Purpose

Application configuration is the packaging of application elements into a single, deployable unit.

Overview

The goal of Object Builder is to produce components to deploy within the Component Broker runtime. The Object Builder term for this deployable unit is an Application Family. An Application Family is represented by a DDL file that describes all elements of an Application Family package, their relationships, and any system resources that are used.

Whereas an Application Family is the unit of deployment, there is a more fine-grained notion of deployment corresponding to a server process. An Application corresponds to a server process and is characterized by one or more managed objects, together with any supporting code, packaged as DLL or JAR files. Specification of supporting code is done in the Application folder's Smartguide. The specification of managed objects (MO) and their relationships to other elements is done through a separate "Add Managed Object" Smartguide, accessible from an Application's pop-up menu.

There may be several Applications within an Application Family; and all of these Applications are deployed at one time using the System Management End User Interface (SMEUI) tool. The deployment process will copy all of the files referenced as part of the Application Family package to the server environment. The server environment is fixed and managed by the runtime framework.

Once loaded, the individual Applications are available separately through the System Manager's user interface. Therefore, the notion of the Application Family is not apparent for most System Manager tasks. Servers are characterized by which Applications they run, not which Application Families.

The following steps are required to configure an Application:

  1. Add Application Family
  2. Add Application
  3. Add Managed Objects
  4. Generate the DDL File

The third step, Add Managed Objects, is the one that brings the disparate elements together into a single deployable unit. This is where you specify which Business Object (BO) implementation is used with a given BO interface. It is in this step that you make the MO-BO-BOimpl-DLL-Home association. You can also specify the visibility scope for the home.

1. Add Application Family To top of page

From the Application Configuration folder's pop-up menu, select Add Application Family. There is only one page in this Smartguide. On it, you provide:

  • Name - The name that the application family is known by in Object Builder and in SMEUI. Typical examples are "ClaimAppFam" or "Claim Application Family". Although spaces make the application family name more readable, keep in mind that this name will be used in the file system, even if you override the DDL name as described below.
  • Description - A description of the application family that appears in the DDL file to be generated.
  • Specific DDL Name - A specific DDL file is generated when there is the potential to use the query service. By default, the name for this file is the name of the regular DDL file, also known as non-specific DDL, with "specific" appended to it. On some platforms, this breeds file name length concerns. This option allows for overriding this default.
  • Non-specific DDL Name - The name of the DDL file to be generated. If this is left blank, the file is named after the application family. This is the common practice. The most notable exception is when the target platform has file name length restrictions (for example, OS/390).

2. Add Application To top of page

From the Application Family's pop-up menu, select Add Application. The Add Application Smartguide consists of two pages. The first one provides the following entry fields:

  • Application Name - The name of the application. Typical examples are "ClaimApp" or "Claim Application". Like the Application Family name, you will want to decide whether to include spaces in the name.
  • Description - This description is included in the generated DDL file.
  • Version - Comes from the version on the Application Family, and is not editable.
  • JavaVM Name - This field is blank as it is reserved for future use.

The next panel is where additional resources are specified. The title "Additional Executables" is perhaps misleading, since other items besides EXEs may be included. As the Smartguide indicates, you do not need to enter the name of the DLLs and JARs that contain MO code; these will be packaged automatically, using information provided in Step 3. The most commonly added items are libraries and JAR files containing helper classes and JAR files containing PAO beans. A separate folder exists for each platform because file system locations from one platform usually do not make sense on another.

3. Add Managed Objects To top of page

Select the Application Family to which you want to add the Managed Object, and select Add Managed Object from its pop-up menu. Follow the Smartguide to completion. Be mindful of the selections you make and investigate the drop-down boxes. The defaults are good for basic development and simple Object Builder models.

4. Generate the DDL File To top of page

When you have defined your Application Family packages, you must generate the DDL file. It's easy to forget this step. From the Application Family folder's pop-up menu, select Generate.

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