Creating build subsets

With dependency builds, you can create build subsets, which are build artifacts that specify a subset of files to build. Build subsets are useful for organizing large projects into smaller units or when you do not want to build all files in a repository workspace.

1. From the Team Artifacts view, expand your project area, and then the Enterprise Extensions node.
2. Right-click Build Subsets and click New Subset.
   The Build Subset editor opens with three tabs.

   Overview

   The Overview tab displays a summary of the subset, which contains the number of buildable files and associated work items. The link for the number of files opens the Contents tab. The links for the number of work items displays the associated work items in the Work Items view.

   Contents

   The Contents tab displays the list of files included in the subset. You can enter text in the Filter field to determine whether a particular file is included in the subset. The Filter field supports the standard wildcard asterisk (*) and question mark (?) characters.

   The Contents tab also identifies the Work Item that uses the file. The Always Build column identifies whether the file will always be built with the subset, even if it has not changed. Right-click an individual file to change the value of the Always Build column with the context menu. The context menu also enables you to open either the local or remote copy of the file, or to remove the file from the subset.

   Right-click one of the components in the list to open a context menu, from which you can open either local or remote files, remove the component, change the value of the Always Build column setting, or export the file to a comma-separated values (CSV) file.

   Criteria

   The Criteria tab displays work items that are evaluated during a build.

3. On the Overview tab, add a build subset ID and browse to select a build definition.
   Note: Your build definition must be one of these types:

   • IBM i Dependency Build - Rational Build Agent
   • z/OS Dependency Build - Rational Build Agent
   1. Select a subset owner. For a new subset, the default is the current user. For an existing subset, the current user is listed by default, but you can select another user from your project or team area by clicking Browse.
   2. Set the build subset visibility. By default, the visibility is scoped, but you can change it to private by clicking Change.
      If you own the subset, whether it is private or scoped, your build subset is listed in the My Subsets folder in the Team Artifacts view. Scoped subsets that other members of your team own are listed in the Shared Subsets folder.
4. On the Contents tab, to find files for your subset. You can either add HFS folders to your subset, or click Add files and select a method for adding files:
   1. Optional: Select Manually to select individual files to make available to your repository workspace.
   2. Optional: Select Using rules and then select one or more of the following options: component, language definitions, and naming pattern. To include an extra panel that summarizes the selection criteria, the file names, and the number of files that are included with the build subset, select Show summary.
   3. Optional: Select Using Work Items to find files that are associated with a work item. On the Select Work Items dialog, choose the work items for which you want to add files to your subset. You can also select one or more of the following options to add files to your subset.

      Include impacted items

      To include either artifacts that depend on files that are in your build subset or artifacts that the files in your build subset depend on.

      Include children of selected work items

      To include files that are associated with the child work items of the work items that are selected for the build subset.

      Show summary

      To include an extra panel that summarizes the selection criteria, the file names, and the number of files that are included with the build subset.

      Note:

      • HFS folders can be added by one of the following methods:
        • From work items
        • From other subsets
        • By dragging and drop from Project Explorer
      • The HFS build file associated with the translator will be invoked when the HFS folder is part of a subset build.
      • Starting from V6.0.3, you can drag files and work items from a variety of Eclipse views to add to your subset, such as from Project Explorer.
      • When you add files to a subset using work items, the work item information is stored. When you request a build using that subset, the work items that create the subset are associated with the build result.
      • When you add files to a subset using work items, promotion work item reports are treated differently. Promotion work items that are attached to a work item report are processed as if you selected them directly.
   4. Optional: Select Using Subsets to add existing subsets. In the Subset Selection dialog, select the subsets to add to this subset. The displayed subsets are those related to the current build definition, but you can choose to Show subsets for all builds in the dropdown for selecting a subset. To filter the list of subsets displayed, you can enter text into the field prior to the list of subsets. Wildcard characters are supported in the filter pattern. To include an extra panel that summarizes the selection criteria, the file names, and the number of files that are included with the build subset, select Show summary.
      When you highlight a subset in the selection list, the Description field displays the description of the selected subset.
   As files are added to or removed from the subset, the total count of buildable files is displayed next to the table. You can preview the subset before you save the subset. Click the Run Preview icon in the toolbar of the editor. The preview includes the unsaved changes that are in the editor.
5. On the Criteria tab, click Add to find files that are associated with a work item to add to the subset. The options on the Select Work Items dialog are the same as those presented when you select to add files Using Work Items on the Contents tab.
6. Click Save, and in the Team Artifacts view, right-click Enterprise Extensions and click Refresh.