An extension developer can use the CAS Extension API to create data source extensions and manipulator extensions.

Data source extensions can access any type of data source that you want to include in the Content Acquisition System. For example, data source extensions might access flat files, databases, content management repositories (that do not already have a corresponding CMS Connector), and so on.

Manipulator extensions transform Endeca records as part of data processing in a CAS acquisition. In a typical usage, manipulators run in a CAS acquisition to provide record pre-processing before a Forge pipeline runs.