To resolve a conflict between CMIS secondary types and certain ECM features such as content server categories, and allow the underlying ECM system to be fully CMIS-compliant, an ECM-independent ETL tool comprising a CMIS-compliant, repository-specific connector is provided. Operating on an integration services server at an integration tier between an application tier and a storage tier where the repository resides, the connector is particular configured to support CMIS secondary types and specific to the repository. On startup, the connector can import any category definition from the repository. The category definition contains properties associated with a category in the repository. When the category is attached to a document, the properties are viewable via a special category object type and a category identifier for the category. Any application can be adapted to leverage the ECM-independent ETL tool disclosed herein.