I am trying to understand but not getting very clear answer as to what's the difference between resource manager and adapter.

Also, I am still puzzled if resource manager run on the application server or on external resource (eg db).

In case of JMS when we integrated with EMS tibco we didn't install any rar file or jar file. All we did was specify some classes in -ds.xml file. But what I don't understand is that if resource manager and adapter run in application server then how did this integration with tibco work.