Introduction

Rational Asset Manager (hereafter referred to as Asset Manager) is an asset management repository, built on the Object Management Group (OMG) Reusable Asset Specification (RAS). Asset Manager helps you define, create, govern, modify, and manage reusable assets. Development tools by convention have repositories for day-to-day source control, which typically are Source Code Management (SCM) systems such as Concurrent Versions System (CVS) and Rational Clearcase. This works well for highly granular changes by a large development organization, where frequent synchronizations are required.

However, when artifacts reach a certain level of maturity, organizations might want to share these artifacts so that users can search for them by name or description, view the context in which they are currently used, review ratings and comments from other users, and subscribe to the artifact for future notification of changes. These capabilities are just a few of the value-added capabilities that Rational Asset Manager provides compared to a typical SCM. WebSphere Business Modeler (hereafter referred to as Business Modeler) has harnessed these capabilities to provide seamless integration with Asset Manager. This article examines how to configure and use these capabilities.

Installing the business process management (BPM) Library

The first step to use an asset repository is to configure the Asset Manager server. Business Modeler requires that a server targeted for Business Modeler assets have the BPM library installed; otherwise, an error message occurs when you attempt to add assets to the repository.

To install the BPM library, launch a Web browser and navigate to your Asset Manager home page. Log in as an administrator, and then click the Administration tab and then Libraries. In the Import Libraries section, specify <WebSphere_Business_ Modeler_Install_folder>\WBModeler62\repositoryProfile\profile_6.2.0.000.zip.

After clicking OK, a summary page indicates that numerous types, attributes, and relationships have been imported. To enable the library, click Enable in the top right section of the page. On the next page, click Enable at the bottom to complete the task.

Business Modeler verifies the presence of the new constructs before adding assets to the repository. A brief overview of the library content follows; for more information about these concepts, see Resources.

How assets are organized

An Asset Manager repository organizes its assets according to types, and uses other classification structures to assist in asset retrieval.

Asset types

Asset types are the primary level of organization in Asset Manager. When you add assets to the repository, the asset type controls the information and artifacts that users must include with the asset; this information in turn is used in governance, searching, and asset reuse. The BPM library contains numerous asset types, designated to capture various components of an entire BPM solution. Specifically for Business Modeler, the library primarily contains a one-to-one map between Business Modeler concepts and Asset Manager asset types, for example, business items, processes, and resources. In addition to Business Modeler-specific asset types, there are other defined asset types for WebSphere Integration Developer (hereafter referred to as Integration Developer) and WebSphere Business Monitor (hereafter referred to as Business Monitor), but these are not discussed in this article.

Relationship types

Relationship types describe the nature of a relationship between assets. Asset types can enforce certain kinds of relationships between one asset type and another through constraints. Table 1 describes the various relationship concepts in the BPM library.

Attributes

Attributes generally enable asset producers to provide additional classifications that fit a specific context. They can span multiple asset types and can be required or optional for each asset type in which they are present. The BPM library defines two attributes (shown in Table 2), both of which may be set on all BPM asset types.

While Business Modeler uses both the domainDescriptor and domainVersion attributes, these attributes are not specific to nor owned by Business Modeler. They belong to the BPM library and, as such, other BPM products in the suite (such as Integration Developer and Business Monitor) reuse them.

After you have successfully imported the BPM library, the following text appears under Administration > Libraries. The stacked-books icon beside the version number indicates that the library is enabled.

Configuring a repository to use communities

Asset Manager has a rich set of administrative capabilities that help organizations structure and manage assets in various ways. One such administrative task is defining a community. A community is a repository structure that enables user interaction with a group of assets that are related in some way. Communities consist of assets, administrators, users, user groups, and review processes. To add assets to a repository, at least one community must exist. To define a community, return to the Administration tab in the Asset Manager Web client and click New Community. (If you are not planning to use the administrator account to produce and use assets, add the account that you plan to use to the community.) Grant Asset Producer and Asset Consumer roles to the account. For more information about administering Asset Manager communities and user accounts, see Resources.

Connecting to a repository

Now that you have successfully configured the Asset Manager server, you can connect to it from the Asset Repositories view. If you are in four-pane mode in the Business Modeling perspective, the Asset Repositories view is in the lower-right corner. If not, switch to the four-pane layout in Business Modeler by clicking the panel layout icon in the toolbar. Alternatively, if you do not prefer four-pane layout, you can show the view by selecting Window > Show View > Other > Asset Management Views > Asset Repositories.

In the Asset Repositories view, you can choose New Repository Connection from the pop-up menu, or click the New Connection icon. In the wizard, specify the URL, the user name, the password, and, optionally, a specific name. Then select both Validate connection on finish and Save password (shown in Figure 3). If you are unsure what to specify for the value of the URL, select Help > Extensions from your Asset Manager home page and use the Repository Location value. Click Finish.

Adding assets to a repository

The life cycle of an asset begins when a business artifact, for example a process, is added to a repository. In general, a business artifact is a candidate for a reusable asset when the process is ready for use by other people in addition to the author. For example, the process may be ready for review by a wider team or ready to be passed to an IT developer.

This section uses the QuickstartFinance sample available with Business Modeler. To import the sample file, complete the following steps:

1. Open Business Modeler. If you cannot see the Project Tree view, click the panel layout icon in the toolbar to switch to four-pane layout.
2. In the Project Tree view, right-click and select Import.
3. Select WebSphere Business Modeler project (.mar, .zip), and click Next.
4. Click Browse. The Browse for Folder window opens.
5. Navigate to the samples folder and click OK. The samples folder is located in the Business Modeler installation folder.
6. To import the QuickstartFinance project, select the QuickstartFinance.mar file.
7. Click Finish.

The QuickstartFinance project is available in the Project Tree view. It contains the loan application process for ABC Bank. The Loan Application (As Is) task flow approves or rejects a loan application. ABC Bank management wants to attract more clients by allowing conditional approvals.

As an ABC Bank business analyst, you authored the Loan Application (To Be) process to realize business goals. Before implementation, the Loan Application (To Be) process undergoes review and approval by an ABC Bank manager. To begin the review process, add Loan Application (To Be) to the asset repository.

• In the Project Tree view, expand QuickstartFinance > Processes and double-click Loan Application (To Be) to open the process editor. In the Attributes view of Loan Application (To Be), click the General tab. Add the following text to the Description field to clarify the task flow:

  The process task flow is: 1. A loan application arrives for approval and is reviewed by a loan officer. 2. 50% of the time, the application is approved. 3. 35% of the time, the application is approved with special conditions applied. 4. 15% of the time, the application is denied.

  
  
• Save the Loan Application (To Be) process.
• Right-click Loan Application (To Be) and select Add to Asset Repository (shown in Figure 4).
  
  Figure 4. Adding Loan Application (To Be) to the repository
  
  
  

  The Asset tree is populated when the Repository Connection field has a valid connection specified. The Repository Connection field is empty when the wizard launches for the first time.

• Click the drop-down arrow on the Repository Connection field and select the connection that you created in the previous section. The wizard remembers this selection for future repository additions. As mentioned in Installing the BPM library, the selected repository might not meet the requirements for integration with Business Modeler. In this case, an error message indicates corrective actions (shown in Figure 5).
  
  Figure 5. Error message indicating corrective actions
  
  
  
• In the Confirm Assets page, you can select which assets to add to the repository and customize asset properties, such as the name and description. In the asset tree, expand QuickstartFinance > Processes and clear the Loan Application (As Is) selection.
• Select Loan Application (To Be). The asset property editor is populated with data from the Loan Application (To Be) process.
  
  Figure 6. Selecting assets to add to a repository
  
  
  

  Complete the fields on the Confirm Assets page, referring to the following table:

  
  
  

  Name	(Mandatory) The name of the asset.
  Version	(Mandatory) A generated integer for the asset version.
  Community	(Mandatory) The repository community to which the asset will belong. Communities allow management of roles, users, and review processes. Tip: To set the community for all selected assets, modify the community of the top-level project asset.
  Short Description	(Mandatory) A meaningful one-line description of the asset.
  Description	(Optional) A description that captures more details about the asset. This text field accepts links, pictures, tables and text formatting.
  Related Assets	A list of assets that have a relationship to the selected one. This list is compiled from semantic relationships in the model and, therefore, cannot be edited.
  Tags	(Optional) Custom tags that highlight main uses or features of the asset. Use commas to separate individual tags and group two-word tags in quotation marks (" "). This field might already contain some predefined BPM tags, such as businessService, businessProcess, or businessData.

  
  
  
• Change the name to Loan Application. The (To Be) qualifier is unnecessary because you are not adding the Loan Application (As Is) process to the repository. Notice that the label in the tree does not change because the tree links to the business model artifact. You can also change the short description to something more meaningful, such as "Loan Application with conditional approval branch."
• Click the Related Assets tab. The Loan Application process asset depends on several business items and resources and is a part of the QuickstartFinance project. These relationships derive from the business model and the selection tree enforces them.
• Expand the Loans business item catalog in the tree and clear the Application selection. A warning indicates that other assets require Application and dependent assets will be cleared if you continue.
  
  Figure 7. Warning message indicating asset dependency
  
  
  
• Click Yes. Notice that the Loan Application selection clears. Select Loan Application. Again, asset relationships are enforced, but this time you are asked to select the dependent assets.
  
  Figure 8. Deciding to select dependent assets
  
  
  Click Yes. Application is selected. Click Next.
• In the Select Categories page, apply a category (defined by repository administrators) to all assets that are being added. Successfully categorizing assets helps users find the asset during a search. Use as many categories as needed to describe the appropriate context for the assets that you are adding. For example, Figure 9 illustrates applying the Personal Loan category to QuickstartFinance assets. Click Next.
  
  Figure 9. Applying categories to assets
  
  
  
• In the Solution page, add the QuickstartFinance to a solution asset. Combining assets into a solution enables you to group a collection of project assets that are otherwise not related. For example, you might have two Business Modeler projects that are part of a larger business initiative. To add a new solution, click New. You will see the same properties that you saw in the Confirm Assets page. For the name, enter 1Q Projects. For the short description, enter Projects targeted for first quarter delivery. Then click Finish.
• The Available assets tree lists all project assets targeted for publish. Double-click the QuickstartFinance asset to move it to the Solution assets tree. Alternatively, you can use the navigation buttons to add or remove assets from a solution. The Solution Name drop-down list shows all of the solutions in the repository. You can add a project asset to more than one solution by selecting additional solutions and using the navigation buttons. Click Next.
  
  Figure 10. Assigning assets to a solution
  
  
  
• The WebSphere Integration Developer project details page shows the option to add implementation details compatible with Integration Developer to the QuickstartFinance project asset. Click Next. The WebSphere Business Monitor project details page shows the option to add a monitor model compatible with WebSphere Business Monitor development toolkit to the QuickstartFinance project asset. Click Next. The Summary page lists the assets that will be added. Click Finish. Click OK on the Add Asset to Repository Results window.

The QuickstartFinance project and its assets now exist in the repository. The governance policies defined in the repository take effect to review the Loan Application process. As the ABC manager, you determine that the output branches of the Outcome of review? gateway are too restrictive. To change this, you add more special terms so that the Approve with Terms branch occurs 40% of the time. The steps are:

• Open the Loan Application (To Be) process and select the Outcome of review? gateway.
• Change to the Attributes view and select the Output branches tab.
• Change the Approve with Terms probability to 40% and the Reject probability to 10%. Also, update the process description to match the new values as you did on the Attributes – General tab. Figure 11 shows the result of these changes.
  
  Figure 11. Editing output branches of gateway
  
  
  
• Save the process.

You are now ready to update the process asset by completing the following steps:

• Right-click QuickstartFinance project and select Add to Asset Repository.
• Expand the Loans business item catalog. The Application, E-Mail Notification, and Funds business items are unselected because the artifacts have not changed since our previous addition. The Loan Application (To Be) process depends on these business items. If a business item is unselected, dependent assets such as Loan Application will establish relationships to the existing Application, E-Mail Notification and Funds assets added in earlier steps.
• Select Application and confirm that the version is 1.0, by default, by clicking the drop-down arrow of the Version field. You can choose to add a new version to update the asset. In this case, Application is unchanged. Clear the Application selection in the tree.
• Expand the Processes process catalog and clear the Loan Application (As Is) selection.
• Click Loan Application (To Be). The version is automatically incremented to 1.1. Version 1.0 is not an option in the Version drop-down list because the asset content has changed since the previous addition.
• Change the name to Loan Application, click Next and follow the earlier steps to categorize the asset.
• Click Next, and then click the drop-down arrow in the Solution Name [Version] field and select 1Q Projects [1.0]. The Solution assets tree is populated with the QuickstartFinance project asset that you added earlier.
• In the Available assets list, select QuickstartFinance [1.1] and click Add. You are asked if you want to replace the existing QuickstartFinance asset in the solution. Click Yes.
  
  Figure 12. Replacing the existing QuickstartFinance asset
  
  
  A Solution can contain only one version of a project asset. In this way, a solution is similar to the configuration of multiple projects.
• Click Finish. New QuickstartFinance and Loan Application assets are added and the 1Q Projects solution asset is updated.

Searching and browsing a repository

You can search and browse assets in an Asset Manager repository in two ways:

• By using Eclipse clients equipped with the Asset Manager toolkit (such as Business Modeler).
• By using a Web browser.

Both clients have rich functionality for browsing, searching, and other tasks. However the Web client has additional capabilities for administrative duties and governance that are not available in the Eclipse client.

Earlier sections on library installation and repository configuration illustrated some of these additional capabilities. This article focuses on the Eclipse client.

In the Business Modeling perspective, and in four-pane layout, the Asset Repositories view is available in the lower-right corner. In the Asset Repositories view, refresh the connection by clicking Refresh Repository Connection. Then expand your repository connection and expand Business Process Management. The Business Process Management folder provides a structured tree of all the assets that were added using the BPM product suite. If you are running in an environment in which two products share a package group during installation, or you are running in an environment in which assets from another product are used in your current product, you might see more than one product listed under the Business Process Management folder. The Solutions folder is always present in a BPM product.

Expand the WebSphere Business Modeler folder, QuickstartFinance [1.1], and some of the folders below it (Figure 13). Also, expand the Solutions folder. If no content exists under the Business Modeler or the Solutions folders, refresh the repository connection again by clicking Refresh Repository Connection.

Notice that the layout of projects, catalogs, and modeling artifacts mimics the layout of objects in the Business Modeling project explorer. If you want to gather additional information about a particular asset, there are a number of options. For example, hover help displays high-level details (figure 14).

In some cases, you might want to review an asset more closely to examine its relationships or its content for example. To do this, choose Browse Asset or Open Asset in Web Browser from the pop-up menu on the asset. Both methods provide the same level of information, though the layout and presentation vary slightly. Browse to the Loan Application [1.1] asset using the Browse Asset action, or double-click the asset.

The General Details tab shows some of the same information shown in Figure 14, in addition to a long description, version, modification history, and other data. The Categories tab reflects the categorization information (ABC Bank > Loans > Personal) supplied earlier during asset addition. The Related Assets tab reveals which assets this asset depends on, where this asset is used, the previous version, and so on. You can quickly browse to the assets that this asset relates to by double-clicking the relationship. For more information about the remaining tabs, see Resources.

Another way to explore the repository in a structured yet ad hoc fashion is to select the Visual Browse action that is available in the pop-up context menu of the connection (shown in Figure 16).

The resulting viewer consists of three tabs: Overview, Communities and Visual Browse. By default, the selected tab is Visual Browse. The Overview tab provides details about the repository connection and some predefined queries. The Communities tab provides a summary of the available communities in the repository, with hyperlinks to the communities in the Web browser.

The Visual Browse tab contains three sections: the left portion of the browser is for searching and filtering; the upper right portion displays search results; and the lower right portion displays a diagram.

The starting point for Visual Browse is the search pane. Using keywords, filters, tags, asset types, and categories, you can search for various subsets of assets. The resulting assets of your search criteria display in the search results. To add an asset to the diagram, simply select it in the search result view.

Here are a few useful tips for interacting with assets in the diagram:

• Assets of different asset types are displayed in different colors.
• When selecting an asset, its related assets are displayed in the search results area, grouped by relationship type. To return to the search results, use the Back to Search hyperlink.
• Hovering over an asset provides additional information about the asset.
• Related assets in the diagram are connected. Hovering on the connection reveals the nature of the relationship.
• To remove single items from the diagram, clear them in the search result view. To clear the entire diagram, use the erase button.

You can use Visual Browse to construct diagrams that are well suited for impact analysis. For example, figure 17 shows all of the business items used by the Loan Application [1.1] process in the 1Q Project solution.

To build a diagram, complete the following steps:

• Filter by solution asset type.
• Add the 1Q Project asset to the diagram by selecting it in the search results. Build the remainder of the diagram by clicking assets in the diagram and choosing the related assets to display.

Asset Manager also offers stand-alone search and filter capabilities. Select the Search Repository action in the pop-up menu of the repository connection (Figure 16). Two additional views display: one to specify search criteria and filters, and another to display results. You can search based on a number of criteria including text, keywords, filters, tags, asset types, and categories.

When adding assets to the repository the BPM products use predefined tags for orthogonal searches across asset types and communities. If you select the Tag Cloud tab in the Asset Search view, you notice two available tags: businessData and businessProcess. If you select businessProcess, for example, the Search Results view will have versions 1.0 and 1.1 of the Loan Application process, as shown in Figure 18. If assets of the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) type had been added from Integration Developer, they would also be included as part of the search results.

Importing assets from a repository

One of the benefits inherent in asset repositories is the ability to reuse assets to accelerate development of new assets. Reuse can imply establishing a dependency on an already existing item without modifications, or using existing items as a starting point and tailoring them to meet new requirements. The latter case does not represent the typical evolution of an asset, however. When you tailor existing items to meet new requirements, you are essentially copying an asset and using the copy as a starting point. The ability to quickly reuse assets in their respective environments further helps you adopt an efficient development culture.

Starting with an empty workspace, import the MortgageFinanceExample.mar file included with this article. Notice that the Mortgage Application process has no organizational content associated with it (visible in the Organizations tab in the Attributes view), nor do any organization units exist in the workspace. ABC Bank has determined that the same organization unit that is responsible for processing personal loans will also process mortgage applications.

To use the organization unit that is currently available in the repository, complete the following steps:

• Locate the Midtown Branch asset by browsing the Asset Repositories view or using the Asset Search view.
• Select Import Asset from the pop-up menu. Alternatively, you could choose Import Asset With > WebSphere Business Modeler. If you chose Import Asset, choose WebSphere Business Modeler if you are requested to select a product, and click Next.
• On the Dependencies page, select what dependencies, direct and indirect, you want to import. The Import wizard automatically selects asset dependencies that do not exist in your workspace or are inconsistent with their respective repository content. Because you are importing the Midtown Branch asset into a project with no organization unit artifacts, all the dependencies are necessary. Figure 19 illustrates the dependency import page. Accept the default selections and click Next.
  
  Figure 19. Import Dependencies page
  
  
  
• Choose a destination project to import the assets into, as shown in Figure 20. The list of potential projects is limited to those that support the types of assets that you are importing.
  
  Figure 20. Selecting the destination project
  
  
  Select the MortgageFinanceExample project and click Next.
  The final page of the wizard provides a summary of the assets targeted for import (shown in Figure 21).
  
  Figure 21. Summary of the assets targeted for import
  
  
  

To start the import process, click Finish. When conflicts exist in the workspace, users can decide the proper course of action by choosing from options in the Conflict window. In this scenario, no conflicts occur and the import completes without interruption.

After the import completes, you can update the Mortgage Application process to use the new organizational unit in the Organizations tab in the Attributes view for Mortgage Application. If you later add the Mortgage Application process to the asset repository, a Depends On relationship will exist between Mortgage Application and Midtown Branch. Because Midtown Branch and its dependencies did not undergo any changes since the import occurred, they are not candidates for re-addition to the repository. Therefore, the repository shows that both processes — Loan Application and Mortgage Application — depend on the same version of organizational information.

Collaborating and sharing assets with other BPM products

As mentioned in Adding assets to a repository, you can generate artifacts for other BPM products including Integration Developer and Business Monitor. An upcoming article covers how to take advantage of this capability to streamline passing artifacts from one product to another using Asset Manager. It also discusses methods for synchronizing repository changes across products, performing impact analysis, and configuring traceability.

Summary

This article illustrates how to configure and administer an Asset Manager repository for Business Modeler. It explains how assets are organized, and demonstrates how to browse, search, and import assets into a repository. Asset reuse can improve the efficiency of your development organization, and the integration of Asset Manager with other IBM business process management products allows you to leverage other assets for your solution.

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Resources

• Introducing IBM Rational Asset Manager (developerWorks, 2008) provides an excellent product overview. Find other articles, tutorials, downloads and more at developerWorks Rational zone.
  
  
• Find more information on Business Modeler in the WebSphere Business Modeler Advanced V6.2 InfoCenter.
  
  
• Find details on asset content libraries, asset communities, and asset browsing in the Rational Asset Manager InfoCenter V7.1.
  
  
• Read the Reusable Asset Specification V2.2 from the OMG.
  
  
• Learn about Business Process Management Powered by SOA.
  
  

About the authors

Murray Beaton is a Senior Software Developer at IBM in Canada. He currently leads the Business Process Management Repository team, and is responsible for repository and collaborative solutions across the Business Process Management product suite.

Scott Peddle is an Advisory Software Developer on the Business Process Management Repository team. He is responsible for developing integration strategies within the WebSphere BPM product suite.

Alex Fernandes is an Advisory Software Developer at IBM in Canada. He is part of the Business Process Management Repository team. Alex's experience includes relational and multidimensional database modeling.

Shili Yang is an Advisory Software Developer on the Business Process Management Repository team and works on repository and collaborative solutions across the Business Process Management product suite.

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Table of contents

• Introduction
• Installing the business process management (BPM) Library
• How assets are organized
• Configuring a repository to use communities
• Connecting to a repository
• Adding assets to a repository
• Searching and browsing a repository
• Importing assets from a repository
• Collaborating and sharing assets with other BPM products
• Summary
• Download
• Resources
• About the authors
• Comments

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