Working with Design Studio Cartridge Projects

In Design Studio, a cartridge is a collection of entities that you deploy to a run-time environment to support your business processes (for example, you deploy cartridges to Oracle Communications Order and Service Management run-time environments to support processes required to provision services requested on incoming sales orders). When modeling application-specific entities in Design Studio, you configure all entities within a project. That collection of entities is packaged into an archive file, which you can deploy to a run-time environment.

When working with Design Studio cartridges, see the following topics:

Creating New Cartridge Projects

Cartridge projects are collections of entities that you deploy to a run-time environment to support your business processes.

To create a Cartridge project:

  1. From the Studio menu, select New, then select Project, and then select the type of cartridge project to create.

    The New Project dialog box appears.

  2. In the Project Name field, enter a name for the project.

    Project names must be unique in the workspace. The cartridge and resultant archive file use the name that you enter here. Do not enter spaces or periods in this field. Oracle recommends a naming convention of lowercase letters separated by underscores. For example, my_cartridge.

  3. (Optional) Select a location for the project.

    By default, Design Studio saves the project to your default workspace location. To identify a location different from the default:

    1. Deselect Use default location.

    2. Click Browse.

    3. Navigate to the directory in which to save the project.

    4. Click OK.

  4. In the Target Version field, indicate the version of the run-time software to which you will deploy the cartridge.

    Note:

    The value in the Target Version field is used by Design Studio to build your cartridge project to be compatible with the run-time version to which you want to deploy the project. Select the highest version number that is equal to or less than the version of the run-time software to which you want to deploy the project.
  5. In the Execution Environment field, select an execution environment for the target version.

    Design Studio pre-populates this field (based on the selection in the Target Version field) with the recommended environment for the target version. You can select a different supported version from the list. When you create the project, Design Studio automatically configures the JRE System Library and the compiler compliance setting.

    Design Studio obtains the list of execution environments from the Eclipse workspace configuration. To view the list, from the Windows menu select Preferences, then expand Java, then expand Installed JREs, then select Execution Environments.

  6. In the Package Name field, define the default implementation package name to be used as a prefix for generated code.

  7. Click Finish.

    Design Studio adds the new Cartridge project to the Studio Projects view. In addition to containing the Project entity, the project may also include system-supplied entities, such as a Data Schema entity.

Related Topics

About Design Studio Naming Conventions

Working with Design Studio Cartridge Projects

Defining Project Version Numbers

After you create a project, you define the version number. You can change the version at a later time. When changing the version of deployable cartridge projects, clean and build the project (and any dependent projects) before deploying the cartridge projects or the dependent cartridge projects.

To define a project version number:

  1. In the Studio Projects view, double-click any Project entity.

    The entity opens in the Project editor.

  2. Click the Properties tab.

  3. Enter values for the Major Version Number, Minor Version Number, Maintenance Pack, Generic Patch, and Customer Patch fields.

    The combination of these version numbers (with the value in the Build field, which is automatically generated) represents the cartridge version number. Some cartridges support 3 digit version numbers (using Major Version Number, Minor Version Number, and Maintenance Pack). Version support is determined by the Design Studio feature and by the selected target version. See "Project Editor Properties Tab" for more information about these fields.

  4. Select File, then select Save.

Related Topics

About Project Version Numbers

Working with Design Studio Cartridge Projects

About Project Version Numbers

Design Studio supports both a three-segment and a five-segment release version. You can define release version numbers for any unsealed and editable Design Studio project.

Projects must always have a valid version number. When you first create a project, Design Studio applies the following default values:

  • Major Version Number: 1

  • Minor Version Number: 0

  • Maintenance Pack: 0

  • Generic Patch: 0

  • Customer Patch: 0

The build number is automatically generated through the build process.

When you edit any of these fields, you create a new version of the project.

Note:

Modifying these field values does not create a separate instance of the project in Design Studio, and Design Studio cannot support multiple versions of a project in the same workspace. Multiple versions of a project in the same workspace creates conflicting model entities.

When changing version numbers, Oracle recommends that you use a source control system to ensure that you are able to return to the previous version.

Related Topics

Defining Project Version Numbers

Project Editor Properties Tab

Working with Model Variables

When you create projects, some of the information you provide may depend on a specific environment. If you have environment-specific values for variables that you will need at run time, you can create tokens for the variables and later define values for each environment in which you will use the variable. Tokens are placeholders for environment-specific values that can be defined at the time of deployment.

When modeling model variables, see the following topics:

About Model Variables

Model variables are placeholders for environment-specific values that you intend to define at the time of deployment. You can create, add, or remove model variables, as necessary.

For example, consider that you must define the credentials used for running automated tasks in two different environments—your testing environment and your production environment—and that the value required by the testing environment is different than that required by the production environment. Rather than editing the variable value in the source code each time you deploy to one of these environments, you can create a model variable, then define environment-specific values for that variable.

Note:

Some Oracle Communications features do not support model variables.

Related Topics

Creating Model Variables

Defining Model Variables

Project Editor Model Variables Tab

Creating Model Variables

You create model variables to represent environment-specific values that you intend to define at the time of deployment.

To create model variables:

  1. From the Studio menu, select Show Design Perspective.

  2. Click the Studio Projects tab.

    The Studio Projects view appears.

  3. Double-click any Project entity.

    The project opens in the Project editor.

  4. Click the Model Variables tab.

  5. Click Add.

    Design Studio adds a new variable, VAR_1, to the Name column.

  6. Select the table row that contains VAR_1.

  7. In the Name field (below the table), replace VAR_1 with a new name.

    For example, you might change the default variable name to automationUser if you were defining the credentials with which your automated tasks run.

  8. (Optional) In the Value field, enter a default value for the variable.

    You can provide a default value for the variable if, for example, you have multiple environments and many share the same variable value.

  9. (Optional) Select Sensitive to secure the default value in the user interface and on disk.

    This option enables you to define default values with a layer of security. If you deselect the Sensitive option, Design Studio clears the Value field to protect the existing value. See "Project Editor Model Variables Tab" for more information about this field.

  10. (Optional) Click Add to create additional variables.

  11. (Optional) Select a variable and click Remove to delete a variable.

    Note:

    Oracle recommends that you not remove any of the default variables.
  12. Click Save.

Related Topics

About Model Variables

Defining Model Variables

Project Editor Model Variables Tab

Defining Model Variables

You define model variables before you deploy a cartridge to a specific run-time environment.

To define model variables:

  1. Create model variables.

    See "Creating Model Variables" for more information.

  2. Populate a field with the model variable.

    When populating fields with model variables, use the following syntax:

    %{VariableName}

    where VariableName is the name of the model variable as defined on the Project editor Model Variables tab.

    For example, Oracle recommends that you populate the Run As field on the Automation Plug-in Properties view Details tab with the a default automation user variable. To use the delivered sample model variable (DEFAULT_AUTOMATION_USER), you populate the Run As field with the value %{DEFAULT_AUTOMATION_USER}.

  3. Save, clean, and build the project.

    See "Running Clean Builds" for more information.

  4. Select Studio, then select Show Environment Perspective.

  5. In the Environments tab, select the environment to which you want to deploy the cartridge.

    See "Deploying Cartridge Projects from the Environment Perspective" for more information about deploying cartridges. See "Creating Run-Time Environments" for information about creating new environments.

  6. Connect to the environment.

    See "Testing Run-Time Environment Connectivity" for more information about connecting to the environment.

  7. Define environment-specific values for model variables.

    You define these values on the Model Variables tab. The system displays a list of all the model variables defined in the workspace (and any corresponding default values that you defined in the Project editor Model Variables tab. See "Studio Environment Editor Model Variables Tab" for more information.

    Environment-specific model variable values override those that are defined in the Project editor. If you define fields with model variables but you do not define the model variable with a default value (in the Project editor Model Variables tab) or with an environment-specific value (in the Studio Environment editor Model Variables tab), Design Studio creates a problem marker. You cannot deploy a cartridge until you resolve all problem markers.

Related Topics

About Model Variables

Creating Model Variables

Project Editor Model Variables Tab