A system#container component type should be used whenever components must be grouped together and installed as a single component. The container component has an install, uninstall, and snapshot block. These blocks automatically call in to the child components. These calls enable a container to have child components added directly by using the Component Builder user interface, without having to edit the container component's XML.
The container component type is a composite component and cannot be browsed.
This comparison optionally takes a snapshot of all child components.
The default snapshot block captures snapshots of all child components with installMode=“NESTED” by using the default snapshot blocks of each child.
The following procedures are defined for the system#container component type:
default install block – Installs only those child components that have installMode=“NESTED” set.
markOnly install block – Calls the markOnly install block of all the nested child components, then marks this component as installed.
default uninstall block – Uninstalls only those child components that have installMode=“NESTED” set.
markOnly uninstall block – Calls the markOnly uninstall block of all the nested child components, then marks this component as uninstalled.
default snapshot block – Captures a snapshot of all child components if createSnapshot is set to true. Only child components that have installMode=“NESTED” set are installed. By default, createSnapshot is set to false.
Snapshots are not always enabled. If the component is deployed as a nested component of another component, it should be deployed with createSnapshot=“false” because the container component will capture a snapshot of this component after all of its contained components have been deployed. If the component is being deployed as a top-level component, you can enable snapshots by setting createSnapshot=“true”.
Snapshots are not captured when a component is contained in a container component. The deployment of the other contained components after this component might affect the installed state of this component. Thus, the snapshot is captured after the top-level installations have completed.