CentraSite has a set of importers for importing various kinds of objects. They are used by the Import function of CentraSite Control. However, they can also be invoked through Java programs, SOAP API, batch commands (for example, shell scripts), or directly from the command-line prompt. Import APIs available for importing are:

All the importers have a few characteristics in common. Each import function is called with an appropriate XML file (for example, the web service importer expects a WSDL file as input). The XML file can be located in the file system or for some importers, it can alternatively be specified by a URL (HTTP). The file is incorporated into the CentraSite repository and there is a registry object (an ExternalLink) that will point to it. Each importer typically creates one or more JAXR-based registry objects. The relationship is: