Described is a system and method for allowing applications to interact with a common backup program in a uniform way. The system and method provides a communication mechanism for one or more applications to exchange information with the backup program regarding components of the applications. The information exchanged may include an identification of the components of each application. A component may be considered a group of files or resources that should be backed up or restored together. In this way, when a backup operation is initiated, each application may provide to the common backup program instructions describing the specific components to be backed up. In addition, each application may add other application-specific information useful during a restore of the backed up data.