Basics of writing OSLC integrations
Integrations that are built with OSLC rely on the OSLC Core specification and a domain specification. The core specification describes primary integration techniques, use of HTTP and RDF (Resource Description Framework), and identifies the common features that every OSLC service supports. Domain specifications are tailored to a particular ALM area, such as change management, test management, requirements management, or architecture management. Domain specifications comply with the core specification. For example, the change management specification defines a common set of resources, formats, and RESTful services for use in change management tools (consumers) and by provider tools. Specifications describe a set of services and formats for interacting with other lifecycle tools. These specifications do not attempt to standardize the behavior of a tool or class of tools.
For an introduction and walk-through of the planning and tasks that are required to create an integration with OSLC, see Getting Started with OSLC (enhanced). Individual Rational® products provide information on OSLC enablement. You can find this information in product documentation in the section on extending the product with OSLC services. This information also includes supported link types and resources that you must use to build an integration.
Before you begin working with OSLC specifications, become familiar with the Eclipse Lyo editor and with the following basic OSLC concepts.
Consumers, providers, and resources
OSLC service providers provide an implementation of OSLC services. A service provider offers consumers information for viewing the link to a resource, and rich previews of the resource.
An OSLC consumer is a web application that uses resources that a service provider provides.
In OSLC, each artifact in the lifecycle is represented by an HTTP resource that has a URI as its name and can be manipulated with HTTP methods, such as GET, PUT, or POST. Every artifact or resource has an RDF representation that consists of a subject, a predicate, and an object. For example, if you link from a requirement to a test case, the RDF representation shows the requirement as its subject, the type of relationship or link type as its predicate, and the test case as its object, each identified by a URI.
Eclipse Lyo: A toolkit for creating integrations
Eclipse Lyo is an SDK to help the Eclipse community adopt OSLC specifications and build OSLC-compliant tools. It includes a software development toolkit that is focused on Java™, a test suite to help ensure that your integration is OSLC-compliant, a reference application with working samples, and a simple server that you can use for testing. For more information about Eclipse Lyo, see the details on the Eclipse website.