Using the assembly canvas

1. On the home page, click Build with assembly canvas. A new canvas opens.

2. In the "Build with assembly canvas" dialog, enter the name for your canvas.

3. (Optional) If the operators are installed in "All namespaces on the cluster" mode, you can change the namespace for the canvas.

4. Click Build. You can now start building a new canvas.

1. Click the UI form tab.

2. Set the following fields to configure the canvas.

   1. In the Name field, enter a name for the canvas.

   2. Click to expand Namespace and select the namespace where your canvas will be deployed.

3. Click the Canvas tab to return to the canvas and add nodes.

To add an instance, expand the Palette section, then drag-and-drop the instance that you want to create onto the canvas. You can hover over any entry in the Palette (or any instances that have been created on the canvas) to see more information about that item.

The two categories of instances that are available in the Palette are "Instances" and "Resources".

Instances

These nodes are instances that a user created, and they are not managed for you by the Cloud Pak for Integration operator. When you create an instance, you must manage the configuration yourself, as you do when you create a stand-alone instance from the Create an instance page.

By adding instances to the canvas, you can create an integration use case or solution as one unit and deploy it to the OpenShift cluster. Other users can review your canvas to edit or reconfigure the integration solution that you created.

Resources

These nodes are Kubernetes resources such as ConfigMaps and Secrets. By adding these resources to the canvas, you can manage all the components of your integration solution in one place instead of having to leave the Platform UI to manage Red Hat OpenShift resources.

To select existing instances that you want to import as instances to a given canvas, use the one of the following methods.

"Import existing instances" panel

1. Click the Import existing instances button in the Canvas toolbar.

   

   The Import existing instances panel opens with a list of all the instances that are available for you to add to this canvas (draft instances are excluded).

2. Select the instances that you want to add, then click Import.

Manually, by using labels

1. Click the UI form tab in the canvas and review the Independent resources section. The Match labels field in this section contains a default label that includes the name of the assembly, for example, assembly.integration.ibm.com/navigator-ns.my_assembly=true.

2. Edit this label or add a new label. If you specify multiple match labels, the resource must match all of them to be imported (see the next step).

3. Click Update. Cloud Pak for Integration searches the OpenShift cluster for resources that have matching labels. Any resources that match are Imported (added) to the canvas.

If you prefer to use the YAML view instead of the UI form view, click the YAML tab, then update the matchLabels field in the independentResources section.

You can also use the Match expressions field (matchExpressions in the YAML view) to specify a list of labels. For more information about match labels and expressions, see Labels and Selectors in the Kubernetes documentation.

You can add an instance by importing a template that is stored in Automation assets. You need to deploy Automation assets before using this feature.

1. Click the Add node from template button in the canvas toolbar. The "Select an asset" panel opens with a list of all available templates.

2. Select the template that you want to use for adding a node, then click the "Create from asset" ("+") icon. To preview the template first, click the template name. You can either import the template by clicking Create from asset, or click Back to choose a different template.

You can copy and paste instances or delete them by using the options on the Canvas toolbar.

To edit an instance, hover over it or right-click it, then click Edit to show the UI Form and YAML views, where you can make updates.

When you edit an instance, Cloud Pak for Integration might add new instances to the canvas. For example, when you edit an API Product to specify a Credentials secret, Cloud Pak for Integration adds a Secret to the canvas. You might need to change the zoom settings on the Canvas toolbar to see the new instance. If the instance is grayed out, it is referenced by an existing instance but it is not added to the canvas, so you cannot edit it from the assembly canvas.

Connect instances by hovering over the connector (to the right of the instance node) until it changes color, then drag the connector line to the connector on other node. When you create a connection, the connected instances are updated with the appropriate configuration.

For example, when you drag-and-drop a line from an API Product to an integration runtime, the API Product's configuration is updated with the name of the Integration runtime. Also, when you edit the Integration runtime to specify the URL that links to a BAR file, the connected API Product can read the configuration.

Not all instance types can be connected.

You can use the canvas to connect instances of the same Cloud Pak for Integration technology (for example, MQ nodes with other MQ nodes), or connect instances that span multiple technologies (for example, Event Streams to App Connect). For more information on connecting instances that span multiple technologies, see Connecting different instance types.

To view the connections for an instance, hover over the instance or right-click it, click the overflow menu (three-dot icon), then click Highlight. To remove highlighting, right-click a blank area of the canvas, click the overflow menu (three-dot icon) that is shown, then click Unhighlight.

For a tutorial on creating a new assembly canvas and using it to connect an API Product to an Integration runtime, see Tutorial: Connect an API Product with an Integration runtime. For a tutorial on using the assembly canvas, see Tutorial: Using the assembly canvas to create messaging workflows with Kubernetes resources.