq).

**Offline connector documentation**: Connector guides can also be downloaded from [SailPoint Community](https://community.sailpoint.com/). Offline connector guides are updated with each IdentityIQ release. For connector documentation for previous IdentityIQ versions, see the *Supported Connectors for IdentityIQ* page on SailPoint Community and download the documentation ZIP file for your specific version.

### Additional Resources for Connectors
These other SailPoint resources can be useful sources of additional information on connectors:

[SailPoint Community](https://community.sailpoint.com/) – in SailPoint Community, you can engage with peers and experts to ask questions and share answers, submit ideas, read wiki articles and technical white papers, watch webinars, and more.

SailPoint's [Customer Support knowledge base](https://support.sailpoint.com/csm?id=kb_view2) – you can search here for technical notes about specific connectors, from SailPoint's Customer Support team.

About Applications and Connectors

IdentityIQ uses configured applications to connect to your enterprise’s target systems and read data from those applications into IdentityIQ. This data is used for creating/updating Identity Cubes, building IdentityIQ’s entitlement catalog, and bringing information about users' accounts and group membership into IdentityIQ. Many, but not all, applications can also write information back to target systems, to reflect changes made within IdentityIQ.

Although the terms "application" and "connector" sometimes seem to be used interchangeably, it's important to understand the differences:

Connectors are how IdentityIQ provides the base functionality for communication with the target system. Connectors are in essence templates for connecting to target systems. They define how connectivity to the target system is accomplished, provide the ability to connect to a source, to read from and (in some cases) write to the source, and to create a normalized resource object representing the data read from the source.

Applications are configured instances of connectors. They contain specific information for connecting to specific target systems, such as a unique name, connection parameters for connecting to a particular system, and a specific account schema. For example, you may need to aggregate data from several different delimited files. Using the delimited file connector, you can create many unique delimited file applications, each pointing to a particular file, and using a specific schema that defines the data to be aggregated from the file.

Documentation for Specific Connectors

This guide provides general concepts and common practices that apply to all connectors. For detailed information about a specific connector, refer to the corresponding SailPoint connector guide.

Connector-specific guides include information such as supported features, connection parameters, account schema details, and other connector-specific configuration requirements.

Connector documentation is available in the following formats:

Online connector documentation: Documentation for the current version of each of the connectors supplied by SailPoint is available online on the SailPoint documentation portal.

Offline connector documentation: Connector guides can also be downloaded from SailPoint Community. Offline connector guides are updated with each IdentityIQ release. For connector documentation for previous IdentityIQ versions, see the Supported Connectors for IdentityIQ page on SailPoint Community and download the documentation ZIP file for your specific version.

Additional Resources for Connectors

These other SailPoint resources can be useful sources of additional information on connectors:

SailPoint Community – in SailPoint Community, you can engage with peers and experts to ask questions and share answers, submit ideas, read wiki articles and technical white papers, watch webinars, and more.

SailPoint's Customer Support knowledge base – you can search here for technical notes about specific connectors, from SailPoint's Customer Support team.