Introduction

A Component Type is a user definable object that is used to control how to handle source items referenced by a component. The component type object is actually another component that manages the acquisition and deployment of source items such as files, directories, and configurations.

All components must have its component type attribute set to some component type. Even if a component does not have a defined component type, its component type is set to untyped.

The files, directories, and other tree structures referenced by a simple component is managed as a discrete unit within a component. For example, an IIS application, which the provisioning software would manage as referenced source items might include the following:

• a directory of content

• IIS Web site settings

• COM+ application

• Windows Registry settings

Some source items referenced by components, such as files and directories, can be easily copied from a gold server or data source. Others, such as IIS Web site settings or Windows registry entries, need to be intelligently extracted from a data source in order to be treated as an independent, manageable entity. With its built-in component types, the provisioning software can recognize the most common source items used for J2EE and Windows applications, and can intelligently and accurately extract data for use as a component source, store the component source in a repository, and install the source items correctly in its intended destination.

When a component contains a procedure, such as testing to verify that a web server is alive, the procedure is seen ion the procedures section of the components details page.

The provisioning software comes populated with a large number of commonly used component types. See Built-in Components Types for more information on built-in component types.