Understanding the Enterprise Repository Access View
The Enterprise Repository Access View view provides access to assets and artifacts in the Enterprise Repository. You can search for assets matching various criteria or view assets that may be of interest to your project. For selected assets, you can view details and relationships, and can also download associated artifacts into your workspace.
Displaying the Enterprise Repository Access View
To display the Enterprise Repository Access view:
1. Open the Window menu.
2. Select Show View.
3. Select Other.
4. Open the AquaLogic folder.
5. Select the Enterprise Repository Access option.
The Enterprise Repository Access view is displayed as a tabbed pane containing Search and Project Team Assets panes.
The Search tab displays a toolbar at the top that is visible whether the active view is the Query pane or the Results pane. You can toggle between the two displays by clicking either the Query link or the Results link, depending on which pane is active at the time.
The Query Pane
The Query pane, as shown in Figure 3-1, allows you to easily construct asset query filtering to view assets that may be of interest to your project, including Assembly Model assets imported from an integrated external endpoint, such as an AquaLogic Service Bus or an AquaLogic DSP project, and common ALER assets already defined in your ALER instance.
Query Pane Toolbar
Table 3-1 describes the options that are available to query assets.
Table 3-1 Asset Query Options
Icon
What it means...
Enter Keyword box
When the query is invoked, all results will contain this keyword (if one has been specified) as part of a well-defined set of fields (e.g. name, description, categories, etc.)
Asset Type menu
Displays all asset types, which allows you to filter assets by a specified selection. When a selection occurs, the specific fields associated with this asset type are added to the Additional Criteria table.Three important asset types to note are:
<Assembly Model Assets> - assets that are submitted from an integrated external endpoint, such AquaLogic DSP and AquaLogic Service Bus.
<Common Assets> - legacy assets from an existing ALER instance.
<Consumable Assets> - integrated endpoint services that are consumable by Workspace Studio plug-ins, which restricts them to services exposed or promoted as public services in the assembly model.
Registration Status menu
Displays all registration status values, which allows you to filter assets by a specified selection.
Connect to enterprise repository - If no connection to a repository has been established, this button invokes the Connect to Enterprise Repository wizard, which will prompt you for connection credentials.
Perform query - If a repository connection has been established, this button queries the enterprise repository based upon the specified criteria. Once the results are obtained, the Results pane will automatically become visible.
Clear all query criteria - Clears all query criteria fields to prepare for another query.
Refresh enterprise repository information - Queries the enterprise repository for its metadata, and repopulates the appropriate fields based upon the results of this query.
Categorizations Tree Viewer
The Categorizations tree viewer provides a convenient way to query for assets associated with a set of categories, with most option containing appropriate subcategories. If a category is selected all its existing subcategories are also selected. If a subcategory has a parent, the parent checkbox state is also selected. Conversely, if a category is deselected all its subcategories are deselected.
Note:
If more than one categorization type is used in the criteria, the selected types are ANDed together. There is no OR option.
Additional Criteria Table
The Additional Criteria table contains an additional set of filters to impose upon a query. These criterion are joined together to formulate the query constraint.
Click the Add Criteria button to activate a new criteria row.
The Field column presents a drop-down menu that allows you to select from a list of fields for the query filter. The list of fields based upon the selected asset type. If no asset type is selected, the list of fields are the fields that are common to all asset types.
Figure 3-2 Additional Criteria Table
Select a field from Field column menu. As a result, the Operation and Value cells are updated to reflect the possible operations and pre-defined set of values associated with the selected field.
From the Operation column's menu, select the operation (equals, not equals, etc.) for the query filter row.
If the specified field has a pre-defined set of values, then a drop-down menu is displayed to specific a comparison value. If the specified field does not have a pre-defined set of values, then a text field is displayed to specify a comparison value.
If necessary, use the Remove Criteria button to remove selected rows from the table.
If the query criterion specified in the row is invalid or incomplete, the Info (i) icon displays in the left-most status column.
The Results Pane
The Results pane shows all assets that satisfied the search criteria established in the Query pane. It displays information for all query results, such as the asset name, asset type and registration status.
Figure 3-3 Results Pane
Results Pane Toolbar
Table 3-1 describes the options that are available on the Results pane.
Table 3-2 Results Pan Icons
Icon
What it means...
Toggle the display of the asset detail view - Displays a selected asset's details in a web browser view, or to not launch the web-based view when an asset is selected.
Display the asset properties and relationships view - Enables you to view the details of a selected asset in the Results pane.
Customize ALER query result columns - Opens the Customize Results Columns dialog, which enables you to rearrange the order of the results columns.
Working with the Results Table
Table 3-3 describes the columns in the Query Results table.
Table 3-3 Query Results Table
Row
What it means...
Asset
The simple name of the asset.
Model
The name for Assembly Model assets imported into ALER.
Model Namespace
The group the model is a member of. The Namespace is pre-pended to the names of all the assets in the Assembly Model in the repository.
Version
The asset version number.
Type
The asset type.
Reg Status
The asset registration status.
Product
The product where the asset originated.
# of Artifacts
The number of artifacts associated with the asset. If the number is 1 or higher the Download artifacts option is enabled.
When you select a results row, the asset's properties, details, and relationships are displayed in the Properties View, Details View, and Enterprise Repository Relationships View respectively, if the relevant view is visible.
Right-click an asset to access these options from the menu:
Download artifacts - if the value in the # of Artifacts column is 1 or higher, you can download an asset's artifacts and its dependencies into your Eclipse project (if the SCM information was properly set up when the assembly model was submitted). For more information, see Downloading Asset Artifacts.
Subscribe/Unsubscribe - subscribes to the selected asset if currently unsubscribed, and visa versa.
Show in asset details view - opens the Asset Details view.
You can sort the asset results by clicking any column header.
Viewing Assets Associated With an ALER Project
The Project Team Assets view displays a list of assets that have been prescribed to your project, as well as assets that are already in use in the project.
Overview
Through the Enterprise Repository, analysts, architects, technical leads, and others that are involved in the design stages of a project, can create a list of assets that might fulfill a project's requirements. The lists of assets are captured in compliance templates in the repository, and the compliance templates are associated with an ALER project. For more information on compliance templates, refer to the ALER Compliance Templates Guide.
Note:
Compliance Templates are only available in the ALER Advanced Edition.
From the Enterprise Repository Access viewer in Workspace Studio you can view a list of assets appearing in all of the Compliance Templates assigned to your project. The viewer will indicate which of the assets have been used by you and/or other project members. The viewer will also display other assets that are already in use in the project.
Using the Project Team Assets View
The Project Team Assets view is decoupled from a workspace ALER project. Therefore you can view assets for any ALER project without having to set or alter the workspace default. In addition, there are also ancillary views to display asset details without having to launch an external Web browser to view an asset's details.
From the Repository Project menu, select a project from the set of all enterprise repository projects associated with the current repository connection. The items in the list are prefixed with the name of the repository in which the associated project resides.
Click the Query button to query the enterprise repository for all assets associated with the specified repository project.
If a repository connection has been established, the Project Team Assets table is populated with the set of assets associated with the specified project. Each of the columns in the table identifies how the asset relates to the project in the repository. You can also resort each column using the column header.
Figure 3-4 Project Team Assets Pane
Table 3-4 describes the other icons and columns that are available in the Project Team Assets view.
Table 3-4 Project Team Assets Table
Icon/Column Name
What it means...
Toggle the display of the asset detail view - Displays a selected asset's details in a web browser view, or to not launch the web-based view when an asset is selected.
Display the asset properties and relationships view - Allows you to view the details of a selected asset in the Results pane.
Connect to enterprise repository - If no connection to a repository has been established, this button invokes the Connect to Enterprise Repository wizard, which will prompt you for connection credentials.
Refresh enterprise repository information - Queries the enterprise repository for its metadata, and repopulates the appropriate fields based upon the results of this query.
Prescribed
Indicates whether or not an asset is prescribed and has been assigned to a project using a Compliance Template. A Compliance Template may be used to prescribe specific assets for use in any projects to which the compliance template is applied.
My Usage
Identifies assets you have used/downloaded for the project.
Project Usage
Identifies assets that have been used/downloaded by any member of the project.
Usage Status
Identifies the status of the asset as it relates to the project:
Prescribed - The asset has been assigned to the project but has not yet been used in or downloaded to the project.
In Process - The asset has been used in/downloaded to the project.
Rejected - The asset has been rejected for use in the project. (Not shown in example.)
Deployed - The asset was used for a project that has been closed.
Name
Displays the asset name.
Version
Displays the asset version.
If necessary, click the Refresh button to repopulate the table with the results of this query.
Viewing Asset Properties and Details
You display asset properties and values in the standard Eclipse Properties view. To launch the Asset Properties view, you can either:
The Asset Details view is another view that provides asset details in an embedded web-based browser view, which when enabled, calls out the enterprise repository application for details associated with the selected asset. See Searching for Assets for instructions on how to enable or disable rendering of the asset details view.
Figure 3-5 shows the Properties view on the left side of the workspace being populated based upon the selection in the Results Pane. It also depicts the Asset Details view on the right, with its contents based upon the selected asset in the Results pane.
Figure 3-5 Asset Properties and Details Views
Viewing Asset Relationships
The Enterprise Repository Asset Relationships view displays the relationships for a selected asset in a graphical format. The Asset Relationships view listens for asset selection, either within the Results pane or the Project Team Assets view, and updates itself based upon the relationships of the currently selected asset. If there no assets are currently selected, then this view will be blank.
You can launch the view using either of these methods:
Figure 3-6 depicts the Asset Relationship view in the upper-right corner of the workspace. Its content is based upon the current selection in the Results pane. The view shows the selected asset in the middle of the graph as a stand-alone node, and shows all relationships that the asset is involved in, such as bi-directional and one-way relationships.
Those assets that are a source of a relationship with the selected asset are shown above the selected asset and have links pointing to the selected assets. Those assets that are a target of a relationship with the selected asset are shown above the selected asset and have links pointing from the selected assets.
Figure 3-6 Asset Relationships View
To fully understand the bi-directionality of the Asset Relationships view, read the graph in Figure 3-6 as follows. (Note that the selected asset is: Sample Application - Commercial Credit Authorization System.)
Relationship 2: Functional Equivalent Of - Sample Application - ACES (source asset) is Functional Equivalent of Sample Application - Commercial Credit Authorization System (target asset)
Relationship 3: Depends On - Sample Application - Commercial Credit Authorization System (source asset) Depends On Sample Comm Adapter - Customer Credit Information (target asset)
There are numerous instances where a particular relationship for the selected asset may be satisfied by more than one asset. For such cases, the assets that satisfy this relationship are grouped together where the relationship type is shown in the node label. Figure 3-7 shows a selected asset that has three Asset Prescribed By relationships and how those assets are grouped to satisfy that relationship.
Figure 3-7 Asset Relationships View With Multiple Assets Satisfying a Relationship
Downloading Asset Artifacts
You can download an asset's artifacts (i.e., payload) into an Eclipse project. Typically an asset payload is usually the functionality that a developer needs to use a service (such as a WSDL file) or incorporate into their code base (usually a binary). Within the asset metadata, links to supporting documentation, user guides, test cases, etc., are provided to better enable developers to reuse existing functionality.
Query the repository for the desired asset(s), as described in Searching for Assets.
Right-click the appropriate asset on the Results pane and if there are available artifacts, select Download Artifacts from the shortcut menu to open the Download Artifacts window.
Figure 3-8 Download Artifacts
In the Download Location section:
Use the Download Folder field to navigate to an Eclipse project and select the destination folder for the download.
Select the Overwrite existing files check box to overwrite existing versions of the artifacts in the selected project folder.
In the Repository Governance section:
Select a valid project from the Repository Project list.
Select the Subscribe to associated assets check box to subscribe to all of the selected assets that had files associated with them, plus any associated artifact assets and dependencies for Service Assembly Models.
Verify your selection in the list of artifacts to download, and then click OK.
Artifacts associated with the selected asset will be downloaded to the specified location.
Click OK again on the status confirmation window.
Open the selected destination folder to confirm the presence of the selected artifact file(s).
Query button to query the enterprise repository for all assets associated with the specified repository project. 
