---
title: "Connector Prerequisites"
canonical: "https://wiki.yellowfinbi.com/space/user80/1540823/Connector%20Prerequisites"
format: markdown
---
## IDE Integration / Classpath 

The definitions for the required Yellowfin classes are available in the following libraries from a standard Yellowfin installation. These are located in the **/appserver/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/lib/ **directory of the installation. 

- i4-core.jar
- i4-mi.jar

These are dependencies that are required to compile a connector plugin for Yellowfin. Referencing these libraries in an IDE will also allow for code completion and function lookups while editing. 

 

## Java Version 

Yellowfin has backwards compatibility to Java 7. Any connectors made for public consumption should be compiled with Java 7, unless a connector’s dependencies force the use of a newer Java implementation. The plugin loader will display an error reporting that the version of Java is not sufficient if the loaded .jar file is compiled with a newer version than what is in use by Yellowfin. 

 

## Connector Functional Restrictions 

There are several functional restrictions when using Third-Party Connectors compared to the features available for relational SQL sources. 

Limitations to Third-Party Connector reports could include the following:

- Drill down functionality is unavailable.
- Multiple DataSets cannot be joined.
- Grouped value functionality is unavailable.
- Complex connector filter logic is unavailable. Multiple connector-level filters are all applied with logical ANDs. Bracketing and logical ORs cannot be used to change filter logic on a report. Application-level filters do not have these restrictions.

 

Many of these features can be enabled with Yellowfin's Report From Report functionality, which allows for the creation of a view based on a third-party connector report results. Reports written against this view will have access to all report-level functionality available to relational sources. 

 

 

 

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