Submitting Assets to ALER

When submitting assets to ALER, the WorkSpace Studio plug-ins for Eclipse determine whether or not the project can be transformed into an assembly model or if the referenced Eclipse project is an existing ALER project, and then renders the appropriate wizard to submit the asset to the enterprise repository.

The Archive Submission wizard maintains support for legacy ALER functionality by allowing you to submit single and/or compound-payload assets to ALER via an archive ZIP file, as explained in Submitting Archived Assets.

Assembly Models

An Assembly Model is a set of related assets representing the structure of a WorkSpace Studio integration project in terms of the SCA standard. When a project is submitted from WorkSpace Studio, an Assembly Model is automatically created. The model consists of a root asset, of type AssemblyModel, that logically contains all the other assets in the model. The model assets represent Components, Services, Interfaces, and Bindings defining a WorkSpace Studio project, as well as Composites that define a hierarchical composition structure. The relationships used to connect the assets in the Assembly Model are ALER system-supplied relationships.

ALER Projects

Projects are the primary means of gathering metrics in ALER. ALER tracks assets produced by projects, as well as assets consumed by projects. Projects are also a channel for governance practices, with ALER Compliance Templates (usually taking the form of Architecture Blueprints or Project Profiles) being applied to projects.

The ALER plug-in for Eclipse allows projects in ALER to be synchronized with projects in the Eclipse IDE by supporting governance rules. If compliance templates have been applied to a project, the list of assets in the compliance templates will appear in the Eclipse IDE. If SFID/automatic usage detection has been enabled, the assets that are used in the developer's project will be compared to the assets in ALER, and if a match is found, it will be recorded in ALER as reuse. This process streamlines the development experience, making ALER almost transparent to development teams. It also facilitates compliance reporting, allowing ALER to determine whether project teams have actually used the assets specified in the compliance templates.

Submitting Assembly Models to the Repository

When you right-click an Eclipse project and select the Submit to AquaLogic Enterprise Repository from the shortcut menu, the Workspace Studio plug-ins first determine if connectivity has been established to ALER. If a connection is not yet established, the Connect to Enterprise Repository wizard is launched to establish connectivity.

Once connectivity is established, the Workspace Studio plug-ins determine whether or not the project can be transformed into an assembly model or an ALER project (see Submitting Eclipse Project Files to ALER.). If it can be transformed into an assembly model, the Submit Assets to Enterprise Repository wizard enables you to submit the project's associated assets to the enterprise repository.

For example, if the referenced project is an integrated external endpoint, such as AquaLogic Data Services Platform or AquaLogic Service Bus, the wizard rendered represents the information required to submit the assets associated with the AquaLogic project.

Specifying Model Submission Information

When submitting assembly models, WorkSpace Studio plug-ins capture metadata associated with the submitted asset, such as model and associated Artifact Store information.

Right-click an Eclipse project and select Submit to AquaLogic Enterprise Repository from the shortcut menu.

Figure 4-1 Submit Assets to ALER - Specify Submission Information

Submit Assets to ALER - Specify Submission Information

Complete the fields in the Submission Information box, as necessary. Once submitted, the Model and Repository Project information will appear in the asset query Results pane, as described in The Results Pane.

Model Name - the model name by which the project will be referred in ALER Every asset that is part of the model will have that model name. The name defaults to the name of the current Eclipse project, but you can modify this name for an initial submission.
Model Version - a label that is common to all assets in a model. During the initial submission and subsequent resubmission, this field displays the non-editable <Default> string and can only be edited under certain conditions, as described in Resubmitting an Existing Model.
Model Namespace - a grouping mechanism for assembly models, with the Namespace prepended to the names of all the assets in the model in the repository. If the project you are submitting has an associated namespace, this will be displayed by default. Otherwise, the workspace preference default will be displayed, in one exists. You can modify the default Namespace name for an initial submission. The new Namespace will only be saved for the current project and will not affect the workspace name.
Repository Project - the ALER project associated with the current Eclipse project. Asset usage is tracked in the repository and attributed to repository projects, which typically represent software development programs, business initiatives, etc. If the project you are submitting has an associated repository project, this will be displayed by default. Otherwise, the workspace default will be displayed, if one exists. You can modify the default Repository Project name for an initial submission. The new name will only be saved for the current project and will not affect the workspace name.
Comments for Registrar - optionally provide information about the current project to the ALER Registrar. These comments will be available to the Registrar via the Asset Editor, in the Audit Log element on the Administration tab. The log entry is named "Submission Comment Added."

Note:

The Model Name, Version, and Namespace fields reflect the values used during the initial submission and cannot be edited when resubmitting a project. For more information, see Resubmitting an Existing Model.

In the Artifact Store area:

The Artifact Store area displays the name of a preconfigured Artifact Store that the submitted assets will be associated with. Artifact Stores contain the files relevant to assets in ALER and are configured in the ALER console by an administrator. The Details box may also display some additional information about the Artifact Store.
In the Project Path box, enter the name of the Project Path that the submitted assets will be associated with. The Project Path is defined at the Eclipse project level and is relative to the Path attribute on the Artifact Store.

Click Finish to complete the submission.

Resolving External Service References

If an AquaLogic project contains unresolved external service references, you may want to resolve any unresolved references before submitting the project to the Enterprise Repository; however, this is not required.

When submitting an AquaLogic project with unresolved external service references, the dialog box shown in Figure 4-2 is automatically invoked, which provides potential matches for the unresolved references.

Figure 4-2 Submit Assets to ALER - Resolve External Service References

Submit Assets to ALER - Resolve External Service References

Match the unresolved external reference(s) with the potential service matches supplied by the dialog box, as follows:

External Service References - Contains a list of any unresolved external service references associated with the AquaLogic project being submitted to ALER. When a service is selected, the list of Potential Service Matches is updated. This box also displays the name of the currently resolved match (if there is one) between braces {}.
Potential Service Matches - Contains all the potential matching services for the selected external service reference and their percentage matching value as you hover your pointer over each match. Obviously, the higher the percentage, the better the chance of achieving a potential match. When a potential match is selected, details of the service are provided in the Details section.
Match - When the Match button is selected it associates the selected potential match with the selected External Service Reference. It also updates the label of the selected external service reference by displaying the name between braces {}

Click Finish to resolve the service references.

Guidelines for Submitting Models to ALER

Asset Naming Algorithm

In the event an asset name/version collision occurs against an existing ALER non-deleted asset during an assembly model submission, the name will be augmented with a dash and number as follows: assetname-1, assetname-2, assetname-3, etc. In the event name trimming needs to occur, such as where the name uses all the available characters for an asset name, the name will be trimmed at the end to make room for the name modification.

Producing Projects

Projects submitted as assembly models will include a reference to the producing project. This project is applied to all assets in the import bundle and are additive in nature. For any assets in the bundle that already exist in ALER and have producing projects applied, the existing producing projects will remain intact and the new producing project will be added to the asset.

No Support Imported WSDLs With Duplicate Assets

A WSDL imported using the ALER Plug-in for Eclipse cannot subsequently be imported directly using the ALER import/export tool. Any attempt to import such a WSDL using the import/export tool will fail, throwing the following "Unsupported WSDL" error message:

Error [10,001]: Unsupported WSDL - Specified WSDL can be imported only using ALSync tool as previous version of this WSDL was imported via ALSync.?

Resubmitting an Existing Model

When initially submitting a model, the Model fields reflect the values used during the initial submission and cannot be edited when resubmitting a project. This is because they uniquely identify the assets of an assembly model, and changing any of these fields would result in a new model being created instead of an existing model getting updated.

The only time any Model fields can be modified is when an error occurs when resubmitting (e.g. a naming conflict) or when a model is locked, which will require entering a new model name, version, and namespace. A model can become locked under two conditions:

If either of these conditions is detected by ALER when a model is being resubmitted, a message will be displayed and the user can change any or all of the following fields: Model Namespace, Model Name, or Model Version. The user can then continue submit the model, but that model will now be a new model, and will not overwrite the original model (since that model is locked).

Submitting Eclipse Project Files to ALER

When you right-click an Eclipse project and select the Submit to AquaLogic Enterprise Repository from the shortcut menu, WorkSpace Studio plug-ins first determine if connectivity has been established to ALER. If a connection is not yet established, the Connect to Enterprise Repository wizard is launched to establish connectivity.

Once connectivity is established, the ALER plug-in determines whether the associated project is an Assembly Model (see Submitting Assembly Models to the Repository.) or an existing ALER API project. When it is an ALER project, the Submit Project Files wizard allows you to select and update an existing archive with assets to submit to ALER.

Right-click an Eclipse project and select Submit to AquaLogic Enterprise Repository from the shortcut menu.
In the Archive Name field, enter the path to an existing project archive field or browse to an archive using the Ellipses button. You can also create a new archive file. When an existing file is selected, its fully qualified path is placed in the Archive Name text field. A valid project archive must have a .zip file extension.
When selecting an existing archive, click OK to confirm that it is okay to overwrite the selected project archive.

Figure 4-3 Submit Project Files - Select Archive Name

Submit Project Files - Select Archive Name

Use the resulting project folder structure to select at least one file from the project to submit to ALER.
If necessary, you can click the Select Types button to open a dialog box where can select certain file types to include in the archive.
After selecting the files you want to include in the archive, click Next. All artifacts selected from the project will be zipped into the archive file.
After the archive and its contents have been specified, you can enter asset submission data, such as a version number, the type of asset to be submitted, a description, and associated comments.

Figure 4-4 Submit Project Files - Enter Submit Data

Submit Project Files - Enter Submit Data

Click Finish.
Click OK on the confirmation window to complete the submission process.

The project will appear as an asset in the Submitted - Pending Review folder in the ALER Asset Editor file tree. You can also refresh the data in the Enterprise Repository View's Results pane to view the asset in Pending Review status. You can also click the asset to view more details. For more information, see The Results Pane.

Submitting Archived Assets

The Archive Submission wizard maintains support for legacy functionality for ALER 2.x or earlier releases. This allows you to submit single and/or compound-payload assets to AquaLogic Enterprise Repository by creating an asset archive ZIP file.

Select the project that contains assets that you want to create an archive for.
Open the Export dialog box, by either:

Right-click the desired project and select Export on the context menu.
Select Export from the main File menu.

In the Export dialog box, open the AquaLogic Enterprise Repository folder and select the Build Archive Submission option.

Figure 4-5 Build File Archive - File Selection

Build File Archive - File Selection

Complete the Build File Archive - File Selection dialog box as follows:

Enter an archive name by browsing to select an existing archive on your local file store, or create a new archive. In either case the archive must have a .zip extension.
Use the file category buttons to select and assign files to the archive file.
Click Next.

Figure 4-6 Build File Archive - Enter Submit Data

Build File Archive - Enter Submit Data

On the Enter Submit Data dialog box, fill in the appropriate information describing the asset.
Click Finish.
Click OK to confirm the submission to ALER.

The asset will upload to the installed registry, and will appear in the Submitted - Pending Review folder in the file tree in AquaLogic Enterprise Repository's Asset Editor. You can also refresh the data in the Enterprise Repository View's Results pane to view the asset in Pending Review status. You can also click the asset to view more details. For more information, see The Results Pane.

Repository Integration with Eclipse Using WorkSpace Studio